The Largely Untold Story of Welfare Reform and the Human Services.

The relationship between social policy and human services delivery has always been complex and riddled with contradictions. Welfare reform intensified long-standing conflicts and introduced new tensions. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) replaced Aid To Families With Dependent Children (AFDC)--the federal entitlement to cash assistance that enabled single mothers to stay home with young children--with Temporary Assistance To Needy Families (TANF), a state-operated block grant designed to move mothers from welfare to work. The first five years of funding ($16.5 billion a year) expired in September 2002. At the time of this writing Congress had extended TANF funding several times, but continued to debate President Bush's stricter work, marriage, and education proposals. The welfare rolls plummeted by more than 50 percent nationwide following welfare reform--fueled by the booming economy of the 1990s and welfare's stricter rules. Most policymakers assumed that women who left welfare would find work, rely on their families, or receive help from nonprofit agencies. Researchers tracked the progress of the former recipients while measuring caseload reductions. Only a few observers seriously considered the impact of welfare reform on the job of social workers or the mission of human services agencies that had to absorb the fall-out of the welfare overhaul.