Welfare Restructuring Project Analysis, Vermont, 1994-2001 (ICPSR 38060)
Version Date: Apr 27, 2022 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Susan Scrivener, MDRC;
MDRC
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38060.v1
Version V1
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Summary View help for Summary
Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP) was one of the earliest statewide welfare reform programs initiated under waivers of federal welfare rules granted before the passage of the 1996 federal welfare reform law. This program, which operated from 1994 to 2001, was designed to increase work and reduce reliance on welfare. WRP required that welfare recipients work in a wage-paying job after they had received cash assistance for a specified number of months (30 months for single-parent families and 15 months for two-parent families). Recipients received help finding jobs and were offered minimum-wage community service jobs if they could not find unsubsidized employment. If a recipient did not comply with the work requirement, the state took control of their grant, used the money to pay their bills, and required them to attend frequent meetings at the welfare office. The WRP program also included a set of financial incentives that were intended to encourage and reward work. WRP served as a model for Vermont's current welfare program, which took effect in mid-2001.
This study provides users with most of the data that were used for the final report. Parents who were applying for or receiving cash assistance in Vermont between July 1994 and December 1996 were assigned, at random, to one of three groups: (1) the WRP group, whose members received the financial work incentives and were subject to the work requirement; (2) the WRP Incentives Only group, whose members received the incentives but were not subject to the work requirement; or (3) the Aid to Needy Families with Children (ANFC) group, whose members remained subject to the pre-WRP welfare rules, which included neither the incentives nor the work requirement. Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) followed all three groups for six years, using computerized records and a survey.
Data sources for this study were the Vermont and New Hampshire unemployment insurance earning records, Vermont ANFC (Aid to Needy Children) records, food stamp records, and other administrative records, as well as a survey questionnaire based on the quality of their jobs, wages, education, welfare use, education, job training, children's education, and childcare.
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Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
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County
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This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, this data collection is restricted from general dissemination. To obtain these files, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement in accordance with existing ICPSR servicing policies.
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Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP) was one of the earliest statewide welfare reform programs initiated under waivers of federal welfare rules granted before the passage of the 1996 federal welfare reform law. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of this project.
Study Design View help for Study Design
To study the effects of the Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP), people were assigned at random to three research groups: the WRP group, the WRP incentives only group, and the Aid to Needy Families (ANFC) group. The Aid to Needy Families with Children (ANFC) group, whose members remained subject to the pre-WRP welfare rules, included neither the incentives nor the work requirement. Random assignment ensured that the groups were similar at that point and that any differences that emerged among the groups would be a result of WRP's policies. While random assignment worked for the entire WRP group and the entire ANFC group, some of the results in this report are based on a group of people who responded to the survey. Separate analyses are performed for the single-parent sample and the two-parent (unemployed parent [UP]) sample.
MDRC followed all three groups for six years, using computerized records and a survey. Any differences that emerged over time in the groups' outcomes (for example, in their employment or welfare receipt) can reliably be attributed to WRP's policies; such differences are known as impacts or effects.
Sample View help for Sample
Cash assistance applicants and recipients were randomly assigned to the three research groups throughout Vermont between 1994 and December. The 7,691 people were randomly assigned to the 3 research districts between 1994 and 1995. A randomly selected subset of this group was interviewed 3 and a half years later. These 1,989 individuals make up the 42-Month Client Survey sample. The 1,989 survey respondents provided information regarding their 3,741 children.
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Universe View help for Universe
Welfare applicants who were parents, and their children in the geographic coverage area.
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Data Source View help for Data Source
The Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP) evaluation drew on a wide variety of data sources, including administrative records of public assistance payments, records of earnings reported to the unemployment insurance (UI) system, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Food Stamps, job benefits, job searches, and an in-depth survey of sample members.
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Response Rates View help for Response Rates
80%
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