Updated March 8, 2001
David M. Heger
Policy Analyst
National Violence Against Women
Prevention Research Center
University of Missouri–St.
Louis
Domestic Violence & Welfare
Law
President Clinton signed into law
welfare reform legislation on August 22, 1996, after vetoing two previous
versions passed by Congress. The Personal Responsibility and Work
Reconciliation Act of 1996 (also known as the Welfare Reform
Act) ended the open-ended entitlement of Aid to Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC), Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS),
and Emergency Assistance (EA). The Act replaced these programs with
a singular combined program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
(TANF). This new program operates under state block grants and sets
time limits for welfare enrollment and work requirements for most recipients.
Previous welfare law required states
to provide financial support to anyone who qualified; state governments
received reimbursement for such payments from federal coffers. In this
way, federal money for welfare was open-ended and unlimited. By placing
restrictions on expenditures and qualifications for assistance, TANF
reduces the U.S. Government's commitment to aid for low-income families
by $55 billion over six years. The Welfare Reform Act authorizes
Congress to appropriate $16.38 billion a year in fiscal years 1997-2003,
with each state's block grant, or allotment, based on previous expenses
under the former welfare program. TANF prohibits states from providing
welfare payments to families who have received assistance for a cumulative
total of 60 months; however, a state can exempt 20 percent of its caseload
from this restriction in any one year. In order to avoid financial penalty,
states must maintain certain minimum work participation rates, with
50 percent of adults from all families required to work by 2002. (What
counts as work is fairly broadly defined.) Additionally, all adults,
except exempt parents with children under 1, must work after two years
of assistance.
There are two sections of the Welfare
Reform Act that make specific reference to domestic violence. The
law provides that a state may choose to exempt a family from the 60
month assistance limit if a member of the family has been "battered
or subjected to extreme cruelty." This section aims to protect victims
of domestic violence who may face unique challenges in maintaining employment
from being cut off from assistance. The other specific mention of domestic
violence appears in the Family Violence Option, which is also referred
to as the Wellstone/Murray Amendment because Senators Paul Wellstone
(D-Minnesota) and Patty Murray (D-Washington) sponsored the provision.
This amendment allows states to "opt-in" to include in their welfare
programs a certification to screen and identify victims of domestic
violence and refer individuals to counseling and other services. States
may also opt to waive certain program requirements for victims, such
as time limits, residency requirements, and family cap rules.
The Welfare Reform Act contains
a provision that allows a state to "apply to a family the rules (including
benefit amounts) of the program … of another State" if the family
is new to the state and has resided there less than 12 months. This
rule basically permits states to pay new residents the welfare benefits
provided by their most recent state of residence if their former state's
benefits were lower than those of the new state. So, for example, if
an indigent individual moves to California, where welfare benefits are
relatively high, from a state that pays low benefits, California could
pay the individual the lower previous benefit for one year. This rule
was viewed by many as a hindrance to economically disadvantaged battered
women fleeing abuse. Fortunately for these women, this provision was
struck down by the United States Supreme Court in the 1999 case Saenz
v. Roe.
Many studies have shown that the
percentage of welfare recipients who are victims of domestic violence
is much higher than the percentage of the general population who suffers
violence at home. The rates vary from study to study, but most data
indicate that over 50 percent of welfare recipients have experienced
abuse at the hands of an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime.
With so many welfare recipients subject to abuse at home, the Welfare
Reform Act presents some daunting public policy issues. Battered
women face unique challenges within the constraints of the new welfare
laws. Advocates contend that an abusive partner may prevent a woman
from meeting the work requirements under TANF. Victims of abuse may
be more likely to stay with their batterers because assistance is no
longer available to them.
Researchers have recognized these
obstacles and have produced a substantial body of work to examine some
of the corresponding public policy topics. The links below provide access
to some of these studies. Additionally, there are resources pertaining
to the Welfare Reform Act itself and facts about existing programs.
Links
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/news/welfare/
Web page maintained by the Administration
for Children and Families (Department of Health and Human Services).
Vast resource of links to information about welfare reform. Includes
research, demonstrations, statistics, annual reports, answers to frequently
asked questions, and more. Good starting point.
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/opa/facts/tanf.htm
Also by the Administration for Children
and Families (Department of Health and Human Services). Provides a thorough
yet concise summary of TANF and the new welfare law.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c104:H.R.3734.ENR:
Text of the Personal Responsibility
and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996, provided by THOMAS,
a Web site of the Library of Congress.
http://www.welfareinfo.org/domestic.htm
From the Welfare Information Network
(WIN), almost everything you could hope to know about the relationship
between domestic violence and welfare. Includes links to hundreds of
publications addressing the issue.
http://www.ssw.umich.edu/trapped/
The University of Michigan Project
for Research on Welfare, Work, and Domestic Violence. Includes publications,
research reports, resources for researchers, and Internet resources.
http://www.nowldef.org/html/issues/wel/fvo.htm
NOW Legal Defense and Education
Fund summary of the Family Violence Option. Also provides suggestions
for effective ways for states to implement the option and address domestic
violence in their welfare programs.