Cash Welfare Benefits Research Articles

기초지방자치단체 현금복지 수준 차이는 왜 발생하는가?

중앙정부 중심의 복지발전이 최근 지방자치단체로까지 빠르게 확대되고 있다. 지방자치단체 복지발전에서 가장 논쟁적인 부분은 소위 ‘현금복지’의 확대이다. 지자체의 현금복지에 대한 쟁점은 복지 포퓰리즘적 정책으로 보는 시각과 복지가 부족한 상황에서 선도적인 대응이라는 상반된 관점으로 갈리고 있다. 하지만 현재까지 지방자치단체 복지지출에 관한 연구는 현금복지에 크게 관심을 갖지 않았으며, 복지지출 결정요인 연구 또한 종속변수에 따라 상이한 결과를 보여 타당성에 대한 이슈도 제기되고 있다. 이러한 배경에서 본 연구는 226개 기초자치단체 자체 사회복지예산 중 현금복지 규모를 산출하고, 현금복지지출에 영향을 미치는 요인들을 살펴보았다. 본 분석에는 ‘지방재정 365(2018년 12월말 집행 세출 기준)’ 데이터를 OECD SOCX 기준을 적용하여 산출한 사회복지지출 자료를 활용하였다. 우선 지자체의 복지수요, 재정자주도, 정치환경 등 내부적 요인과 인근 지역의 현금복지지출이라는 외부적 요인이 자체사업으로 운영되는 현금복지에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 그 결과 기초자체사업의 현금복지 결정에는 진보와 보수라는 정치 프레임이나 선거경쟁의 영향은 유의미하게 나타나지 않았지만, 지역 내 복지수요에 의한 영향은 발견되었다. 또한 외부적 요인인 인근 지역의 자체사업 현금복지지출 수준이 현금복지를 증가시키는 주요인으로 채택되었다. 이러한 결과는 현금복지가 지역의 복지수요에 맞춘 전략일 수 있음을 말해준다. 동시에 기초지자체의 현금 복지가 인근 지역과의 경쟁으로 무분별하게 도입되어 지역 간 복지 불균형이 초래되지 않도록 사회보장위 원회의 지원과 조정의 역할이 중요함을 시사한다.

The impact of welfare reform on the health insurance coverage, utilization and health of low education single mothers

The Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity and Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 imposed time limits on the receipt of welfare cash benefits and mandated cash benefit sanctions for failure to meet work requirements. Many studies examining the health implications of PRWORA have found associated declines in health insurance coverage and healthcare utilization among single mothers but no impact of PRWORA on health outcomes. A limitation of this literature is that most studies cover a time period before time limits were implemented in all states and also before individuals began actually timing out. This work builds on previous studies by exploring this research question using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation that covers a time period after all states have implemented time limits (1991–2009). We use a difference-in-differences study design that exploits variability in eligibility for cash welfare benefits by marital status and state-level variation in timing of PRWORA implementation to identify the effect of PRWORA. Using ordinary least square regression models, controlling for state-level and federal policies, individual-level demographics and state and year fixed-effects, we find that PRWORA leads to 7 and 5 percentage point increases in self-reported poor health and self-reported disability among white single mothers without a diploma, respectively.

Medicaid's Next Metamorphosis

Medicaid's transformation since its inception rivals the biological changes of metamorphosis, and this process is not yet over. Past metamorphoses include the change from a small program with eligibility linked to the states’ cash welfare benefits to one with national eligibility standards covering many not receiving cash benefits; from a traditional fee‐for‐service payment program to one dominated by capitated managed care arrangements; and, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, to a widely accepted component of a national system for near‐universal insurance coverage. An analysis of the forces behind these significant changes suggests that future transformations are likely. Four potential scenarios are presented and assessed.

Determinants of Immigrants' Cash-Welfare Benefits Intake in Spain

Much of the literature on immigrants' cash-welfare benefits use has focused on countries with a large tradition of receiving immigrants and with well established Welfare states. This paper contributes to this literature by analyzing differences in cash-welfare benefits receipt between immigrants and natives and their determinants in Spain, a country with: (1) a small level of social assistance and a Welfare state heavily reliable on conditioned access to pensions; and (2) an unprecedented immigration boom. Different probit models of social program intake are estimated for immigrants and native-born individuals using pooled cross-sectional data from the 1999 to 2009 Spanish Labor Force Survey. Results show that a negative residual welfare gap exists and that it is mainly driven by recently arrived immigrants, whose legal status or insufficient contribution is likely to hamper participation in social programs. In addition, I find that immigrants with more than 5 years in the host country are more likely to receive unemployment benefits than natives, consistent with findings in other countries. These findings hold regardless of immigrants' continent of origin.

Migrants, Welfare Systems and Social Citizenship in Ireland and Britain: Users or Abusers?

AbstractPublic discourse on migrant interactions with state welfare systems has often assumed exploitative motivations on the part of migrants, with charges of welfare tourism a recurring theme among segments of the political spectrum. Academic research has also tended to characterise migrant welfare utilisation in simple dichotomous terms where migrants are either ‘welfare dependent’ or not. This article argues for the analytic utility of disaggregating the concept of welfare utilisation into distinct component parts, denoting usage, participation and dependency with regard to state-provided cash welfare benefits. Using EU survey data, these distinct components of welfare utilisation among migrants are assessed in comparative cross-national context, comparing welfare and labour market outcomes for similar cohorts of migrants faced with dissimilar incentive structures. The results have direct implications for policy-makers, and for migrant experiences of social citizenship, in so far as they show little support for the moral hazard view of migrant interactions with welfare systems. Migrants in Ireland's relatively more generous welfare system are seen to have no greater likelihood of welfare dependency, and in fact show a lower usage of welfare (as a proportion of total income) than similar migrants in Britain, controlling for characteristics. Intriguingly, however, the likelihood of forming a partial labour market attachment is seen to respond to increasing levels of welfare usage in Ireland, but not in Britain, suggesting that migrants may be taking an active role in how they define their position in the work-welfare nexus in response to welfare system incentives.

Hustling and Housing: Drug Users' Strategies to Obtain Shelter and Income in Hartford, Connecticut

Research has documented illicit drug users' participation in the informal and drug economies as a result of barriers in obtaining legitimate sources of work and income. Less research has explored ways drug users utilize income from various sources to obtain shelter and meet other basic needs. This paper draws on longitudinal qualitative interviews that were conducted with 65 active cocaine or heroin users in various housed or homeless statuses to explore participants' sources of income, work experiences, and strategies to secure housing and other basic needs. Results indicate that most participants did not receive cash welfare benefits, and few had any form of employment. Further, those who received federal housing subsidies often had no income to pay their part of the rent or other necessities. Participants reported engaging in a number of informal, illegal, and bartering relationships with drug using and non-drug using residents in order to obtain shelter and income. Insufficient social welfare and employment opportunities have created a context of scarcity in which drug using and non-drug using residents depend on each other to obtain shelter and other needs in ways prohibited by federal welfare and housing policies. A number of policy changes, including increasing access to and benefits levels of welfare and housing subsidies, employment programs for ex-offenders and tax incentives to increase employment opportunities, may increase drug users' housing stability.

The foster care crisis: What caused caseloads to grow?

Foster care caseloads more than doubled from 1985 to 2000. This article provides the first comprehensive study of this growth by relating state-level foster care caseloads to state-specific characteristics and policies. We present evidence that increases in female incarcerations and reductions in cash welfare benefits played dominant roles in explaining the growth in foster care caseloads over this period. Our results highlight the need for child welfare policies designed specifically for the children of incarcerated parents and parents who are facing less generous welfare programs.

Food Hardship and Child Behavior Problems among Low‐Income Children

Using data from two waves of a panel study of families that currently receive or recently received cash welfare benefits, this article examines the relationship between food hardship and behavior problems for two different age groups (3–5 years and 6–12 years). Results show that food hardship is positively associated with externalizing behavior problems for the older children even after controlling for parental stress, warmth, and depression. Food hardship is positively associated with internalizing behavior problems for the older group of children, and with both externalizing and internalizing behavior problems for the younger group of children. These effects are mediated by parental characteristics. Results suggest that practitioners who work with children should screen for food hardship as a potential source of behavior problems.

Child protective intervention in the context of welfare reform: The effects of work and welfare on maltreatment reports

AbstractRecent changes in welfare policy have produced changes in parental work and welfare receipt. These factors are assessed in relation to investigated reports of child abuse and neglect using survey data on 1998 welfare recipients in nine Illinois counties, in conjunction with longitudinal administrative data on cash welfare benefits, employment, and child abuse and neglect reports. Trend analyses show that rates of child maltreatment reports among welfare recipients have risen since the passage of PRWORA in 1996. Findings from multivariate analyses indicate that parental employment has a protective effect on reports to child protection systems (CPS), that this effect is greatest when combined with welfare receipt, and that this effect becomes stronger over time. Those who receive welfare in the absence of employment face a significantly greater risk of CPS involvement, even compared with those who neither work nor receive welfare. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

Leaving Welfare: Independence or Continued Vulnerability?

Data from two semi‐structured interviews gathered approximately six months apart from seven women who were receiving cash welfare benefits at the time of the first interview and were not receiving benefits at the second interview were used to analyze the experiences of leaving welfare. Emergent themes about the post‐welfare experience are: (1) the low wages and lack of advancement opportunities in jobs, (2) confusion related to program administration, (3) the continued reliance on income support programs and kin, and (4) the banking of cash benefits under the five‐year time limit as a new safety net.