Work and Welfare: Current AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) Work Programs and Implications for Federal Policy.

As states and the administration focus on welfare reform and cutting welfare rolls, programs linking work and welfare have become prominent. Since 1981, states have experimented with new federal work program options for Aid to Families With Dependent Children AFDC recipients. They have created programs that help participants look for jobs, learn skills, or get work experience programs with goals ranging from requiring work in exchange for benefits to decreasing overall welfare dependency. Representative Ted Weiss, chairman of the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations and Human Resources, House Committee on Government Operations, asked GAO to examine these new workwelfare programs. AFDC recipients considered employable have been required to register for work, education, or training since the Work Incentive WIN Program began in 1967. In 1981 and 1982, Congress authorized work program options that let state AFDC agencies try different approaches. The options were 1 WIN Demonstrations, an alternative to WIN, both of which are comprehensive employment and training programs 2 Community Work Experience Programs CWEP, a workfare approach 3 employment search and 4 work supplementation, where AFDC grants subsidize jobs. The Department of Health and Human Services oversees these options. Thus, AFDC work program responsibility shifted away from the Department of Labor and the state employment agencies, which still provide employment and training services under the regular WIN Program.