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create fill "CLASP update" CIASPUpdate A CLASP Report on Welfare Reform Developments Jodie Levin-Epstein, Editor September 2000 WELFARE AT FOUR: Administration and Welfare to Work Partnership Take Stock The Administration: Commemorating the four-year anniversary of the signing of the welfare law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, on August 22 the Clinton Administration released new data on the rapid declines in welfare caseloads and the record proportion of people on welfare who are now working. This data was released within a set of announcements made by the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services' Third Annual Report to Congress. President Clinton indicated that not only are the welfare rolls half of what they were in 1996, but the percentage of Americans on welfare, now 2.3%, is at its lowest level in 35 years. Because of the significant increases in the number of working welfare recipients, from 7% in 1992 to a record high of 33% in 1999, all of the states were able to meet welfare reform's overall work participation requirements in 1999. The Administration released the following information on welfare trends: In December of 1999 the welfare rolls totaled 6.3 million. Compared with the January 1993 total caseload of 14.1 million, the December 1999 total reveals a 56% decline in the number of welfare caseloads. About 75% of this decline has occurred since the welfare reform law was enacted. INSIDE Ten studies funded by CHILD SUPPORT: Distribution Bill Moves To Senate the Department of Health 5 STATE POLICY DOCUMENTATION PROJECT: Child Care Assistance 6 and Human Services LOS ANGELES COUNTY: NEW DIRECTIONS and EVALUATION 9 since welfare reform RACE: Welfare Reform and Racial/Ethnic Minorities 13 have found that 62 to REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH NEWS: 15 75% of former welfare Making the Link: NY Planned Parenthood Second Chance Homes: Administration Acts recipients were employed Family Cap Litigation: Update for some or all of the 12 State Spending of 1999 Out of Wedlock Bonus Awards months following their COUPLES and MARRIAGE 23 transition off of welfare. Nonstandard Work Schedules and Marital Instability New Research Finds Single Fathers Poorer, Less Educated than Married Fathers CONTRIBUTORS: Megan Annitto, Marie Cohen, Janellen Duffy, Martha Nguyen, Steve Savner, Rachel Schumacher, Vicki Turetsky, Steve Wamhoff Published by the Center for Law and Social Policy, 202/328-5140, 1616 P Street NW, Suite 150, Washington DC 20036