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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:17 pm
Time: 9:17 pm
Results for welfare benefits
2 results foundAuthor: Mauer, Marc Title: A Lifetime of Punishment: The Impact of the Felony Drug Ban on Welfare Benefits Summary: In his first State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton promised to "end welfare as we know it." Nearly four years later, on August 22, 1996, President Clinton signed legislation to do exactly that: the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). PRWORA's reforms were expansive and controversial for several reasons, including its implementation of a revised cash assistance program- Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)- which limited the length of time eligible families could receive benefits and established work requirements for recipients. In addition, PRWORA made substantial changes to the operation of the federal food stamp program, which has since been renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Perhaps because of the general debate surrounding PRWORA's changes to cash assistance and food stamp programs, one significant provision of the law initially received little attention: along with other federal legislation related to the "war on drugs," PRWORA imposed a denial of federal benefits to people convicted in state or federal courts of felony drug offenses. The ban is imposed for no other offenses but drug crimes. Its provisions that subject individuals who are otherwise eligible for receipt of SNAP or TANF benefits to a lifetime disqualification applies to all states unless they act to opt out of the ban. Despite the magnitude of this change, the provision received only two minutes of debate after it was introduced on the Senate floor-one minute for Republicans and one minute for Democrats. It was then unanimously adopted by a voice vote. The brevity of Congressional discussion on the felony drug conviction ban makes it difficult to know the intent of Congress in adopting this policy, but the record that does exist suggests the provision was intended to be punitive and "tough on crime." As Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), the sponsor of the amendment, argued, "if we are serious about our drug laws, we ought not to give people welfare benefits who are violating the Nation's drug laws." Conspicuously absent from the brief debate over this provision was any discussion of whether the lifetime ban for individuals with felony drug offenses would advance the general objectives of welfare reform. In an effort to assess the impact of this policy, this report provides an analysis of the ban on receipt of TANF benefits for individuals with felony drug convictions. First, we survey the current status of the ban at the state level, including actions by legislatures to opt out of the ban in full or in part. Next, we produce estimates of the number of women potentially affected by the ban in those states that apply it in full. We then assess the rationale for the ban and conclude that, for a multiplicity of reasons, the ban not only fails to accomplish its putative goals, but also is likely to negatively impact public health and safety. Finally,we offer policy recommendations for future treatment of the ban on receipt of food stamps and cash assistance for individuals convicted of felony drug crimes. Details: Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project, 2013. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 26, 2013 at: http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/cc_A%20Lifetime%20of%20Punishment.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/cc_A%20Lifetime%20of%20Punishment.pdf Shelf Number: 131707 Keywords: Drug Offenders (U.S.)Ex-Offenders RightsFelony OffendersWelfare BenefitsWelfare Reform |
Author: Andersen, Signe Hald Title: Unemployment and Crime: Experimental evidence of the causal effects of intensified ALMPs on crime rates among unemployed individuals Summary: A number of studies investigate the extent to which levels of welfare benefits reduce crime among the unemployed. This paper expands this literature by testing whether the intensity of other welfare programs aimed at the unemployed affects their criminal activity, using evidence from a Danish social experiment that randomly assigned active labor market programs (ALMPs) of different levels of intensity to newly unemployed individuals. Details: Copenhagen, Denmark: Rockwool Foundation Research Unit and University Press of Southern Denmark, 2012. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Study Paper No. 38: Accessed September 21, 2015 at: http://www.rockwoolfonden.dk/files/RFF-site/Publikations%20upload/Arbejdspapirer/Unemployment%20and%20crime_38.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Denmark URL: Shelf Number: 124698 Keywords: Poverty Socioeconomic Conditions and Crime Unemployment and Crime Welfare Benefits |