Childhood Welfare Receipt and the Implications of Welfare Reform

The 1996 welfare legislation has generated significant debate about the likely consequences of welfare reform for children in disadvantaged families. We document patterns of childhood welfare receipt for children born between 1967 and 1975 and predict the level and composition of children likely to be affected by the new welfare law. We find that 40 percent of children who received Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) did so for more than 5 years. Nearly all of them lived in families that relied on AFDC for more than half of their income for some years. The data also show an increase in the proportion of preschool children and Caucasians receiving welfare since 1967.