Issues in Food Assistance. Assessing the Self-Efficiency of Food Stamp Leavers

摘要

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) limited able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) between the ages of 18 and 50 to 3 months of food stamps in any 3-year period unless they were working. States could choose to exempt ABAWDs living in areas of the United States with high unemployment or insufficient jobs from the new requirement. The view that ABAWDs are able to support themselves and should be encouraged to become self-sufficient was the underlying cause of this change to the Food Stamp Program (Bell and Gallagher, 2001). The legislative changes contained in PRWORA, combined with a strong domestic economy, contributed to a dramatic decline in food stamp caseloads in the mid- to late-1990s. As food stamp caseloads declined, concern arose about the well-being of people, ABAWDs among them, who were no longer receiving benefits from the Food Stamp Program. This concern led to a need to evaluate whether the new rules, were in fact, moving food stamps recipients, including ABAWDs, toward economic self-sufficiency.