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The Working Poor and Welfare Recipiency

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  • Marlene Kim
  • Thanos Mergoupis

Abstract

Current welfare debates assume that the poor are taking unfair advantage of the largess of the government by shunning work for welfare benefits. Yet many studies have shown that many of those who qualify for welfare benefits fail to receive assistance. This study adds to this growing body of research by examining the extent to which the working poor who qualify for AFDC, Food Stamps, and Medicaid receive these benefits. We find that a substantial number of the working poor do not receive the benefits for which they qualify. In addition, those who qualify for welfare benefits are not out of the ordinary: most are in married couple families, are in their prime working years, have at least high school educations, and work many hours. The jobs they hold, which tend to be in low-paid service occupations and industries, seem to deposit them into their precarious position of belonging to the working poor.
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Suggested Citation

  • Marlene Kim & Thanos Mergoupis, 1995. "The Working Poor and Welfare Recipiency," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_151, Levy Economics Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_151
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moffitt, Robert, 1992. "Incentive Effects of the U.S. Welfare System: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 1-61, March.
    2. repec:mpr:mprres:1076 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Gueron, Judith M, 1990. "Work and Welfare: Lessons on Employment Programs," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 79-98, Winter.
    4. Rebecca M. Blank, 1991. "Why Were Poverty Rates So High in the 1980s?," NBER Working Papers 3878, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Rebecca M. Blank & Patricia Ruggles, 1993. "When Do Women Use AFDC & Food Stamps? The Dynamics of Eligibility vs. Participation," NBER Working Papers 4429, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Karl Widerquist, 1999. "Reciprocity and the Guaranteed Income," Politics & Society, , vol. 27(3), pages 387-402, September.
    2. Stephen Pudney & Monica Hernandez & Ruth Hancock, 2007. "The welfare cost of means-testing: pensioner participation in income support," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 581-598.
    3. Olivier Bargain & Herwig Immervoll & Heikki Viitamäki, 2012. "No claim, no pain. Measuring the non-take-up of social assistance using register data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(3), pages 375-395, September.
    4. Regina T. Riphahn, 2001. "Rational Poverty or Poor Rationality? The Take‐up of Social Assistance Benefits," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 47(3), pages 379-398, September.
    5. Friesner, Daniel L. & Axelsen, Dan & Underwood, Daniel A., 2008. "What Factors Influence a Welfare Recipient’s Spell Length and Recidivism?," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 38(3), pages 1-14.
    6. Joël Hellier, 2012. "Working Poor Trajectories," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 21(3-4), pages 83-102, November.
    7. Stephen Pudney & Ruth Hancock & Holly Sutherland, 2006. "Simulating the Reform of Means‐tested Benefits with Endogenous Take‐up and Claim Costs," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 68(2), pages 135-166, April.
    8. Pudney, Stephen & Hancock, Ruth & Henandez, Monica, 2004. "Participation in multiple welfare programmes: discrete choice with heterogeneous awareness," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-15, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    9. Ann Dryden Witte & Magaly Queralt & Tasneem Chipty & Harriet Griesinger, 1998. "Unintended Consequences? Welfare Reform and the Working Poor," NBER Working Papers 6798, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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