FOR RELEASE: Immediate

There is a large and growing group of families in Illinois who rely upon neither employment nor cash welfare benefits, according to a new policy brief from the Illinois Families Study.

"We found a troubling trend towards more families leaving welfare without securing stable employment. These families experience high levels of material hardship and health problems. The recent downturn in the economy will only exacerbate this situation, so it’s crucial that state and federal policymakers pay attention to the needs of these families," says Dan Lewis, Northwestern University professor of education and social policy and faculty fellow at the University’s Institute for Policy Research.

The policy brief draws upon interviews conducted in 2001 with 817 Illinois parents who left the state’s welfare program, TANF. It also looks at trends in this group of "leavers" between 1999-2000 and 2001.

Out of the total sample of parents who had been receiving TANF in 1998, 27% were neither working nor receiving TANF in 2001, up significantly from 17% in 1999-00.

The majority of nonemployed leavers (70%) experienced at least one of a list of material hardships, including being evicted, having utilities shut off, not being able to afford seeing a doctor, or related problems. Employed leavers (43%) by comparison, were less likely to experience any of these problems.

Health problems also were common. Twenty-six percent of nonemployed leavers reported "fair" or "poor" health. About one-third (35%) had no health insurance and 19% had at least one child with a limiting health problem.

So how do these families get by? They make use of a wide array of non-TANF government benefits and informal resources, most commonly food stamps (68%), Medicaid (61%), informal work (38%), and charities or churches (41%). Many also borrow money from family or friends (41%) or have a spouse, partner, or non-cohabitating boyfriend who helps out with living expenses (36%). Marriage (14%) and cohabitation (10%), however, were fairly uncommon.

"These families are clearly cobbling together many different kinds of resources to get by, and many are working informally, doing things like babysitting or hairstyling, for example. But the high prevalence of hardship and health problems in this group tell us that these resources are often not enough to meet a family’s needs," says Lewis.

The policy brief, titled "No work and no welfare: Who are these families and how do they survive?," was released by the Illinois Families Study, which is conducted by researchers from Northwestern, Roosevelt and Northern Illinois universities, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Chicago.

A second policy brief released by the study in June 2002 examines trends in homelessness and housing insecurity among current and former TANF recipients. This brief finds that although homelessness declined slightly between 1999-00 and 2001, underlying problems with housing affordability increased and could signal longer-term housing problems ahead for those affected by welfare reform. The briefs are available at www.northwestern.edu/ipr/research/IFS.html.