37,000 fewer individuals applied for unemployment assistance this week, leading to speculation that the number of jobless is on the decline. However, last week 391,000 people sought the social safety support of unemployment benefits to help them through their economic instability. Both during and now after the recession, the media and academic work has tended to focus on the people needing support through situations of joblessness, underemployment and diminished earnings, but little attention is paid to the people working within the systems designed to keep vulnerable people afloat through social and economic uncertainty. When someone recently laid off walks through the doors of the unemployment office, what are the stories of the people serving them, and how has the recession affected the workers in those venues? Government bureaucracies uphold the fibers of the social safety net through the many offices that provide unemployment benefit, welfare, food stamps and a myriad of other programs. People of color are over-represented amongst the unemployed, while frequently the frontline providers of government service to them are also disproportionately non-white.

Last week, Dr. Celeste Watkins-Hayes of Northwestern University spoke to a small gathering of students and academics at NYU Wagner. Watkins-Hayes writes about welfare bureaucracies and health issues and their intersections with racial identity. In her article "Race-Ing the Bootstrap Climb:Black and Latino Bureaucrats in Post-Reform Welfare Offices" (Social Problems, 2009), she analyzes the Black and Latino workers who make up a disproportionately large part of the workforce that assesses TANF claims. She provides an interesting sociological study of the experiences of both worker and recipient in welfare offices and other "catch-all bureaucracies". By examining the public face of the "front line", Watkins-Hayes raises questions about the relationship between the unemployed and the people in charge of enforcing and mediating the distribution of their benefits. While efforts to racially diversify public sector and social service agency employees have often resulted in increased racial representation amongst frontline workers,  cuts to public sector jobs can translate into increased economic pressures on those workers of color--workers of color who, Watkins-Hayes argues, have gained access to middle-class status in part due to public sector employment. Watkins-Hayes reminds us that the offices of the broader system of social support in the post-recessionary period is worthy of observation--- not only for the effect that the benefit offices have on those who need them, but also for the people who administer the benefits and manage the successes and challenges of those who walk through its doors.

Learn more about the Women of Color Policy Network and research on poverty here. To read more about Dr. Watkins-Hayes work, click here. 

It's been nearly 15 years since the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program was enacted in 1996 as part of the Clinton Administration's efforts to "end welfare as we know it." To commemorate this anniversary, Legal Momentum has issued a new report, Welfare Reform at Age 15: A Vanishing Safety Net for Women and Children, assessing the overall impact of TANF over the last 15 years.

The following statistics and observations from the report support Legal Momentum's assertion that TANF has eroded America's safety net since its enactment:

- Program enrollment has declined from four-fifths of eligible families pre-reform to two-fifths of eligible families post-reform.

- The number of children receiving benefits has fallen from three-fifths of poor children pre-reform to just one-fifth of poor children post-reform.

- Benefits have plummeted far below the poverty level in every state and to less than five dollars a person a day in most states.

- Many needy persons are arbitrarily excluded from aid by welfare reform's time limits, family caps, and five year eligibility bans for legal immigrants.

- Inaccessible or inadequate TANF aid sometimes deters domestic violence victims from fleeing their abusers.

- During the "Great Recession" [between 2007-2009]...the increase in the number of families receiving TANF [110,000] was far less than the increase in poor families [800,000].

This September, current TANF funding expires, requiring Congress to either reauthorize or extend the program. At a time when unemployment and poverty rates remain at historic highs, the safety net needs to be strengthened, not shredded, to support low-income families in the transition from poverty to economic security.

Yesterday, safety net experts representing a wide range of perspectives convened at NYU Wagner for the Women of Color Policy Network event "Forward Thinking in Critical Times: TANF, Safety Nets, and a New Economy for All." From sharing personal experiences receiving public assistance to providing a birds-eye view of what the Obama Administration hears from states about TANF's implementation and effectiveness, the panelists provided critical insight about how to link TANF to national and state-level poverty reduction goals and build the economic security of low-income families through education, training, and continued work supports.

Several statistics shared by the experts throughout the discussion included:

- TANF has resulted in a huge decline in the percentage of eligible families receiving assistance. Under AFDC, four-fifths of eligible families received assistance; now, only two-fifths of eligible families receive public benefits under TANF.

- In New York State, the welfare caseload has decreased even during periods where the need increased. The percentage of applicants who were declined assistance increased during the recession.

- When TANF ECF was created to help states meet the rising costs of providing cash assistance, create subsidized jobs, and offer short-term non-recurrent assistance, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that only half of the money would be spent and that states wouldn't use much of the funds for subsidized employment. Instead, all of the funds were spent, many of which were used by states to create over 260,000 jobs and provide short-term aid.

- The current political climate is slashing safety net funding, with the most recent GOP budget proposal for FY 2012 cutting billions of dollars in federal spending, two-thirds of which come from programs for low- and moderate-income people. 

The event closed with panelists stressing the need to challenge the dominant assumption that welfare reform was a success and broaden the base/agenda of economic security movements in ways that emphasize commonalities among policy change advocates for subsidized child care, workers rights, expanded educational opportunities, and welfare reform.

The roundtable was one of several events in the Network's Opportunity Series, co-sponsored by the Applied Research Center, Center for Social Inclusion, Insight Center for Community Economic Development, Legal Momentum, and the National Partnership for Women and Families.