The Congress and others are interested in the employment status of former welfare recipients, changes in family composition resulting from marriage and pregnancy, and the overall well-being of these families and their children. The data these states are reporting are the major source of information currently available on the condition of families who have left welfare. State Studies Reported Some Information on the Status of Families Who Have Left Welfare

Seventeen states have collected data and reported on the status of some former welfare families in the key areas of economic status, family composition, or family and child well-being. We determined that studies in 7 of the 17 states had enough data on a sample of families who had left welfare to generalize sample findings to the population of former welfare families from which the sample was drawn. Seventeen States Reported Some Information on Economic Status, Family Composition, or Family and Child Well-Being

We identified a total of 18 state-sponsored or -conducted studies in 17 states—2 studies in Wisconsin and 1 in each of the other states—that reported on the status of families who left welfare in 1995 or later. None of the studies reported specifically on families who had left welfare because of time limits. Findings From Most State Studies Were Not Generalizable to the Population of Former Welfare Families in the State

We determined that eight tracking studies, covering seven states, (1) were designed to include most families who left welfare in the state at the time of the study and (2) had sufficient data on the sample of families tracked for the sample to be considered representative of families studied. In the three studies for which such data were available, the percentage of the families who initially left welfare and then returned to the rolls ranged from 19 percent after 3 months in Maryland to 30 percent after 15 months in Wisconsin. The studies in five states reported on the extent to which former welfare families say they receive noncash public assistance. Federal Efforts Are Helping States to Improve the Usefulness of the Data Being Collected on Families Leaving Welfare

To increase the usefulness of state tracking efforts in providing a more complete picture of the status of former welfare families, HHS is supporting some states and counties with funds and technical assistance. Many more states have tracking studies in progress or planned and efforts are under way at the state and federal levels to improve the usefulness of these efforts. Although some of the studies reported employment rates only for adults who left welfare and were still off the rolls at the time of follow-up, others included all families who left the rolls during the study period—even those who had returned to welfare at the time of follow-up. Information on Selected Grants Awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services to Study Families Leaving Welfare

This appendix provides information on the study methodologies planned by the jurisdictions receiving grants from HHS to study families who have left welfare.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on families no longer receiving welfare, focusing on: (1) the extent to which states have reported information on the condition of families who have left welfare in the following key areas: (a) economic status; (b) family composition; and (c) family and child well-being; (2) generalizable state studies on what is known about the status of former welfare families in the key areas; and (3) federal and state efforts to improve the usefulness of the data obtained through these state efforts.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) 17 states have published information on the status of their families who have left welfare; (2) each of these states reported on the economic status of former welfare recipients, and the majority reported on family composition and family and child well-being; (3) the studies differed in important ways, including the categories of families studied, geographic scope, the time during which families who had left welfare were tracked, and the extent to which the families for whom data were available are representative of all families in the sample; (4) taking these factors into account, GAO determined that studies from only 7 of the 17 states had enough information on a sample of families to generalize findings to most families who had left welfare in the state at the time of the study; (5) these seven states' studies reported that most of the adults in families remaining off the welfare rolls were employed at some time after leaving welfare, but significant numbers of families also returned to the rolls; (6) in the three studies that reported the information, from 19 to 30 percent of the families who left welfare returned to the rolls at some time during the follow-up period; (7) although the seven states' studies generally had limited data on total household income, five reported that many families who had left welfare subsequently received noncash public assistance, such as Medicaid and food stamps, indicating that families' incomes were low enough to keep them eligible for these forms of government assistance; (8) none of the studies reported on changes in family composition resulting from marriage or pregnancy after leaving welfare; (9) regarding measures of well-being, six states' studies included data on homelessness or separation of children from their parents and reported no indication of increased incidence of these outcomes at the time of the followup; (10) efforts are under way at both the federal and state levels to improve the usefulness of the data being collected to assess the status of former welfare families; (11) most states either are studying or plan to study former welfare families, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recently funded 14 projects to track and monitor families who have left welfare; (12) these projects will receive technical assistance through HHS and from other states on developing their tracking efforts; and (13) in the future, these ongoing state efforts, many supported by HHS, should provide a more complete picture of the status of families who have left welfare.