Unemployment Insurance Eligibility Before and After Welfare Reform

ABSTRACT

Welfare and unemployment insurance (UI) were designed to serve distinct populations, mothers and workers. As more women moved into the paid labor force, these previously separate groups have melded into a single group–working mothers. In this research, we analyze the likelihood of former welfare recipients being eligible for UI using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Our analysis compares UI eligibility in the early 1990s (before welfare reform), with the late 1990s (after welfare reform). In general, we find that despite a strong labor market in the late 1990s relative to the early 1990s, former welfare recipients were less likely to meet the earnings requirements for UI eligibility, owing largely to an increase in the share of welfare leavers with little or no earnings.

KEYWORDS:

• Unemployment insurance
• welfare reform
• low-wage labor market
• TANF
• AFDC