Substance Abuse as a Barrier to Employment of Welfare Recipients

Abstract

This article evaluates the impact of substance abuse on the employability, earnings, and use of governmental services of individuals receiving welfare cash assistance. Ordered probit and ordinary least squares regression techniques were used to test the hypothesis that use of controlled substances affects the ability of welfare beneficiaries to find employment, to earn wages, to avoid economic hardship, and to take advantage of governmental social service programs. Results show that substance abuse is not the barrier to work for individuals receiving cash assistance that it has been thought to be, nor does such use predict economic hardship, or affect the propensity of welfare beneficiaries to take advantage of government programs.

Key Words:

• Substance abuse
• employment
• welfare reform