The federal, State and New York City governments have made dramatic and unprecedented changes to welfare programs. The 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) created a Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant to fund social service programs, imposed lifetime limits on receipt of public assistance (welfare), strengthened work requirements and increased the number of recipients required to participate. New York State passed the Welfare Reform Act (WRA) of 1997, which changed State welfare programs to comply with both the PRWORA and the New York State Constitution which requires care of the needy despite federal cut-off rules for assistance. New York City had launched its own welfare reform initiative in 1995, New York City – Work, Accountability, You! (NYC- WAY), combining stringent eligibility requirements and front-end fraud detection with work require- ments for participants, primarily through the Work Experience Program (WEP).

In New York City alone, more than 500,000 people – including almost 300,000 children – have left welfare since 1995. Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, Inc. (CCC), in its attempts to learn what has happened to the children, located and interviewed 50 families who were no longer receiving welfare or who were only receiving partial welfare grants due to sanctions. CCC also used findings from Human Resources Administration and Urban Institute reports to supplement its survey data. The CCC survey did not capture information on the universe of recipients who left welfare. Rather the findings illustrate outcomes at a point in time for these 50 families and provide lessons on what is needed to evolve welfare programs to the next stage – providing information and access to supports that all families need to be able to work and raise their children.