Block Grants - University of Kentucky.pdfVIP

Block Grants: Building Blocks for Welfare Reform in Kentucky? Block Grants: Building Blocks for Welfare Reform in Kentucky? Gail M. Hoyt Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Kentucky Melissa Lamb Free-lance Writer and Grant Consultant Introduction benefits, regardless of their ability or capacity for employment. The program also creates a high In perhaps one of the most significant public implicit marginal tax rate so that welfare often pays policy shifts in decades, Congress is proposing to more than work. Noting the rise in single-parent “end welfare as we know it” by eliminating households and out-of-wedlock births, policy makers guarantees of federal assistance to the poor. are concerned that welfare in its current form has Although numerous federal welfare programs are contributed to the breakdown of the American family. subject to reform, Aid to Families with Dependent They fear that work disincentives of the program Children (AFDC) is perhaps the best-known cash combined with the disintegrating family has fostered assistance benefit program. AFDC was established “a culture of dependency.” through the Social Security Act of 1935 to provide Added to the social concerns is a congressional limited support for