Welfare reform, employment, and drug and alcohol use among low-income women

In 1996 welfare reform legislation transformed income assistance for needy families by imposing work requirements, time-limited benefits, and explicit provisions allowing states to sanction recipients who fail to meet program requirements. Though they represent a minority of the welfare population, women with substance use disorders (SUDS) experience multiple, and more severe, employment barriers than other Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) recipients. This review of welfare reform, substance abuse, and employment documents the evidence to date regarding the employment patterns of women with SUDS before and after welfare reform, and proposes several topics for further research. Based on higher rates of unemployment, less work experience, and lower earnings when working, women with SUDS have worse employment records than other TANF recipients. Despite elevated employment barriers, women with SUDS left TANF after 1996 as fast as, or faster than, other women. Since the 1996 welfare reform, women with SUDS have increased their employment and earnings, but by less than similar women without SUDS. Future research should describe how specific state welfare policies relate to employment of low-income women with SUDS, how the well-being of these women and their children changes with employment, and how welfare and employment interact to affect access to health insurance among this population.