The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "welfare rolls" ...
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Welfare reform: Many go off rolls, but still stay poor
An Observer analysis of welfare data from nine Charlotte-area counties revealed the welfare reforms of 1997 to be less successful than some politicians claimed. Although caseloads have been trimmed in half over the last decade, taxpayers still haven't saved any money. Monthly checks are redirected into child-care subsidies and other programs that help former recipients. After leaving welfare, many recipients see little improvement in their lives. People who exhaust their welfare benefits are having a tougher time finding jobs than their predecessors, and those who do find jobs often live below the poverty line.
Tags: Computer-assisted reporting; CAR; welfare; food stamps
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Poor Prospects. Paying welfare rolls proves a huge grind for everyone involved. Ms. Campfield gets a job she loves, but commute sorely tests her resolve. Case workers as superheroes.
According to the article, "Most Americans don't realize...that poverty rates are higher outside metropolitan areas than inside, and that rural poverty is worsening even as the nation's economy thrives. While median household income rose nationwide in 1996 for the second-straight year, the ranks of the rural poor grew to 8.3 million, or 15.9% of those living outside urban areas; in metro areas, it is now about 13.2%." This story includes information about the welfare system, and the lower-class people of America.
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Back to Reform School
A routine inquiry into the progress of welfare reform in the city of Baltimore revealed that promising statistics masked a questionable system-wide practice that favored the most competent cases, leaving the neediest far behind and gouging out a deep disparity gap.
Tags: benefits; welfare rolls; Department of Social Services; caseworker; demographics; bureaucracy DSS unemployment misrepresentation discrimination welfare to work
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Without a Net
The welfare rolls have fallen by almost half since welfare reform abolished Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in 1994. The American Prospect analyzes the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) to determine whether single mothers are better or worse of than they were before welfare reform. They found that while most women were better off and many had found jobs, a large majority weren't. Also, many women who'd found jobs had a difficult time finding child care.
Tags: None
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Plucking Workers
Government and business officials in Missouri have developed an efficient way to slash the welfare rolls: order recipients to gut chickens or pigs for Tyson Foods, ConAgra, or Premium Standard Farms, or else lose their benefits. Under an initiative called Direct Job Placement, the companies have hired hundreds of former welfare recipients. But turnover has been high, and many--bakling at the prospect of gutting 50 chickens per minute--have disappeared or been dropped from the welfare rolls by the state.
Tags: Labor
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Hunger strikes
The chaos of welfare reform sends thousands to area food pantries, which struggle to meet the demand. Meanwhile, the Riverfront Times finds, the state of Missouri seeks to cut even closer to the bone. According to the Missouri Department of Social Services, thousands of people who received public aid in 1993 are no longer on the rolls. At the same time, St. Louis-area pantries are reporting unprecedented increases in the number of people seeking help.
Tags: Missouri Association of Social Welfare MASW Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996
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Workfare
The Progressive looks at California's workfare program, Greater Avenues to Independence; while mandatory for single AFDC parents with children aged six or older, child care is not provided, forcing parents to leave young children alone at home; only 3 percent of GAIN participants are expected to leave welfare rolls, December 1987.