Employing and Moving People Off Welfare and Encouraging Responsibility (EMPOWER)

EMPOWER was one of the demonstration projects made possible by Section 1115 waivers to the rules in effect at the time for the AFDC program. These Section 1115 waivers allowed states to test new approaches to advance the objectives of the AFDC program.

EMPOWER participants were limited to 24 months of cash assistance in any 60-month period unless they received an exemption or an extension. Participants could receive up to two extensions of four months each of their AFDC benefits for completing an education or training program as well as one six-month extension if they attempted to find a job and were unsuccessful. EMPOWER participants could continue to receive food stamp benefits, Medicaid, and child care assistance and participate in the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program. EMPOWER included several other policy changes: (1) a family’s monthly cash assistance no longer increased with the birth of additional children; (2) unwed minor parents were required to live with responsible adults (as defined by the program); (3) teen parents ages 13 through 15 were required to participate in JOBS; (4) for families with mandatory JOBS participation, a family’s benefits were automatically sanctioned for a minimum of one month for the first occurrence of noncompliance with JOBS; (5) transitional child care and medical benefits were available for 12 to 24 months after a family leaves AFDC for employment; (6) the 100-hour rule, which made two-parent families ineligible for cash assistance when the primary wage earner worked more than 100 hours per month, was eliminated; and (7) the program created individual development accounts, in which participants could deposit money from AFDC and food stamps for training or education purposes and not have it counted as income.

All AFDC recipients participated in EMPOWER except recipients who met specific criteria: disabled or incapacitated, domestic violence victims, caregivers for a household member who is disabled or incapacitated, or living on a Native American reservation with an unemployment rate at or above 50 percent. EMPOWER was a statewide welfare reform policy implemented in Arizona in 1995.