Study Details | Pathways to Work

3172.3172.07-Welfare Restructurin

Study quality: High

High

Reason for the rating: This study received a high study quality rating because it is a low-attrition randomized controlled trial with no known issues that suggest the findings cannot be attributed to the intervention.

Intervention: Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP) (as compared with WRP Incentives Only)

Population and employment barriers:

Cash assistance recipients, Parents

Services provided:

Training, Work and work-based learning (Subsidized employment, Work experience), Work readiness activities (Job development/job placement, Job search assistance)

Setting: Tested in multiple settings

Study design

Design:

Randomized controlled trial

Study group formation:

Between July 1994 and December 1996, evaluators randomly assigned applicants for welfare cash assistance in Vermont to one of three groups: the WRP group (60 percent), the WRP Incentives Only group (20 percent), and the Aid to Needy Families with Children (ANFC) group (20 percent). Those already receiving welfare payments during that period were also eligible for the program and were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions at their semiannual eligibility review. Nearly all households applying for or already receiving cash assistance were eligible for random assignment; after 30 months, staff determined that some clients were exempt from the WRP work requirement. Some analyses were conducted using a full statewide sample, whereas others focused on individuals in 6 of Vermont's 12 districts (termed the research districts). This review considers only the comparison of the WRP group with the WRP Incentives Only group for two-parent households including an incapacitated parent. Other reviews on this site examine the ANFC group (compared with WRP or the WRP Incentives Only group) or examine the experiences of other types of households.

Time period of study:

Applicants were randomly assigned between July 1994 and December 1996 and were followed for six years after random assignment.

Primary outcome domains examined:

Increase long-term earnings, Increase very long-term earnings, Increase long-term employment, Increase very long-term employment, Decrease long-term benefit receipt, Decrease very long-term benefit receipt

Other outcome domains examined:

None

Study funded by:

The state of Vermont, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ford Foundation funded the evaluation of the program.

Results

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Outcome domain	Measure	Timing	Study quality by finding	Comparison group mean	Intervention group mean	Impact	Units	Sample size
Increase long-term earnings	Average quarterly earnings, both parents, follow-up period	Quarters 1–14	High	1,585.00	1,647.00	62.00	1997 dollars	761
Increase very long-term earnings	Average quarterly earnings, both parents, two years	Years 5–6	High	1,245.00	1,308.00	63.00	2000 dollars	761
Increase long-term employment	Either parent employed, quarterly	Quarter 14	High	53.90	55.80	1.90	percentage points	761
Increase very long-term employment	Either parent employed, two years	Years 5–6	High	56.10	58.10	2.00	percentage points	761
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Average quarterly cash assistance, follow-up period	Quarters 1–14	High	850.00	761.00	-89.00	1997 dollars	761
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Average quarterly Food Stamp/SNAP benefits, follow-up period	Quarters 1–14	High	379.00	380.00	1.00	1997 dollars	761
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received cash assistance, follow-up period	Quarters 1–14	High	89.20	89.30	0.10	percentage points	761
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received Food Stamps/SNAP, follow-up period	Quarters 1–14	High	93.10	95.60	2.50	percentage points	761
Decrease very long-term benefit receipt	Average quarterly cash assistance, two years	Years 5–6	High	239.00	168.00	-71.00	2000 dollars	761
Decrease very long-term benefit receipt	Average quarterly Food Stamp/SNAP benefits, two years	Years 5–6	High	119.00	105.00	-14.00	2000 dollars	761
Decrease very long-term benefit receipt	Received cash assistance, two years	Years 5–6	High	33.70	25.30	-8.40	percentage points	761
Decrease very long-term benefit receipt	Received Food Stamps/SNAP, two years	Years 5–6	High	47.20	42.20	-5.00	percentage points	761

Short-term outcomes are those measured 18 months or fewer after participants are first offered services. Long-term outcomes are those measured between 18 months and 5 years after participants are first offered services. Very long-term outcomes are those measured 5 years or more after participants are first offered services.

Findings quality key:

High
Moderate

Study quality terms?

The findings quality describe our confidence that a given study’s finding is because of the intervention. We do not display findings that rate low.

Findings key:

A moderate-to-large favorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A moderate-to-large favorable finding that might to be due to chance
A small favorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A small favorable finding that might be due to chance
A favorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
A favorable finding that might be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
A moderate-to-large unfavorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A moderate-to-large unfavorable finding that might to be due to chance
A small unfavorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A small unfavorable finding that might be due to chance
An unfavorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
An unfavorable finding that might be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
A finding that is unlikely to be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size or direction
A finding of no effect that might be due to chance

Favorable findings are impacts in a direction that is socially desirable. Statistical significance indicates the likelihood that a study finding is due to the intervention, rather than due to chance. Findings are described as moderate-to-large if the intervention produced a sufficiently large change in the outcome. An impact receives this designation if the standardized effect size is equal to or greater than 0.25 or equal to or less than -0.25.

Sample characteristics

All participants were in two-parent families in which one parent was incapacitated. For the six research districts, 87 percent of the overall sample was married and living with a spouse. Sixty-three percent of the overall sample had no earnings for the 12 months before random assignment for the able-bodied parent. Thirty percent of the overall sample had a child younger than 3.

Family status

Married	91%
Parents	100%

Participant employment and public benefit status

Were eligible for or receiving cash assistance

100%

Intervention implementation

Implementing organization:

Vermont state ANFC (state Aid to Families with Dependent Children agency)

Program history:

The program began under a waiver from federal welfare laws before passage of the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The Vermont state legislature approved the program in January 1994, and the program and the study both began in July 1994.

Intervention services:

The WRP required that the able-bodied parent from a two-parent family with one disabled parent work in a wage-paying job after receiving cash assistance for 30 cumulative months. (Parents of children younger than 13 were required to work only half-time.) Before reaching the 30-month time limit, parents prepared for and attempted to obtain unsubsidized employment. Five months before reaching the time limit, parents who were not already participating in Reach Up (Vermont's voluntary welfare-to-work program) were assigned to a case manager. The case manager assessed their work readiness, prepared an employment plan, and encouraged them to enroll in education or training. Parents who remained unemployed 2 months before the 30-month time limit were required to participate in job search activities that included job-search classes (one or two per week) and meetings with a case manager. If, after those 2 months, parents did not secure a job, they were placed in subsidized, minimum-wage community service employment, but could engage in education or training activities at any time by enrolling in the full Reach Up program. The program also included incentives to encourage and reward work, such as offering up to three years of Medicaid coverage and transitional child care assistance for parents who transitioned from welfare to work, and increasing the amount of earnings disregarded when determining the welfare benefit level. The state also waived some nonfinancial eligibility requirements for welfare for two-parent families. If a parent did not adhere to the work requirement, the state used the parent’s cash assistance grant to pay the household’s bills and required the parent to attend three meetings a month at the welfare office. Parents had to meet these new requirements for the state to restore their cash assistance.

Mandatory services:

Participants were mandated to complete a work requirement. If they failed to comply, the state of Vermont would take control of their cash assistance, and participants would be mandated to attend three meetings per month. Participants would lose their benefits if they failed to attend the meetings.

Comparison services:

The comparison group, referred to as the WRP Incentives Only group, received the same financial incentives for work as the WRP group but did not face the work requirement.

Service receipt duration:

There was no limit on participants' receipt of cash assistance. Those in the WRP group were required to have the able-bodied parent working after receiving cash assistance for 30 months. Those who did not meet the work requirement could still receive cash assistance, but the state took control of the grant to pay participants' bills.

Intervention funding:

Vermont Department of Social Welfare (later called the Department of Prevention, Assistance, Transition, and Health Access).

Study publications

Bloom, Dan, Charles Michalopoulos, Johanna Walter, and Patricia Auspos (1998). WRP: Implementation and early impacts of Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Hendra, Richard, and Charles Michalopoulos (1999). Forty-two-month impacts of Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project, Waterbury, VT: Vermont Department of Prevention, Assistance, Transition, and Health Access.

Scrivener, Susan, Richard Hendra, Cindy Redcross, Dan Bloom, Charles Michalopoulos, and Johanna Walter (2002). WRP: Final report on Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project, Waterbury, VT: Vermont Department of Prevention, Assistance, Transition, and Health Access. Available at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/vt_report.pdf.

View the glossary for more information about these and other terms used on this page.

The Pathways Clearinghouse refers to interventions by the names used in study reports or manuscripts. Some intervention names may use language that is not consistent with our style guide, preferences, or the terminology we use to describe populations.

Study of Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP) (as compared with WRP Incentives Only)—Two-Parent Households Including an Incapacitated Parent