Study Details | Pathways to Work

1193.02-To Strengthen Michig

Study quality: Low

Low

Reason for the rating: This study received a low study quality rating because the implementation of the randomized controlled trial was compromised and it does not adjust estimated impacts for potentially important differences between the intervention and comparison groups.

Intervention: To Strengthen Michigan Families (TSMF)

Population and employment barriers:

Cash assistance recipients

Services provided:

Financial incentives, Sanctions

Setting: Tested in multiple settings

Study design

Design:

Cluster randomized controlled trial

Study group formation:

The study included families (cases) that were served at four Michigan welfare offices and began receiving cash assistance through Michigan's Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) or State Family Assistance (SFA) programs from October 1, 1992, to September 30, 1994. Cases were randomly assigned to the intervention and comparison groups at the time they qualified for benefits. Evaluators conducted analysis at the case level. Within their analytic sample, the authors excluded cases that were active for only one month, cases that moved to other locations in Michigan that were not part of the study, and cases including any members receiving AFDC or SFA as part of another case after the study began. Other studies for this evaluation estimate effects of TSMF on (1) families that were already receiving AFDC or SFA on October 1, 1992, and (2) families that became eligible for AFDC or SFA from October 1994 to September 1995.

Time period of study:

Random assignment occurred from October 1, 1992, to September 30, 1994, and outcomes were measured for two years thereafter.

Pathways only reports results from studies with a study quality rating of high or moderate.

Sample characteristics

Participant employment and public benefit status

Were eligible for or receiving cash assistance

100%

Intervention implementation

Implementing organization:

Michigan Family Independence Agency (state AFDC agency)

Intervention services:

Families in the intervention group were subject to a set of 21 policy changes that constituted TSMF. The first set of policies, enacted on October 1, 1992, included a social contract that clients were required to sign, agreeing to engage in employment, education, training, or other self-improvement activities for at least 20 hours per week; expanded cash assistance earnings disregards; loosened cash assistance eligibility restrictions related to work history and work hours for two-parent families; and the exemption of AFDC child earnings and savings from eligibility and benefit amount determination. A second set of policies was implemented starting on October 1, 1994 that strengthened AFDC's job search requirements by imposing higher financial sanctions for noncompliance, mandated immunizations for preschool-age children, and exempted the value of vehicles from the eligibility determination process. In addition, clients were allowed to deduct investments related to self-employment in the eligibility determination process. Intervention group members were subject to both sets of policies after the second set was implemented.

Mandatory services:

None

Comparison services:

Families in the comparison group were subject to Michigan's preexisting AFDC policies. There was no social contract requirement, and recipients were subject to the standard AFDC earnings disregards and work-related eligibility requirements for two-parent households. Dependent children's earnings and savings were counted when determining benefit amounts and eligibility. On October 1, 1994, a new job search and placement program called Work First was implemented for all AFDC applicants and recipients, including those in the intervention and comparison groups. Under Work First, AFDC applicants and recipients were assigned to a period of job search, with activities varying from unstructured individual job search to job club activities. Individuals in the comparison group who did not participate in their assigned Work First activities were subject to a potential sanction at most equal to the value of the noncompliant individual's portion of the cash benefit (a lesser sanction than in the intervention group).

Study publications

Werner, Alan, and Robert Kornfeld (1997). The evaluation of To Strengthen Michigan Families: Final impact report, Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates.

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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 To Strengthen Michigan Families (TSMF)—Cases certified for cash assistance from October 1992 to September 1994