Welfare Reform for Addiction Professionals

Why Welfare Reform Was Enacted

In 1996, Congress enacted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. This replaced the program called Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the welfare program established in 1935 for unmarried mothers with dependent children.

The primary intent of the act was to reform the way in which welfare is delivered to needy families with children, focusing on two simultaneous types of support:

• A temporary support system that provides basic needs, thus allowing families to care for children in their own homes



• Assisting the adults in these families to become self-sufficient through work.

The legislative discussion about the passage of this bill focused on how to leave the design of the program to individual States, a process called "devolution," while using legislative incentives and penalties to entice States to design programs that would accomplish the goals of the Federal legislation as quickly as possible.