| Detailed Objective: This work examines patterns of food stamp use and the relationship between food stamps, employment, food security, and material well-being among
key subgroups of the working poor—primarily former cash welfare recipients. The project
will use administrative and survey data collected as part of several current
and prior evaluation projects by Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation
(MDRC). These data will provide individual-level longitudinal information on
the use of food stamps and cash assistance and benefit amounts over time, as
well as information on earnings from unemployment insurance data, and detailed
survey data on household food sufficiency, food expenditures, material hardship,
family income, and job characteristics.
Historically, household participation in the Food Stamp Program and cash welfare
have been closely related. Recent welfare reforms have focused on moving cash
welfare recipients into the workforce. Many of these former cash welfare recipients
remain eligible for food stamps, but do not receive them. There are a variety
of factors that may explain the nonparticipation of low-income working families
in the Food Stamp Program, including lack of information about eligibility,
diversion practices by local welfare offices, recertification requirements,
stigma, benefit levels that are too low to offset the transactions costs of
application, or a self-perceived lack of need. This work will provide information
on the relative importance of a number of reasons for the nonparticipation in
the Food Stamp Program among low-income working families, as well as other factors
related to Food Stamp Program effectiveness. A grant was awarded
to MDRC at a cost of $178,433 in fiscal 1999. Its expected completion date is
September 2001. |