The impact of social welfare reform and workfare on lone-parent female headed households in the Niagara Region

This thesis explores the impact of recent social welfare reforms on the lives of social assistance recipients. The focus is on single mothers who are dependent on social assistance in a small city in southern Ontario. This detailed examination is complemented with existing case studies in Canada, the United States and New Zealand, as well as aggregate data on poverty in Canada. Participants for the research study were recruited by flyer distribution and referral. Following recruitment, selected participants were scheduled for a tape- recorded interview. The final sample population consists of eight single mothers on social assistance and/or workfare participants. This information is supplemented with interviews from two Ontario Works caseworkers and two Women's Advocates from a local crisis housing organization. This research project is guided by a socialist feminist framework. Evidence from interview participants suggest that single mothers continue to struggle in terms of meeting basic needs, such as food, clothing and medications. Housing for low-income families is a concern expressed by the participants as well as by Women's Advocates who operate within the region. In addition, subsidized housing continues to be problematic in terms of both safety and availability. Recent social welfare refonns (reductions in welfare income and introduction of workfare features) have intensified the economic and social marginalization of these women. Participants, for example, voice concerns about valuing self-evaluation in their Ontario Works and workfare activities. Considerable evidence from interview participants suggest that single mothers remain economically marginalized.

Workfare Work: The Impact of Workfare on the Worker/Client Relationship

This article details the American experience of welfare reform, and specifically its experience instituting workfare programs for participants. In the United States, the term "welfare" is most commonly used to refer to the program for single mothers and their families, formerly called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and now, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). In 1996, politicians "ended welfare as we know it" by fundamentally changing this program with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The principal focus of the 1996 reform is mandatory work requirements enforced by sanctions and strict time limits on welfare receipt. While PRWORA's emphasis on work is not new, the difference is its significant ideological and policy commitment to employment, enforced by time limits. When welfare reform was enacted, some of its proponents recognized that welfare offices would have to change in order to develop individualized workfare plans, monitor progress, and impose sanctions. The "culture" of welfare offices had to be changed from being solely concerned with eligibility and compliance to individual, intensive casework. In this article, I will discuss how implementing workfare programs have influenced the relationship between clients and their workers at the welfare office. I start by describing the burdens faced by offices even before the enactment of welfare reform. Local welfare offices were expected to run programs that emphasized compliance and eligibility at the same time as workfare programs, which require intensive, personal case management. The next section of the paper will focus on strategies welfare offices and workers use to navigate these contradictory expectations. Lastly, I will present information on how clients react to workfare programs and some reasons they acquiesce to workfare contracts despite their unmet needs. I conclude with recommendations of how to make workfare truly work for welfare clients.

Il reddito di cittadinanza tra workfare e metamorfosi del lavoro: una prospettiva giuslavoristica

L'elaborato analizza il tema del reddito di cittadinanza, nella sue diverse accezioni, indagandone le interferenze con la disciplina giulavoristica e previdenziale alla luce delle metamorfosi del lavoro. Dopo aver ricostruito la genealogia del concetto di lavoro e, con esso, dei sistemi di sicurezza sociale, esaminiamo de jure condito le misure di sostegno al reddito in Italia, con particolare accento sulla tutela contro la disoccupazione e sul reddito di cittadinanza, senza trascurare, nondimeno, le misure straordinarie messe in campo durante l'emergenza pandemica. Infine, chiedendoci quale significato assuma oggi il lavoro in un contesto caratterizzato da flessibilità e precarietà, analizzeremo dapprima le possibilità di riforma delle misure vigenti nel nostro ordinamento (dagli ammortizzatori sociali al reddito di cittadinanza), spingendoci poi de jure condendo verso la possibile declinazione di un reddito di base incondizionato, provando a ripensare alcune tradizionali categorie giuslavoristiche, a partire dalle nozioni di mansione, tempo di lavoro e retribuzione, chiedendoci se il lavoro possa avere un orizzonte di senso che vada oltre il fare in cambio di un salario.

Targeted! Population segmentation, electronic surveillance and governing the unemployed in Australia

Targeting is increasingly used to manage people. It operates by segmenting populations and providing different levels of opportunities and services to these groups. Each group is subject to different levels of surveillance and scrutiny. This article examines the deployment of targeting in Australian social security. Three case studies of targeting are presented in Australia's management of benefit overpayment and fraud, the distribution of employment services and the application of workfare. In conceptualizing surveillance as governance, the analysis examines the rationalities, technologies and practices that make targeting thinkable, practicable and achievable. In the case studies, targeting is variously conceptualized and justified by calculative risk discourses, moral discourses of obligation and notions of welfare dependency Advanced information technologies are also seen as particularly important in giving rise to the capacity to think about and act on population segments.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: It's Against the Law, 2001

A two page informational sheet about workplace sexual harassment produced by Iowa Commission on the Status of Women

Employers in Iowa with 1,000 or more Employees Based on 2002 Calendar Year, 2004

Employers in Iowa with 1,000 or more Employees Based on 2002 Calendar Year. Annual data ofr the State of Iowa produced by Iowa Workforce Development.

Employment and Wages Covered by Unemployment Insurance, Final County Data, Third Quarter, 2003

Third Quarterly County information for Census of Employment & Wages - County

Employment and Wages Covered by Unemployment Insurance, Final Statewide Data, Third Quarter, 2003

Third Quarterly County information for Census of Employment & Wage, Statewide

Employment and Wages Covered by Unemployment Insurance, Final County Data, Fourth Quarter, 2003

Fourth Quarterly County information for Census of Employment & Wage, County

Employment and Wages Covered by Unemployment Insurance, Final Statewide Data, Fourth Quarter, 2003

Fourth Quarterly County information for Census of Employment & Wage, Statewide

Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Final County Data, First Quarter, 2004

First Quarterly County information for Census of Employment & Wage, County