Moving Millions of Americans from Welfare to Work

Lowest Number of People on Welfare Since 1969 as More Recipients Go to Work

• The President kept his promise to reform the welfare system and move more Americans from welfare to work. Welfare rolls have been cut by more than half under the Clinton-Gore Administration, falling by 7.2 million since 1993 (from 14.1 million in 1993 to 6.9 million in 1999), resulting in the fewest number of people on welfare since 1969.
• Millions of Americans have moved from welfare to work: More than 1.3 million welfare recipients went to work in 1998 alone, and the percentage of adults still on welfare who were working reached 27 percent in 1998, compared to just seven percent in 1992 -- nearly a fourfold increase.
• President Clinton initiated the Welfare to Work Partnership to encourage businesses to hire welfare recipients. Over 12,000 businesses have joined, hiring over 410,000 from the welfare rolls since 1997.
• President Clinton and Vice President Gore have also made sure that the federal government does its part, hiring over 16,000 former welfare recipients, including eight at The White House.

Creating New Tools to Help Families Move from Welfare to Work

• The 1997 Balanced Budget Act signed by President Clinton included $3 billion to move long-term welfare recipients and low income non-custodial fathers into jobs.
• The President's Access to Jobs initiative helps communities design innovative transportation solutions, such as van services, to help former welfare recipients and other low-income workers get to work.
• President Clinton succeeded in securing 50,000 new welfare to work housing vouchers in FY 1999, and 60,000 new vouchers in FY 2000 to help more hard-pressed working families move closer to job opportunities.
• In July 1999, the President took executive actions to help ensure working families who need Food Stamps have access. These steps include a new policy making it easier for working families to own a car and still receive food stamps, new regulations to simplify reporting requirements, and a new public education campaign to educate working families about food stamps.
• President Clinton's Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit provides tax incentives to encourage businesses to hire long-term welfare recipients.

Increased Child Support Collections

• President Clinton fought for and signed into law the toughest child support crackdown in history. Federal and state child support programs broke new records in child support collections, nearly doubling the amount collected in 1992.
• The number of child support cases with collections rose 59 percent, from 2.8 million 1992 to 4.5 million in 1998.