Legal Issues
Removing Criminal Records as a Barrier to TANF Recipients
(May 2009) Pamela C. Ovwigho, Kathryn W. Patterson, Catherine E. Born
| Legal problems, including having a criminal record or history of incarceration, have received little attention, yet for a significant minority of TANF recipients, these present very real obstacles to obtaining employment. One option for some of these individuals is criminal record expungement. This brief examines the demographic characteristics and employment and TANF histories of36 individuals who have applied for expungement with the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service. |
Legal Barriers to Self-Sufficiency: The Somerset County Legal Services Project
(July 2003) Pamela Caudill Ovwigho, Shafali Srivastava, Ann Ferrero, Catherine E. Born
| A study of welfare and employment outcomes for families in Somerset County, MD, that received free legal assistance provided by the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (MVLS). |
Domestic Violence
“Missing” Domestic Violence Victims in Welfare Caseloads: The Discrepancy Between Survey and Administrative Disclosure Rates
(March 2004) Andrea Hetling, Correne Saunders, Catherine E. Born
| The first series of three reports on domestic violence examined the implementation of the Family Violence Option (FVO) in Maryland and the outcomes of the individuals participating in Maryland’s FVO. This paper expands our approach to the question of domestic violence and cash assistance in that it also considers those individuals who choose not to disclose abuse to their welfare caseworkers and thus do not participate in the Option. |
Domestic Violence and Welfare Receipt in Maryland: Linking Individual Outcomes to Implementation and Jurisdictional Differences
(January 2003) Andrea Hetling-Wernyj, Catherine E. Born
| The third of a series of three on domestic violence and welfare receipt in Maryland, this report ties together the findings of the first two reports and presents multivariate statistical analysis to complete the multi-method evaluation of the Family Violence Option (FVO) in Maryland. |
Domestic Violence and Welfare Receipt in Maryland: How is the Family Violence Option Being Implemented?
(July 2002) Andrea Hetling-Wernyj, Catherine E. Born
| The second of a series of three on domestic violence and welfare receipt in Maryland, this report examines the implementation of the Family Violence Option (FVO) at the jurisdictional level. |
Domestic Violence and Welfare Receipt in Maryland: Are Domestic Violence Victims Different from Other Welfare Recipients?
(March 2002) Andrea Hetling-Wernyj, Catherine E. Born
| This report is the first in a series of three on findings from the project Domestic Violence and Welfare Receipt in Maryland, and focuses on describing the prevalence and correlates of domestic violence in the Maryland Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) caseload. |
Other Reports
The Role of Education in Outcomes for Former TCA Recipients
(July 2019) Rebecca McColl & Letitia Logan Passarella
| This brief examines all work-eligible adult recipients whose cases closed during federal fiscal year (FFY) 2013 (n=15,038). We examine demographic characteristics and participation in education-related work activities as well as returns to the TCA program and employment during the five years after exit by the adult recipients’ education levels. |
SSI & TCA Participation among Long-Term Disabled Cases
(December 2018) Rebecca McColl & Lisa Thiebaud Nicoli
| Due to a policy change, Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) cases designated as long-term disabled were moved into the population subject to the work participation rate in October 2015. This brief follows individuals on long-term disabled cases who received TCA in July, August, or September 2015 for two years. We investigate whether individuals on these cases applied for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) as required, whether they received SSI, and whether they continued to receive TCA. |
Long-term Disabled Caseheads: Supplemental Security Income Status
(September 2015) Elizabeth Gleason & Lisa Thiebaud Nicoli
| Clients that are designated as long-term disabled in the Maryland TCA caseload are exempt from participation in work activities, but they are required to apply for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). This report examines the long-term disabled cases from October 2011, investigating how many cases eventually receive SSI as well as how many never apply for SSI. We find that less than one-third of these cases received SSI by October 2014, and only a handful of cases never applied. We also explore TCA and employment outcomes by SSI status. |
Profile of the Active Caseload: Long-term Disabled Caseheads
(June 2013) Sarah Williamson, Lisa Thiebaud Nicoli, & Catherine E. Born
| Between October 2007 and October 2011, the long-term disabled caseload in Maryland grew by over 80%, compared to only 40% for the total Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) caseload in the state. In order to better understand this growing population, this report provides a snapshot of Maryland’s long-term disabled TCA caseload in October 2011. |
Self-Assessment of Health and Barriers to Employment
(March 2013) Letitia Logan Passarella and Catherine E. Born
| The goal of this project was to determine whether clients who self-assess their health as fair or poor are more likely to have barriers than those who rate their health as excellent, very good, or good; and if this was true, what type of barriers do these clients have and what is the effect on welfare use and employment. We found that clients with a fair or poor health rating had more barriers, received more months of cash assistance, were less likely to work, and earned less than those with a more positive assessment of their health. |