View Research by Author - Michael Wiseman

Publications

Supplemental Security Income is an odd combination of income support for families with disabled children, disabled working-age adults, and elderly persons. The program faces challenges on three fronts. Payments for children bear little relationship to family need or costs. State efforts to promote transition of children and adults from TANF to SSI appear driven by fiscal considerations. Measuring the impact of poverty among the elderly is hampered by underreporting of benefits in survey data. This paper argues that SSI serves important purposes, but that the target populations might be served best by gradual decoupling or improved integration with other programs.

The decline in food stamp participation, especially among eligible families moving from welfare to work, is limiting the government's ability to supplement the incomes of low-income working families. This paper suggests that one reason for low participation among eligible working families is that many do not apply for benefits if they already meet their food needs. The unfortunate result is that such households do not take advantage of the earnings supplement role of food stamps. This paper proposes a new approach to delivering benefits to working families that would encourage participation and strengthen the program's ability to supplement earnings.

This paper considers an important building block for management of new-style public assistance systems: the management information system, or MIS. The MIS for a public assistance program encompasses procedures for collection, storage, retrieval, and presentation of information essential for operating and improving the program. It develops a model of the management information required to operate the new, change-oriented welfare reform schemes developed by states during the 1990s. The discussion highlights strategic problems that must be addressed in MIS development and implementation for all such programs, with the most ambitious of these initiatives, Wisconsin Works, used as the point of departure.

The author challenges the practice of using caseload decline as a barometer of welfare reform success. He uses the National Survey of America’s Families to take a closer look at families at risk of poverty in Wisconsin. Among the conclusions: Wisconsin Works (W2) has produced a dramatic drop in cash assistance. Poverty persists, but near-elimination of child poverty seems within reach. The health issue goes beyond insurance to include access to quality services. Milwaukee remains the challenge; the city does worse than the state on virtually all measures.

This paper was written in response to a 1997 Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) report on sources of variation across states in use of Aid to Families with Dependent Children. The authors believed that the analysis presented in that report is flawed and were concerned about policy implications that may be drawn from CEA's conclusions. They examine CEA's method and results and discuss problems with those results. An appendix that discusses relevant issues raised by the CEA report is included.

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