ABSTRACT
For single mothers and their children, social welfare benefits programs have been a significant source of inequality. This inequality is manifested in the lack of universal access and stringent eligibility requirements, and the coercive measures that are taken to control or punish the recipients’ behavior. One would be hard-pressed to identify any other group that receives social welfare benefits that has been as stigmatized as single mothers. As shown in this chapter, the single mother as the “unworthy” and “undeserving” poor has been a consistent theme of the three major social welfare benefits programs discussed. Indeed, the very structural characteristics of TANF are predicated on this theme, with Puritan-laced language and goals that speak to promoting marriage, reducing the incidence of out-of-wedlock births, and encouraging the maintenance of two-parent families. Consequently, rather than assistance to needy mothers with children being determined by universal entitlement, we have benefits programs premised on moral character and cultural conformity. Thus, social welfare benefits programs for mothers and dependent children continue to be inferior to other similarly developed nations.
