Thirty years after the sweeping welfare reform of the 1990s pulled millions of families out of poverty and into the workforce, a new policy push argues that the same programs have quietly drifted back into the habits that reform was supposed to end: dependency, unchecked eligibility, and billions in waste.
In a report titled “Flourishing Families: An Agenda to Help Families Thrive,” the Independent Women’s Forum lays out a case for what it calls “re-forming welfare reform”—reimposing work requirements, tightening verification, and cutting tax penalties on work. The report, summarized in an op-ed by Kamryn Crane, a Budget and Entitlement Policy Analyst at Independent Women, comes amid a broader affordability crisis and renewed Washington debates over the size and scope of the safety net.
The 1990s Reform: A Success Story Under Threat
Crane points to the 1996 reforms that created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as a genuine policy triumph. Strict work requirements, a five-year lifetime limit on cash benefits, and a clear message that welfare was a hand up rather than a way of life produced measurable gains: adults and children moved out of poverty, and mothers joined the workforce in record numbers.
“Welfare reform in the 1990s moved families away from government dependence and closer to the ability to support themselves sustainably,” Crane writes. But that success, she argues, has eroded over the intervening decades.
Back to Dependency: The Rollback of Work Requirements
According to the report, eligibility expansions, sweeping policy changes, and economic downturns have steadily swelled welfare rolls. A key culprit is “categorical eligibility”—a practice that lets individuals qualify for one program simply by qualifying for another, allowing enrollment to grow largely unchecked.
The result, Crane says, is that work requirements have been relaxed or poorly enforced. The once-strict TANF rules now apply to only 21% of adult recipients, meaning roughly four out of five adults on cash assistance are not working. That is a stark reversal from the reform era’s core promise.
$1 Trillion and Counting: The Cost to Taxpayers
The financial stakes are enormous. The United States now spends more than $1 trillion annually across more than 80 anti-poverty programs, with 85% of that spending classified as automatic, mandatory outlays. Combined, these programs have become one of the largest categories in the federal budget—driven, Crane argues, by waste and inefficiency.
Fraud and improper payments are a central concern. In 2025, welfare and entitlement programs—Medicaid, Medicare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and SNAP—accounted for 67% of all improper payments across the federal government. TANF itself has been flagged as so vulnerable to improper payments that its waste estimate isn’t even reported.
“Poor verification processes have allowed waste, fraud, and abuse to go largely unaddressed,” Crane writes.
What Works: Tax Credits and Employer Incentives
The report is not anti-social-support across the board. Crane highlights the Child Tax Credit as a program that genuinely helps families meet the needs of growing children. She also praises employer tax credits that help families afford childcare while parents remain in the workforce.
Her preferred path forward is one that rewards work rather than penalizing it: cutting taxes, eliminating penalties on tips and overtime, and leaving more resources with families so they have greater control over their own futures.
“When taxes remain high, funds go toward a burgeoning welfare system, but leaving resources with families gives them greater control and agency over their futures,” she writes.
A Return to Verification and Accountability
The report’s prescription is direct: end self-certification and verify data before enrollment, tighten eligibility requirements so only truly indigent individuals qualify, and impose consequences on states that permit waste, fraud, and abuse. Crane argues that modern technology can ease the verification burden by enabling data sharing across agencies and governments.
On work, the report urges reinstating requirements for able-bodied adults and parents with older children, a move Crane says will “promote needed independence and encourage individuals to thrive in the American economy.”
“Welfare reform served Americans well and allowed families to thrive in the 1990s by rewarding work, moving families toward independence from the government, while still giving assistance to families in need,” she concludes. “What worked 30 years ago can work again.”
The report is part of a series of op-eds from Independent Women, and it explicitly rejects the idea that supporting families requires direct government subsidies or radical tax-code redistribution. Instead, it argues for policies that grow the economy, generate work opportunities, and hold the safety net accountable to its original purpose.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-its-time-to-re-form-welfare-reform