The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #40472

Ellen K. Scott, PhD, Sociology, University of Oregon, 1291 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, Andrew S. London, PhD, Center for Policy Research, Syracuse University, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-1020, and Nancy A. Myers, RN, MEd, Department of Sociology, Kent State University, 215 Merrill Hall, Kent, OH 44242, 330/672-4630, escott@darkwing.uoregon.edu.

The 1996 TANF legislation to reform welfare forces recipients to move from a state of “dependency” to one of “self-sufficiency,” by either finding wage labor or a spouse to support their families; this is accomplished through the enforcement of work requirements and time limits.

Approximately 60% of welfare recipients report past abuse. For many women who leave violent relationships, welfare receipt is a critical resource, both for short-term resources as well for more long-term support. In light of this, advocates were able to introduce a Family Violence Option (FVO) into the TANF legislation, which allows individual states to implement exemptions to welfare regulations for battered women. To date, the FVO has not been uniformly adopted or implemented within or between states.

Our data show that even if implemented, the FVO is flawed in its definition of who is battered, leaving women vulnerable to continued or renewed abuse as they turn to the sometimes only source of financial and instrumental support in their lives: the very men who have battered them in the past. We found that even when women had left abusive relationships, they were sometimes forced to return to dependence on their aggressors in order to provide for their children and meet the mandates of welfare reform.

Community health planners, workers, and advocates must be attentive to this trend in planning for health and social programs for low-income women, and should actively advocate for the reform of the FVO within their own states to better serve this at-risk group.

Learning Objectives:

• By the end of the presentation, audience members will be able to
• 1. List the assumptions about women’s social support networks upon which welfare reform is based;
• 2. Describe the family violence option (FVO), a waiver program that provides for exceptions to be made within states on a case-by-case basis, allowing some women who qualify to continue to receive welfare benefits without working;
• 3. Outline the ways in which the FVO is inadequate, based on the cases that we examined;
• 4. Develop actions that can be taken by public health workers to both provide services to affected women to better protect them and their children; and
• 5. Advocate for legislative changes to enhance this important but under-used safety net.

Keywords: Domestic Violence, Welfare Reform

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.