Unmarried Mothers Receive The Most Welfare

Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform, the PRWORA, turns 30 this year, and a recent IFS report on working women shows the significant – but short-lived – effects it had on overall welfare use among mothers of young children. A considerable decrease in the late 1990s has been followed by far greater increases for married and unmarried mothers alike, though the share of unmarried mothers receiving welfare remains strikingly higher. In 2025, over two-thirds of unmarried mothers with children under 5 received welfare benefits. This rise is a possible explanation for the surprising downward trend in full-time employment for unmarried mothers since 2000, which contrasts a consistent upward trend for married mothers.

by Sophie Anderson