When Welfare Recipients Fail to Comply with Work Requirements : Indiana's Experience with Partial Benefit Sanctions

This article examines whether a partial benefit sanction provides sufficient motivation for adult welfare recipients to comply with welfare-to-work participation rules. Our analysis uses administrative data from Indaina, one of the few states that continues to rely solely on a partial benefit sanction (rather than a full-family sanction or some combination of the two). Using detailed administrative data, we follow adult recipients to the sanctions. Our analysis shows that the majority of sanctioned clients come into compliance or voluntarily leave welfare altogether, calling into question the assumption that partial benefit sanctions do not provide sufficient motivation for adults to comply with welfare-to-work program rules