Welfare Leavers in Colorado
July 2009
Colorado Department of Human Services
This report explores why former welfare recipients in Colorado left the Colorado Works program and how they fare after exiting. It is part of a multi-year, in-depth study The Lewin Group conducted for the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS). The analysis in this report relies primarily on data from a survey of 494 individuals who had been on single-parent Colorado Works cases and left the program during the first three months of 2007. Survey Research Management conducted the survey for Lewin. The survey occurred in August through November of 2008, which was between 17 and 23 months after the individuals surveyed had left Colorado Works. The paper covers characteristics of this sample of welfare leavers; their reasons for leaving the program; the extent to which they have returned to TANF in Colorado or elsewhere; employment outcomes of the group; characteristics of the jobs held by those who are working; sources of income, including earnings of spouses, partners, or other household members, and benefits from other government programs; and indicators of well being, such as food security, mental health, and health insurance coverage. The paper gives particular attention to the outcomes of Colorado Works leavers who were neither working nor receiving TANF benefits at the time of the survey.