Much of the literature on the underclass alleges that welfare induces dependency. The author uses data from intensive interviews with 50 Chicago-area mothers on welfare to show that welfare pays too little to entice recipients into a life of passive dependence. The women interviewed all supplemented their AFDC and food stamp benefits with at least one of two sources of unreported income: assistance from family, friends, boyfriends, or absent fathers, and income from work
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Kathryn Edin (1991) studied this question.
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