Flat Broke with Children

Hays tells the story of welfare reform from the perspective of welfare recipients, describing the challenges that they face in managing their work, their families, and the rules and regulations of welfare reform. The majority of adult welfare clients are mothers - over 90 percent - and the time limits imposed by welfare reform throw millions of these mostly unmarried, desperate women into the labor market, where they must accept low wages, the most menial work, the poorest hours, with no benefits, and little flexibility.