Single mothers comprise more than 85% of welfare recipients, which is why child care support was a key focus of welfare reform legislation in 1996, which boosted federal funding for child care and streamlined it into the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the main source of funding states can use to provide child care subsidies for poor families. The problem is that once welfare recipients get a toehold in the job market, they may end up losing child care help just as they are transitioning out of welfare. And while CCDBG child care subsidies are supposed to help pick up the slack, only a tiny fraction of the children eligible for that help are getting it. Research shows that access to child care help from the CCDBG program are at a 16-year low, with only 13% of all eligible children currently receiving child care assistance.
Source: Center for Law and Social Policy, 3/15/16, Child Care Subsidies