There is a multitude of evidence that the current welfare system promotes dependency.

• Of the 4.7 million families currently receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), many return to welfare even after years spent working.

• The average AFDC family has spent a total of six and one-half years on welfare and can expect to be on welfare another six and one-half years.

• During their lives, 90.9 percent will spend two or more years on AFDC, and 76.8 percent will spend more than five years on AFDC.

Despite the assumption that higher welfare benefits and expanded welfare eligibility are good for children, research indicates that welfare dependency has a more negative effect on children than does poverty:

• At age five, the cognitive abilities (IQs) of children in families that receive AFDC are 20 percent lower than the IQs of children in poor families that don't receive welfare, even if they have the same income, race and parental IQ.

• The more welfare income a boy's family receives during his childhood, the lower his earnings will be as an adult, even compared to children in households with identical income not from welfare.

• Welfare and living in a single-parent family during childhood are strongly associated with criminal activity among young men and with having illegitimate children among young women.

Source: Robert Rector, "Why Congress Must Reform Welfare," Heritage Backgrounder No. 1063, December 4, 1995, Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002, (202) 546-4400.