Why did the number of child-only cases increase during the early 1990s?
As shown in Table E, the childonly caseload grew by almost 150 percent from 367,000 cases in 1988 to 909,000 cases in 1997. Approximately 28 percent of the increase was due to increases in the number of child-only cases with the parents receiving SSI, and 25 percent was due to increases in the number of no-parent cases, with the other categories accounting for the remainder. All categories of child-only cases grew during this period, but the greatest percentage growth was in those categories of childonly cases with parents in the household but not in the assistance unit. While no-parent cases grew by just 66 percent in this period, parent-present child only cases grew by over 250 percent. As a result, no-parent cases declined as a proportion of child-only cases from 56 percent to 38 percent. Among the reasons for the increase that have been suggested by State and federal officials are: • Changes in federal SSI eligibility, and states encouraging AFDC recipients with disabilities to a
