A Precarious Passage: Aging Out of the Child-Only Case Load

Child-only cases,” minors who receive welfare benefits as individuals, lose their eligibility at age 18 but face the same challenges to self-sufficiency as other “emerging adults.” This study examines how 59 youth in 4 New York State communities thought about and prepared for the termination of their benefits. In 8 focus groups and 12 follow-up interviews they spoke of their aspirations for education, employment, relationships with people, and material possessions. The external supports they can rely upon appear to be inadequate to overcome their limited financial resources and other external obstacles they also identified. Recommendations are intended to strengthen community supports for these youth and others in poverty, which in turn could increase access to social capital and financial aid, as they undertake their precarious passage to adulthood.