Last month the committee decided to seek the views of the Companion Animal Welfare Council which conducts studies and provides advice on animal welfare.

BBC: Wales politics

Studies of welfare reform in the states show a similar picture: there is a hard-core group of mothers who are simply incapable of keeping a job, often because of substance abuse.

ECONOMIST: Out of sight, out of mind

Only five states reported on how much non-cash assistance former welfare recipients still received, and these studies showed a large variation.

ECONOMIST: Welfare

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicted in December that the welfare shake-up would increase relative child poverty figures by 200, 000 in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

BBC: Poverty hitting pupils' learning, survey suggests

Or has it, as Geoff Dench of the Institute of Community Studies argues, been encouraged by the supportive attitude of British feminists and by welfare benefits?

ECONOMIST: Black Britain

Several studies have suggested that the United States, until now anyway, has had much lower levels of welfare state spending and taxation than Europe, because the United States is more ethnically diversified, and there are more people concerned that their taxes will benefit another group.

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