in his 1997 state of the state address, wilson criticized welfare recipients and charged the program with creating conditions producing out-of-wedlock births, the lack of paternal involvement in the lives of children, and the lifelong ramifications to children caused by the father not being of presence. under wilson's welfare overhaul package, mothers would have to go to work after two years and a year would pass before they could return to welfare, which would only have a five-year lifetime. paternity for each child would also have to be established for the mother to begin receiving benefits.