ActionBrief

Welfare Reform: The Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) Program

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The terms "assistance" and "cash assistance" are used in this Action Brief to refer to tradi-tional welfare benefits. Recipients of cash assistance are subject to federal require-ments such as lifetime limits on assistance, minimum work par-ticipation requirements, and child-support cooperation requirements. Supportive ser-vices for jobless families are also subject to these federal requirements if they are paid for with TANF funds. In most cases, families who receive services other than cash assistance do not have to meet the federal requirements — although states can establish their own requirements.

One key feature of TANF is that welfare assistance is no longer an entitlement, meaning that poor families no longer have a federally guaranteed safety net. Another significant feature is that states are given broad flexibility to develop a wide variety of services for low-income working families. The states get to set eligibility rules and to decide the range of services to provide.

While states have plenty of flexibility in designing TANF programs, there are some strict federal requirements. Traditional cash assistance is now tied to federal conditions such as time limits, work participation and child-support cooperation. The federal TANF program also places considerable emphasis on quick transitions into the labor market and welfare caseload reduction. This “work-first” orientation has sharply curtailed education and training opportunities for cash assistance recipients. Other federal constraints under welfare reform have restricted immigrants’ access to welfare and other benefits.

The TANF program is funded only through FY 2002 and must be reauthorized by Congress. While welfare caseloads have declined under the new law, the program has not been as successful in moving families out of poverty, despite the robust economy in which it was enacted. The new economic situation will create challenges. The broader issue of moving families out of poverty into sustaining employment should be a primary focus of labor’s involvement with the TANF program.

Why pay attention to TANF?

More families are potentially eligible for services under the TANF program than under its predecessor, AFDC. For example, two-parent families as well as single-parent families can be served, as can low-income working families who have never received welfare. Non-custodial parents can also receive services at the discretion of the state.

  • TANF is the critical funding source for basic public assistance benefits for needy families with children.

 

The national consensus clearly supports government programs that help low-wage working families make it out of poverty. A recent national survey found:

  • 94 percent agree that "as a coun-try, we should make sure that people who work full-time should be able to earn enough to keep their families out of poverty."
  • 77 percent feel the government should help people find jobs that offer opportunities for advance-ment and not just move people into jobs quickly.
  • 90 percent support education and training programs.
  • More than 50 percent of those who considered welfare reform a success said they would not con-sider it a success if most newly employed people still lived in poverty.

From: Jobs for the Future: http://www.jff.org/pdfs%20and%20downloads/FinalSurveyData.pdf

 

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