Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which offered cash support to families with children experiencing poverty, was replaced by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families,which was adopted in 1996. In times of need, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance can be a vital source of help for families. But compared to AFDC, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) serves a much smaller number of families and offers less financial aid, leaving more families in creeping poverty. States now use the money that formerly went to families directly to pay for other initiatives.
Table of Contents
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): What Is It?
In an effort to “end welfare as we know it,” Congress established the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant through the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. AFDC, which had offered cash aid to low-income families with children since 1935, was superseded by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). A significant and expanding body of research shows that income supports help families in poverty retain stability and foster the healthy development of children.
As part of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families(TANF), the federal government gives states a fixed block grant that they can use to run their own programmes. States give the programmes different names; for instance, CalWORKS in California. States must also spend part of their own money on “maintenance of effort” (MOE) spending in order to receive federal subsidies and avert a financial penalty.
Compared to AFDC, where the federal government provided at least $1 in matching funds for each dollar that states spent, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) has a radically different funding model.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families has four objectives:
Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and state MOE funds can be used by states to accomplish any of the four goals outlined in the 1996 law, which are:
(1) assisting needy families so that children can be cared for in their own homes or the homes of relatives;
(2) reducing the dependency of needy parents by encouraging job training, work, and marriage;
(3) preventing pregnancies among unmarried people;
(4) promoting the establishment and maintenance of two-parent families.
For the first and second objectives, states must clarify what is meant by a “needy” family; but, for the third and fourth purposes, states are not required to restrict support to needy families.
The history of racist ideologies and practices permeates the American cash assistance policy. Many elements of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)’s current structure are the result of more than a century of inaccurate and damaging myths, such as the idea that Black women are unfit mothers and paternalistic laws that aimed to regulate Black women’s reproductive behavior and compel their labor. Due to these regulations, Black families are disproportionately left without a strong financial safety net. But not only Black families suffer from these laws; all families that are in need of assistance or are trying to meet their basic necessities suffer when they are unable to get it.
How Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Collect Revenue
The main sources of revenue for state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programmes are state MOE contributions and the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Since 1996, federal funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant has been set at $16.5 billion annually; as a result, inflation has reduced the payment’s real worth by 40%. State allocations were established in 1996 based on historical spending and have not been adjusted to reflect changes in the population or the demographics.
As mentioned above, in order for states to obtain their full federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant allotment, they must use state funds on initiatives that further one of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)’s four goals. States are required to spend 80% of what they contributed to AFDC-related programmes in 1994. (For states that meet the Work Participation Rate, which the majority of states do, this threshold is decreased to 75 percent; see below for details.) States used over $15 billion of MOE funds in 2020. The amount states must spend (at the 80 percent level) in 2020 after accounting for inflation is almost equal to the amount they spent on AFDC-related programmes in 1994.
States have been allowed to divert funds previously used to give basic cash assistance toward various uses since Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)’s four goals are so broad. While a sizeable portion (and in some states, the majority) of these funds are not used to support work or to support low-income families’ ongoing basic needs, some of these funds have been used to support programmes and services, like child care, that encourage and support employment among low-income families. Additionally, states frequently shift Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds from basic support for low-income families to services for families with earnings considerably above the poverty level. 15 states used no more than 10% of their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds for basic assistance in 2020.
| Total Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Spending by Category, the Fiscal Year 2020 | ||
| Category | Amount Spent (billions of dollars) | Share of Total Spending |
| Basic Assistance | $7.1 | 22% |
| Work, Education, and Training Activities | $3.0 | 10% |
| Work Supports and Supportive Services | $0.8 | 2% |
| Child Care | $5.2 | 17% |
| Refundable Tax Credits | $2.8 | 9% |
| Pre-Kindergarten/Head Start | $2.7 | 9% |
| Child Welfare | $2.6 | 8% |
| Program Management | $3.2 | 10% |
| Other | $4.1 | 13% |
Benefits and Eligibility for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Cash Assistance
To select who is eligible for their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance programmes, states have a lot of discretion. Cash aid under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programme may only be given to “needy” families with children, according to federal law. (States may additionally expand eligibility under federal law to expectant women without other children; two-thirds of states do this.)
There is no federal definition of “needy,” and each state determines the criteria for its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programme on its own. The majority of states have set minimum income requirements that are well below the federal poverty level. Additionally, almost all states put a cap on the assets that families can own and still qualify for aid.
Additionally, states have the freedom to determine their own benefit amounts (as they did in the AFDC program). Although Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefit levels are low and do not cover all of a family’s basic requirements, the assistance they do offer is essential for supporting families who have little to no other income. A family of three may get a maximum Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefit in July 2021 that ranges from $204 in Arkansas (11 percent of the poverty level) to $1,098 in New Hampshire (60 percent of the poverty line), with a median benefit of $498. (27 percent of the poverty line).
What Extensive Power States over Temporary Assistance
States have extensive power to determine various laws that limit who can receive cash assistance and in what amount, in addition to determining financial need and establishing benefit amounts. These policies frequently have their origins in racial and gendered stereotypes about parents, particularly Black moms with low wages, which have shaped cash assistance programmes for more than a century.
Key policy areas where states have freedom include
Key policy areas where states have freedom include: In addition to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) employment requirements (described in the following section) and Immigration eligibility. With some exceptions, federal law prohibits states from utilizing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families(TANF) funds to help most immigrants who arrived after 1996 and have “qualified” immigration status until they have been residents of the country for at least five years.
This prohibition covers all forms of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funded labor supports and services, including childcare, transportation, and job training, in addition to cash aid. Children of American citizens with non-citizen immigrant parents who do not or do not yet qualify are eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families(TANF) benefits and services.
Eligibility for those with prior drug-related felonies
The 1996 statute that established Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) contained a lifetime ban on payments for anyone with drug-related felonies; however, states have the option to partially or totally repeal the prohibition through legislative action. While 18 states and D.C. have partially abolished the restriction, seven states still maintain the full lifetime ban, making some people with drug-related felonies remain ineligible. The restriction has been completely lifted in 25 states.
Parental assistance
Federal law compels Temporary Assistance for Needy Families(TANF) participants to transfer their rights to child support to the state, allowing the state to retain the funds it receives from the non-custodial parent to cover the costs of providing financial assistance to both the state and the federal government. Participants must also assist with the collection of child support obligations or risk having their benefits reduced or terminated.
The majority of states offer “pass-throughs” that let families keep at least a portion of child support payments; typically, this share is between $50 and $200 per month, and the majority of states ignore the whole amount passed through so that it has no bearing on a family’s eligibility. Colorado made history in 2015 when it became the first state to ignore child support obligations completely.
Families caps
Families that have an extra child while receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits are not eligible for additional aid under these policies. Family cap laws are founded on the incorrect and discriminatory notion that moms have more kids so they can receive more government support. According to research, birth rates among Temporary Assistance for Needy Families(TANF)-eligible families are unaffected by the caps. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) once had family cap regulations; 11 still do. Nearly half of the states still do.
Conclusion
The number of families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) assistance did not change in 2020, a year of disrupted economic activity because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Congress responded to the pandemic outside of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) by providing cash to families through a series of measures, including unemployment insurance, economic impact payments, and an expanded child tax credit. If the economic impact of the pandemic continues, will more families turn to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)? The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is a bill that would create a federal program to provide financial assistance to states to help them address the opioid crisis. The US has provided an extra $1 billion in funding to help families in the short term as the pandemic continues. This money will be available in FY2022 to help address needs that might arise because of the pandemic.
Also Read
Top 10 Most Popular Cryptos By Market Cap in 2022
Russia sentences US basketball player Brittney Griner to nine years in prison