Social Welfare: Temporary Aasssitance for Needy Families

What is the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program?
TANF is a block grant program to help move recipients into work and turn welfare into a program of temporary assistance.  Under the welfare reform legislation of 1996, TANF replaced the old welfare programs known as the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) program, and the Emergency Assistance (EA) program.  The law ended Federal entitlement to assistance and instead created TANF as a block grant that provides States, Territories, and Tribes Federal funds each year.  These funds cover benefits and services targeted to needy families.

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 reauthorized the TANF program through fiscal year (FY) 2010 with a renewed focus on work, program integrity, and strengthening families through healthy marriage promotion and responsible fatherhood.
On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act).  In addition to other changes to the TANF program, the Recovery Act established the Emergency Contingency Fund for State TANF Programs (Emergency Fund).  It provides up to $5 billion to help States, Territories, and Tribes in FY 2009 and FY 2010 that have an increase in assistance caseloads and basic assistance expenditures, or in expenditures related to short-term benefits or subsidized employment.

MAJOR GOAL
The four purposes of TANF are:

• assisting needy families so that children can be cared for in their own homes;
• reducing the dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation, work and marriage;
• preventing out-of-wedlock pregnancies; and
• encouraging the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.

Highlights of TANF
Work Requirements:

• With few exceptions, recipients must work as soon as they are job-ready or no later than two years after coming on assistance.
• To count toward a State’s work participation rate, single parents must participate in work activities for an average of 30 hours per week, or an average of 20 hours per week if they have a child under age six.  Two-parent families must participate in work activities for an average of 35 hours a week or, if they receive Federal child care assistance, 55 hours a week.
• Failure to participate in work requirements can result in a reduction or termination of a family’s benefits.
• States cannot penalize single parents with a child under six for failing to meet work requirements if they cannot find adequate child care.
• States must engage a certain percentage of all families and of two-parent families in work activities or face financial penalty.  These required State work participation rates are 50 percent overall and 90 percent for two-parent families; however, States can reduce the targets they must meet with a caseload reduction credit.  For every percentage point a State reduces its caseload below its FY 2005 level (without restricting eligibility), the credit reduces the States target  participation rate by one percentage point.

Information Provided by The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/tanf/tanf-overview.html