The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant: Overview, Legislation and Work Requirements

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant was created in the 1996 welfare reform law (the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, P.L. 104-193). That law was the culmination of a series of legislative changes that altered the rules for providing benefits and services to needy families with children. This book contains important issues regarding TANF. Chapters 1 and 2 provide an overview of TANF financing and rules for state programs. Chapter 3 begins with a brief overview of the history of the AFDC program and the welfare reform debates of the 1960s to the 1990s. That will be followed by a summary of the 1996 welfare reform law and the changes made since 1996. The chapter concludes with a detailed chronology of TANF legislation. Chapter 4 looks at the TANF legislation in the 114th Congress. Chapter 5 responds to some frequently asked questions about TANF. The proposed Accelerating Individuals into the Workforce Act (H.R. 2842), as it passed the House, would provide $100 million in FY2018 funding under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant for demonstrations to test two approaches -- subsidised employment and "career pathways" programs -- to help disadvantaged individuals as reported in chapter 6. Chapter 7 provides an overview of TANF's federal rules regarding participation in work and job preparation, shows the trends in the TANF work participation rate (WPR); and examines the degree to which non-employed TANF work-eligible individuals are engaged in welfare-to-work activities. Chapter 8 summarises the findings from the pre-1996 welfare-to-work experiments as well as the limits of applying those findings to the current policy debate around work requirements. Chapter 9 provides information on the size of the cash assistance caseload. It examines the number of people receiving cash assistance relative to the number of people who meet these programs' eligibility criteria. Chapter 10 examines the characteristics of the TANF cash assistance caseload in FY2013, and compares it with selected post-welfare reform years (FY2001 and FY2006) and pre-welfare reform years (FY1988 and FY1994).