Barriers such as limited skills or work experience can get in the way for some who want to find and keep a job in both good and bad times. Although today’s official unemployment rate is low, many workers still have trouble finding jobs that pay enough to cover the basics. As we explain in...
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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Posts on Family Income Support
April 16, 2018
Under the work requirement provisions in House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway’s farm bill, we estimate that states will need to provide employment assistance such as structured job search assistance, training, or volunteer work opportunities to 3 million people. But the bill’s $1 billion per year in funding for work programs amounts to just $30 per person per month. That would...
April 12, 2018
President Trump and Republican lawmakers have argued that basing people’s eligibility for food, medical, and housing assistance on meeting rigid work requirements will set them on a path to a better future. In his 2018 farm bill to reauthorize SNAP (formerly food stamps), for example, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway has proposed expensive, untested new work requirements...
January 24, 2018
The vast majority of Kansas families forced from the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance program due to harsh work sanctions starting in 2011 faced extreme economic hardship after leaving, our new report shows. Most parents...
January 10, 2018
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is expected to announce this week that states may block some low-income adults from getting Medicaid coverage if they’re not working or participating in work-related activities. But evidence from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program — which policymakers are touting as a model for work requirements in other programs,...
December 13, 2017
With President Trump and congressional Republicans planning to push next year, under the guise of “welfare reform,” for deep cuts to programs for some of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable people, what we’ve learned about the impact of an earlier round of “...
September 27, 2017
We’ve explained that SNAP (formerly food stamps) has design features that enable it to respond rapidly and effectively to disasters, such as the recent hurricanes. No such comparable features are part of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a program designed to help struggling families...
September 13, 2017
A nationwide federal-state partnership that supports family- and child-related home visiting programs is slated to expire October 1, threatening a host of programs that strengthen high-risk families and save money over the long run. Today, the House Ways and Means Committee will consider two bills that would extend the program for five years, but each comes with problems — one has a state...
August 31, 2017
The Trump Administration has denied Ohio’s request for a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program waiver that would have helped the state integrate workforce services that now vary by program and provided TANF recipients with greater access to education and training opportunities to prepare them for better jobs. Yesterday’s denial of the state’s waiver accompanied a notice to...
August 21, 2017
In the 21 years since welfare reform in 1996 created it, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program has failed in its two main purposes: to provide a safety net and to adequately support parents’ transition to work. TANF’s reach has shrunk, benefits to recipients have lost purchasing power, and states spend little to improve parents’ employability, as we illustrate in our...
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