TANF at 30: Lessons From the Erosion of the Nation’s Primary Source of Cash Assistance
This August marks 30 years since Congress passed the 1996 law creating the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. TANF replaced the prior cash assistance program (Aid to Families with Dependent Children or AFDC), which had provided income support to eligible families with children experiencing poverty since 1935.
The 1996 law, known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, established TANF’s fixed block grant to states, time-limited access to cash assistance, and harsh policies that take away assistance if a parent cannot meet work or other requirements. Additionally, the law devolved most of TANF’s authority to the states and reduced access to cash assistance and other key economic support programs for people who are immigrants.
Every family in our nation should be able to afford their basic needs and have a foundation of financial stability that can lead to long-term opportunity for parents and children. But TANF has not delivered on this promise for very low-income families with children. Black children have been particularly harmed, as they have some of the highest rates of extreme poverty but are the most likely to live in states with more limited access to TANF cash assistance.
Thirty years of evidence show that TANF’s harsh policies have reduced access to cash assistance, deepened poverty, and failed to promote stable employment. This should not be surprising, as some of TANF’s policies have their roots in some states’ AFDC rules that sought to limit access to Black and unmarried mothers. Now Congress has introduced or expanded one of TANF’s most problematic approaches, the work requirement, to other basic needs programs, and the outcome will likely be the same.
Reflecting on 30 years of the TANF program, we envision a future where enough cash assistance is available to every family who needs it.
