TANF Work Programs | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The Family Income Support Team elevates the ineffectiveness of work requirements. FIS research finds parents subject to work requirements often do not find consistent work or earn enough to lift their families out of poverty.

TANF Improvements Needed to Help Parents Find Better Work and Benefit From an Equitable Recovery

Significant policy changes and additional targeted funding are needed for the TANF program to realize its...

Most Parents Leaving TANF Work, But in Low-Paying, Unstable Jobs, Recent Studies Find

A central tenet of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the primary cash assistance program for families with children, is that TANF should provide temporary support while parents engage...

Next Relief Package Should Include Funds for Subsidized Jobs

The economic relief package that policymakers are now negotiating must both reduce extreme hardship and lay the groundwork for a strong recovery. Funding for subsidized jobs — an effective...

Research on Understudied Area: TANF Restrictions’ Harm to Adolescents

Restrictions that the federal and state governments imposed in the 1990s on the nation’s main cash assistance program for low-income mothers and their children are associated with...

Rigid “Universal Engagement” TANF Bills Would Hurt Vulnerable Families

Companion bills from House and Senate Republicans to reauthorize the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, which is set to expire June 30, would make it harder for states...

Work Requirements for Cash Assistance Fueled Rise in Deep Poverty

Promoting the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program as a model, some state and federal policymakers are considering, or have imposed, policies to take away SNAP (food stamps),...

TANF Studies Show Work Requirement Proposals for Other Programs Would Harm Millions, Do Little to Increase Work

Holding up the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program as a model, some state and federal policymakers are considering — or have already imposed — policies that would take...

Potential Changes to House TANF Bill’s “Universal Engagement” Approach Would Discourage States From Helping Those With Greatest Needs

Under the bill, all TANF “work-eligible individuals” would receive an assessment and an individualized opportunity plan setting forth their required work activities and hours of...

Most Kansas Families After TANF: Unsteady Work, Extremely Low Earnings

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...

Study Praising Kansas’ Harsh TANF Work Penalties Is Fundamentally Flawed

Over the last six years, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and Republican lawmakers have imposed harsh new policies making it more difficult for families to qualify for, maintain, and regain cash...

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