Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a program that was initiated to assist needy families in becoming self-reliant. This program is an improvement of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children that also served the same function since 1935. TANF is usually funded by the federal government which provides block grants to states who use the funds to state programs for assisting needy families. TANF block grant is distributed to meet various goals. For instance, TANF provides care to these needy families to facilitate caring for children in their own home or relatives’ home. Furthermore, TANF aims to decrease the dependence of parents through promoting work opportunities. Additionally, TANF typically aims at encouraging and maintaining two-parent families and reducing incidences of out of wedlock conceptions.
However, the eligibility requirements for TANF have been quite strict, restricting several needy families from receiving the block grant. According to Floyd (2020), very few families have access to the TANF program compared to its predecessor. Families are required to meet the set financial criteria for every state for them to be eligible to access these funds. For instance, in Georgia, a family having three members is expected to have a gross income of less than $784 per month and countable assets which have a value of less than $1000. Consequently, a report by Falk (2016) pointed out that families of three with earnings of more than $795 per month would be disqualified from getting the assistance program.
Furthermore, all TANF recipients are expected to have work requirements. With all these income requirements, it implies that very few. If we look at such requirements, TANF has not achieved its objectives that were set during its enactment. For instance, the cash assistance program has not assisted the low-income families, thus leading to a decreasing the TANF-to-Poverty ratios compared to the results in previous years (Safawi & Floyd, 2020). Furthermore, states would have various parents who are unable to work. Since the income guidelines require these families to work for some hours within a week, very needy families might fail to receive the cash assistance program.
This funding program needs to assist all the needy families and their children in being independent. For this reason, the federal government should play an important role in ensuring these needy families get the necessary assistance. For instance, the federal government should increase the income level for the eligibility for accessing these funds. This income level should be used across all states to ensure that all citizens in various states have access to this cash assistance program. For instance, the states would decide and increase the income level from an average of $795 to $1000. Moreover, they would also decide to increase asset valuation level. Additionally, states should also consider ways in which they apply various work requirements (Pavetti, 2019). There might be various employment barriers for these individuals hence limit them from accessing TANF. The federal government and states should thus ensure that all work requirements are applied inappropriately to increase the eligibility of various families to access this cash assistance program.
Consequently, it is also advisable for states to change various eligibility requirements and penalty policies. As highlighted by Chart Book (2020), TANF beneficiaries have fallen by 30% compared to 1996 due to increased policies and eligibility requirements. States and the federal government can thus collaborate and reduce the policies or weaken the eligibility requirements to enable several needy families from accessing TANF. For instance, states would decide on assisting both families, not only those with single mothers. Some families would have both parents but may fail to sustain themselves due to lack of employment. For this reason, states would consider issuing TANF to such a family to reduce poverty rates. Moreover, the government would advocate for equality and fairness during evaluation and disbursements of these programs (Ziliak, 2015). Some families would be denied the program due to their race or ethnic backgrounds. The states and the federal government should avoid discrimination to ensure that everybody eligible for this program accesses it.
References
Chart Book. (2020, October 9). Chart book: Temporary assistance for needy families. Retrieved November 3, 2020, from https://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/chart-book-temporary-assistance-for-needy-families
Falk, G. (2016). Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): Size and characteristics of the cash assistance caseload.
Pavetti, L. (2019, February 7). TANF studies show work requirement proposals for other programs would harm millions, do little to increase work. Retrieved November 3, 2020, from https://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/tanf-studies-show-work-requirement-proposals-for-other-programs-would
Safawi, A., & Floyd, I. (2020, October 8). TANF benefits still too low to help families, especially Black families, avoid increased hardship. Retrieved November 3, 2020, from https://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/more-states-raising-tanf-benefits-to-boost-families-economic-security
Ziliak, J. P. (2015). Temporary assistance for needy families. In Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume 1 (pp. 303-393). University of Chicago Press.