Valuing Families: The New Federal Threat to TANF Recipients
By Admin, Section From The Wires
From the Stateside Dispatch
Unfortunately, just as many states have begun expanding support for the working poor after the budget constraints due to the post-2001 recession, new federal TANF rules mandated by last fall's Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) are further restricting state's flexibility in administering TANF in their states. Many programs that help recipients get training or education to improve their chances of getting a job will no longer qualify as welfare-to-work activities; recipients will be limited to 12 months of vocational educational training and no more than 30 percent of a state's welfare-to-work participants will be allowed to participate in such programs. As the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes, the incentives are perverse, since "The cheapest and easiest way for a state to meet the new work rules and avoid fiscal penalties is to assist fewer poor families."
Some states like Georgia are already taking this punitive approach. Between 2000 and 2005, welfare rolls in Georgia fell from roughly 30,000 recipients down to fewer than 8,000, despite the fact that most families that leave Georgia's TANF program have
not found employment.
However, other states are pursuing alternative strategies that accommodate the new rules without hurting the poor. Arkansas is dealing with the regulations by keeping more working people on the rolls after they get jobs, thereby increasing the overall "work-participation rate" from 28 percent to nearly 45 percent this year. California and some other states are moving those least likely to get jobs, such as those with mental and physical disabilities or those with disabled children, into non-TANF state programs so that they don't count against their work-participation rates. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and CLASP have developed a broad set of strategies for states to implement the new regulations in ways that benefit all working families rather than punishing the families whose parents cannot find work.
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Related Links- From the Stateside Dispatch- new federal TANF rules mandated by last fall's Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) - Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes - not found employment - other states are pursuing alternative strategies that accommodate the new rules without hurting the poor - a broad set of strategies for states to implement - Source - More on Politics - Also by Admin |
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