Getting On, Staying On, and Getting Off Welfare
The Urban Institute
Congress reauthorized Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the nation's primary cash assistance program for families with children, in February 2006 as part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
Under reauthorization, Congress increased the share of the caseload that states must include when calculating work participation rates, and it restructured the caseload credit that states receive.
These changes will require most states to greatly increase work participation among their caseloads in order to avoid financial penalties1 and could cause many states to rethink their current welfare policies overall.
Such a review can provide a benchmark against which future changes can be assessed.
While welfare benefit levels have always varied tremendously, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) gave states autonomy to set eligibility rules and to determine how participants will meet federal work and time limit requirements.
In addition, states may now choose to use state funds for certain recipients who would not be covered by federal funds, furthering local options.
As a result of this flexibility and the ensuing diversity of state policy choices, it is difficult to summarize clearly and briefly the national picture of state welfare policy.
