Tanf : Helping Or Hurting Milwaukee Families?

People generally enjoy working and being productive members of society. The positive effects of the Welfare Reform Act is moving to eventually end poverty in America and promote economic growth. According to the 2005 report measuring welfare dependents “Poverty in 2003 remains much lower than in 1996, the year of passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The official poverty rate for 2003 was 12.5 percent, compared to 13.7 percent in 1996.” ( Gil Crouse, Susan Hauan, Julia Isaacs, Kendall Swenson and Lisa Trivits, 2005 ) States that design welfare-to-work policies that emphasized getting recipients into jobs by shifting to “work-first” welfare systems can modify program rules to allow more earned income,

The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 was an attempt by the government to get people to be more efficient and less reliant on the government. There was a sort of “exchange” between the government and citizens. Citizens work and in return they receive financial assistances. This is referred to as the TANF, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. It was supposed to motivate people to work, or that was the goal. Recipients were required to work at least 20 hours a week. This was actually successful in decreasing the number of Americans who were dependent on welfare systems. As diversity greatly increased, the need for welfare also increased. Welfare reform efforts were attempted because of the various changes occurring. Welfare in the United States is

First, if the government were to make welfare eligibility stricter it would impede on the attempts of those below the poverty line trying to find a job. TANF ?can free up additional dollars for work related expenses and other basic needs and thus aid families? efforts to move from welfare to work? (Sard and Daskal). It is needed to help pay for those ?necessities that often accompany employment, such as additional clothing and food costs, child care, and transportation to and from work? (Sard and Daskal). The program does not just hand out money, but provides the aid needed to ?achieve self-sufficiency? through employment (Cohn). Without the additional money for clothing, food costs, child care, and transportation, an individual would not be able to maintain employment and abide by the TANF requirements. It is evident that TANF is necessary for those individuals that live in poverty and are seeking employment. If the requirements were to become stricter, the number of the employed and those living below the poverty line would increase simultaneously.

A great number of those who reside in New York find the current U.S welfare reform to be very exhausting, humiliating as well as fraught. According to New Yorkers, this welfare will fail them. These simply because they are not poor enough, most of the citizens are already working (De Mause & Lewis Pp 1). The centerpiece of this welfare reform demanded that every citizen to work. There is a need that the state should ensure that almost half of the citizens get public assistance from the government. The beneficiaries should be working for at least thirty hours a week since working for more hours is one of the necessary in welfare reform (Eaton 7)

The effects of the 1996 welfare reform bill helped declined caseloads on the social and economic well-being of fragile families, single mothers, and children. Although, the welfare reform was documented for making several positive changes such as reducing poverty rates, lowering the out of-wedlock childbearing, and formulated a better family structure, it is undeniable that poverty remained high among single mothers and their children. The reality of the matter was that most welfare recipients experienced serious barriers to maintain a stable employment due to their lack of skills, not having anyone available to take care of their young children when they leave for work as well as not gaining long-time employment with decent pay to help foster the family. As a result, most poor women and children were faced with the instability of economic and social future as welfare eligibility exhausted their efforts of supporting their families.

In 1996 the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant was created as a way to provide assistance to needy families and to end the dependence on government benefits through encouraging job preparation, marriage with the formation of two parent families, and work. In reality, TANF has created a weakened safety net and provides less protection for individuals facing poverty. It grants less assistance than before to lessen poverty and the hardship that comes along with it. The policy has become more of a Band-Aid that is continually ripped off due to its sanctions and requirements revealing the same deeper issues that were there in the first place. Families are stuck in a hole of poverty where they cannot climb out of, and policies like TANF help to maintain it. Since the year 2000, poverty in the U.S has been on the rise, especially the increase in deep poverty. The number of families in deep poverty rose from 2.7 million to 3 million between 1996 and 2013. This is an extremely important issue that we are currently facing in our country. More time and effort needs to be spent on both the creation and reformation of policies like TANF to help combat this rising issue in our country.

"The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, or the welfare reform law established the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). TANF is a block grant program designed to make dramatic reforms in the nation's welfare system."(http://www.acf.dhls.gov/HyperNews/get/opre2/wtwreg.html) This grant became effective as of July 1, 1997. This grant replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. It also replaced several other programs such as Emergency Assistance or EA program. The goal of TANF is to promote family responsibility and self- sufficiency. This program will provide this by placing welfare recipients into the workforce. Under the TANF program assistance is given to individuals for a limited time. When that time period has expired, it is the State's

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act also shifted the spotlight of welfare from family maintenance through government-supported financial assistance to family economic self-sufficiency through paid employment. This federal welfare reform policy known as TANF encourages employment and personal responsibility by mandating states to provide financial benefits to families on a temporary basis, having recipients participate in a work requirement while receiving aid, and providing incentives for recipients to transition off welfare. The programs name indicated its purpose and the social message to the recipient.

This paper discusses the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program that was established in 1996. It examines the development and goals of the policy as well as addresses the target population that benefits from this program. A review of the agencies associated with TANF and the benefits the program provides to its clients is also given. In addition, the funding sources of TANF are addressed. Lastly, it examines the social issue this program is meant to address.

The Welfare Reform Act was meant to get people off of Welfare and put them to work. There became stipulations for people who receive benefits; they must work a mandatory of 20 hours after two years of assistance. Welfare Reform provided more funding for child care in the effort to get mothers back to work. Families, who have exceeded the five year limit or less depending on state laws, will no longer receive cash assistance. States are given “block grants” in order to provide welfare benefits to the recipients. Welfare Reform also causes states to maintain their spending on Welfare. States can receive bonuses from the Federal Government for the performance of moving Welfare recipients to work and getting them off the system. (PRWORA, n.d.)

This article describes the ridge work requirements in the TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. This article examines the effects that the TANF work requirement program has on it recipients. This article also elaborates on different subsections such as the Background of TANF Work Participation Rate, Who Is Considered When Calculating the Participation Rate, How Many Hours Must a Family Participate in Order to Count and What Activities Count as Participation, Limitation of the Work Rate and Ways to Strengthen TANF work Provisions. According to Liz Schott and Ladonna Paretti (2013), “Under the work provisions of the law, states must require recipients to engage in work, impose sanctions (by reducing or terminating benefits) if

“In Ramsey County, job assistance “isn’t just about showing up, it’s about movement.” says Michelle Derr- researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. Upward mobility is the focus. Is the client making progress toward their planned goals? The idea is that the clients not only finding and keep a job, but earning increases and promotions. The state is not held accountable for the inevitable return to welfare by 26 percent of the people who were off welfare for 12 months.

Considerable research has previously been conducted to analyze the effects welfare reform has had on its intended purposes such as employment, caseloads, or familial cohesion. And while there have been a few studies that examined the correlation between women receiving welfare and drug use, the effects of reform in regards to illicit drug use, specifically women, had not been previously evaluated. As legislation passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996, the intended objective was to place restrictions on welfare recipients by applying a 5 year life-time limit, felony drug conviction disqualifications, and move people off the welfare rolls and into the workforce. States were given more

In 1996, the federal government came to the conclusion that the welfare system should be placed in the hands of the state governments. With this in mind, the Temporary Aid to Needy Families was established. The TANF is more governed towards getting people back into the workforce by requiring recipients to engage in job searches, and participate in community service. The previous phase of welfare was more for providing people with capital in the hopes that he/she would use it to get back on his/her feet. The TANF is still known as welfare to the public (“Government Spends”). In the new welfare program,

Throughout history, there have always been people willing to work for what they want, and those who expect things to be handed to them as if it was a natural-born right. While the welfare system does positively impact some families in need, many people take advantage of it. With this being a well known fact, the government still continues to use ten percent of the federal budget on welfare (“Budget” 1).