Transcript Slide 1

Elizabeth Lower-Basch
Senior Policy Analyst
TANF 101
Working Poor Families Project
June 20, 2013
www.clasp.org
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
TANF Block Grant and MOE
TANF Assistance
and Work Activities
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• 1996 “welfare reform” replaced AFDC with TANF.
• Fixed block grant ($16.5 billion a year) and
maintenance of effort (MOE) requirement replaced
uncapped matching funds
 Value of block grant has fallen by > 30% due to inflation
• Block grant can be used for broad range of
activities aimed at 4 goals of TANF: assistance to
needy families, but also job preparation, work,
marriage, reduction of out-of-wedlock pregnancies
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• Supports a range of activities:
 Cash assistance and work programs
 Child care, early education and youth programs
 Emergency assistance and state EITCs
 Child welfare
• Limited to “needy families” with children, but not
just to families receiving cash assistance
 States define income limits for “needy families”
 Non-custodial parents, youth may be part of “families”
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• Can include wide range of state/local spending on
low-income families
• Can include “third-party MOE” – nonprofits,
employer costs related to subsidized employment
• Incentive to claim all possible spending
 MOE requirement – 75 or 80 percent
 Contingency Fund
 “Excess” MOE can increase caseload reduction credit
and therefore lower work participation rate target
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Does not mean actual spending has increased
GAO-13-431
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Basic Assistance is a Smaller Part of
TANF and MOE Spending
1997 Spending
Child Care Spent
or Transferred,
5.4%
2011 Spending
Other
Nonassistance,
0.1%
Pregnancy
Prevention
6%
Remaining
Categories, 1.9%
Work-Related
Activities, 3.6%
Admin and
Systems
7%
Remaining
Categories*
2%
Basic Assistance
29%
Refundable Tax
Credits
8%
Administration
and Systems,
9.1%
All Work Related**
8%
Basic
Assistance,
70.9%
Other and
Authorized Under
Prior Law***
19%
Child Care Spent
or Transferred
17%
Transferred to
SSBG
4%
* "Remaining Categories" includes "Transportation or Support Services" and "Two-Parent Promotion"
** "All Work Related" includes "Other Work", "Education and Training" and "Work Subsidies"
*** "Other and Authorized Under Prior Law" includes "AUPL All" and "Other Nonassistance"
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• Very low eligibility
thresholds
• Up-front “diversion”
programs and
sanctions
• Time limits
• “Not worth it”
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GAO estimates 87 percent of decline
is due to non-participation by eligible
families
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Work and Welfare Among Poor Single Mothers, 1987-2010
Welfare, No Work
60%
Work and Welfare
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Source: CRS, Trends in Welfare, Work, and the
Economic Well-Being of Female-Headed Families
with Children: 1987-2010 (December 20, 2011).
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• 12 countable activities – restrictions apply to
counting of education and training
• Recipients must average 30 hours per week of
work participation, 20 hours per week if single
parent of child under 6
• No partial credit
• Daily supervision and documentation
requirements
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• Target rate is 50 % for all families, 90% for two
parent families
• Actual rate has been about 30% for country as a
whole 2000-2009
• States vary widely, but most states have
“passed” due to caseload reduction credit,
excess MOE
• States failing in FY 2009: California, DC, Guam,
Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, and Puerto Rico
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• Technical changes with far-reaching impacts




Loss of caseload reduction credit (CRC)
States can not use “separate state programs”
Federal definitions of work activities
Increased requirements to verify and document actual
hours of participation (not just scheduled)
• Pressure on states to focus on federally
countable activities
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• Revised rules took
effect in FY 2008
• But, Recovery Act
rules allowed states
to use FY 2007 WPR
MOE+CRC+Work
for FYs 2009, 2010
CRC + Work
Work
and 2011
• In many states, FY
2012 will be the first
year under new rules.
Many States Used
Additional State Spending
to Meet WPR
GAO-11-880T
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WA WorkFirst Performance Chartbook Feb 2013
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• Improved reporting requirements
• Restrictions on what can be claimed
 Third party MOE
 Limits on definition of “needy”
 Limits on use of funds for child welfare, pre-k,
scholarships?
• Revised contingency fund
 Focus on subsidized employment?
• Possibility of cuts to block grant??
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• GAO report presents a range of options





Eliminate/cap caseload reduction credit
Eliminate “excess MOE” as part of CRC
Employment credit
Reduce documentation requirements
Add countable activities, or remove limitations on
education and training
 Replace work rate with outcome measures
• Waiver opportunity
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• Four categories of education and training: vocational
education (12 month limit), job skills training, education related
to employment, and satisfactory school attendance (teens)
• Up to 30% of recipients counted in rate can be in full-time
education and training focused activities (voc ed training and
satisfactory school attendance)
• Job skills training, education related to employment can only
count when combined with 20 hours/week of “core activities”
• Basic education can count when embedded/integrated
 HHS guidance discouraged sequential approach
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25.0%
20.0%
Percent of Families in the Participation Rate
Engaged in Activity: FY2009
19.1%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
5.0%
4.5%
2.6%
1.7%
1.1%
0.9%
0.0%
Source: Congressional Research Service (CRS) based on data from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
* = Less than 0.05%.
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0.4%
0.4%
0.3%
0.1%
*
OKLAHOMA
LOUISIANA
COLORADO
NEW JERSEY
FLORIDA
PENNSYLVANIA
PUERTO RICO
WEST VIRGINIA
MINNESOTA
KENTUCKY
GEORGIA
OREGON
VIRGIN ISLANDS
KANSAS
UTAH
OHIO
IDAHO
NORTH CAROLINA
ARIZONA
MARYLAND
IOWA
WYOMING
NEW HAMPSHIRE
WISCONSIN
CALIFORNIA
NEW MEXICO
NORTH DAKOTA
MAINE
UNITED STATES
TEXAS
WASHINGTON
MISSOURI
CONNECTICUT
MISSISSIPPI
SOUTH CAROLINA
NEBRASKA
ILLINOIS
VERMONT
MONTANA
DELAWARE
MICHIGAN
NEVADA
DIST. OF COL.
TENNESSEE
ARKANSAS
ALASKA
RHODE ISLAND
ALABAMA
INDIANA
MASSACHUSETTS
SOUTH DAKOTA
VIRGINIA
NEW YORK
HAWAII
-10.0%
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0.0%
CLASP Analysis of FY 2009 Work Participation
Rate Data. Sum of share of participants
reported in vocational education and
satisfactory school attendance.
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
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• Some states don’t think they should support
education and training
 Ideology: work not education
 1990s JOBS evaluation is interpreted as “education
doesn’t work”
• Some don’t think they can allow education and
training
 Federal limits on what can be counted
 Concerns about documenting hours
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TANF Work Eligible Individuals by Age
6.9
Under Age 20
20-24
25-29
25.3
30+
CRS analysis of FY 2009 national TANF data
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42768.pdf
21.8
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• Minor teens (under age 18) must live in adultsupervised setting and attend school.
• Teen parents (under age 20) can be counted as
engaged in work if they
 maintain satisfactory attendance at secondary school
or the equivalent during the month; or
 participate in education directly related to employment
for at least 20 hours per week
• CRS finds 42 percent of minor teens w/o HS
degree counted this way, but only 10 percent of
19 year olds.
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• High intensity, with clear connection to workforce
goals
 Focus on credentials with economic payoff
 Even participants with low basic skills start working on
vocational skills quickly
 “Stackable” credentials minimize tradeoff between
short-term and long-term goals
• Addresses students’ overburdened lives
 Supportive services
 Flexible scheduling
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Lesley Turner
The Returns to Higher
Education for Welfare
Recipients: Evidence
from Colorado
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• Up to 12 months of “vocational education” as standalone activity (for up to 30% of recipients in rate)
• After 12 months, can be counted as job skills training,
education related to employment -- but only when
combined with 20 hours/week of “core activities” (work
or community service)
• All hours of participation must be documented
• One hour of homework can be counted per hour of
class time
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• Document hours of participation in ways that do
not burden, stigmatize students
• Minimize gaps in participation – either by
reorganizing schedules, or adding wrap-around
programs.
• Count work-study, internships, practicums, coops as subsidized employment or work
experience, to preserve 12 months of full-time
participation
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• States can allow non-countable activities
 Some states have enough caseload decline that they
don’t have to worry about WPR
 States can use solely state funds (not MOE)
• Focus on outcomes
 Get people into good jobs
 Possibility of waivers
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Success: Working an average of 30+ hours per week, or off cash assistance 3
years after baseline, but not if they left due to time limit, sanction
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For more information:
Elizabeth Lower-Basch
[email protected]
202 906-8013
www.clasp.org
1200 18th St, NW
Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
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