You can pick any subject pertinent to government, i.e., an economic issue, social program, health care, homeland security, education, immigration, foreign policy or any other acceptable topic.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
TANF or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a social program set up on the July 1st, 1997, by the United States’ Federal assistance programs. The purpose of this program is to provide aid to the people who have dependent children in their families, in the form of cash that is given through DHHS i.e., the United States Department of Health and Human Service. Welfare is the word that is often used to refer to this cash. This social program was created in 1996 in the era of President Bill Clinton by Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. The act aims to provide financial aid for a temporary basis that is later converted into employment (Anthea).
Thesis Statement
It is the responsibility of any government to provide temporary monetary assistance to deprived sects/people of the country to support them to get rid of poverty to become a productive citizen of the country.
The United States provides this financial assistance for a maximum of 60 months, while some other states, for a shorter period. The aid can be eliminated by the State at any time if they find any valid reason to do so. In the United States, the adults of the families that receive the aid are required to look for a job and get employed within 24 months. If they are still unemployed after the 60-month limit has passed, limits are placed on the aid that is being given to the adults while the dependent children continue receiving welfare (Joseph).
This social program, TANF, received limitless criticism in the beginning. People oppose this program as such a social program promotes people to get dependent on the government and the poor make use of such programs to get out of poverty which is also true in some cases. Therefore, it was important to make it mandatory for the recipients who were receiving the aid to get employed as soon as possible. People also claimed that it is a political agenda for the urban class only and not for the people living in the rural area. The rural poor are economically and socially unstable and thus, are more deserving for the financial assistance from the government. But they are not likely to leave the cash benefits after getting employed at the job rate in such areas is also low (Parisi, McLaughlin and Grice).
People who leave the TANF program are most likely to return due to unstable jobs and low wages. And this mostly happens in the less established or rural areas due to neighborhood deterioration and job shortages. TANF case works need to create customized plans for each case as all cases are different and it is the only possible solution (Anderson, Halter and Gryzlak). One more problem is that the TANF program gets affected by racial politics. The states that include a large number of African Americans as immigrants are more likely to exclude the permanent and legal residents from the TANF program which is a negative point for them (Alexandra).
As the personal responsibility and work opportunity reconciliation act (PRWORA) replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to provide funding to TANF. They stopped providing cash aid to the families with low income which resulted in many eligible and deserving families also not receiving financial assistance. Different states have different criteria to determine the deserving recipients. Most states prefer providing aid to those families who have children, only with the agenda to promote marriages so that non-marital childbearing can be reduced to a certain extent (Anthea).
Immigrants who have been staying in the country for less than five years are not allowed to be aided through TANF. Certain work requirements are set for the families to get qualified for financial aid. The recipients must start working as soon as they come of age and adults should get employed within a period of two years. Parents are required to work 35 to 55 hours a week while providing some leniency to single parents who can work for 30 hours per week at least. If these requirements are not fulfilled, the aid can be limited or terminated by the state. States have to report these requirements being fulfilled in a fiscal year to continue getting federal funding (Fellowes and Rowe).
TANF has made an impact if we look at the number of welfare cases. They have been reduced to a large extent over the years, which proves to be a huge success. But the question that had been raised was if TANF was responsible for the decline in the welfare caseloads. This social program was instituted when it was a time of immense economic growth in the United States. However, the research says that TANF can be held responsible for only one-third of the reduction in caseloads. Economic growth and the social program both played the major role in the decline. But the success of TANF cannot be measured through the measure of the decline only as it does not indicate how much benefit the program has been providing for the low-income families. Factors like the well-being of the children and the mothers, employment, earnings and the financial status of former recipients should be taken into account in the overall analysis of the positive change that has been brought by this social program (Anderson, Halter and Gryzlak).
Increasing the work rate among the benefits recipients was TANF’s major goal. When the employment rate was analyzed, it was found that it did increase over the few years after this program was implemented, especially among single mothers. During 1994-1999, the labor rate among the children and mothers got increases by 10%. The earnings from work among the recipients increased to 28% by 1999. However, the employment rate among single mothers might have increased, but their earnings remained low as they got hired in low-wage industries or occupations such as sales jobs, operators, laborers or fabricators and clerks. People who left the TANF because of exceeding the time limit or not fulfilling the program requirements faced worse situations, and the employment rate among them was found to be less than 20 percent only. Poverty among the recipients got reduced to 24 percent from 35% by the year 2000 but the fact that the single parents who left TANF after their time limit exceeded in the program or due to getting employed, continued working in their low-wage occupations which lead to overall poverty in the country is maintained, and no obvious change was observed. Even the surveys suggest that poverty is very among the TANF leavers. It varies around 48 percent to 74 percent (Anthea).
In the end, it can be concluded that the policies have recently changed from how they were originally instituted. After one year of debates, a new TANF policy has been launched that serves the whole family and removes certain arbitrary time limits. Better employment support is provided to families to help them get employed, finish their educations, get promoted and ultimately leave public benefits. The welfare of the children is secure and paramount and the TANF helps families to convert the money from TANF to the money from work. Separate portions are provided to the families for child enrichment, i.e. 80 percent and the parent enrichment, i.e. 20 percent. Recipients that complete their education and employment goals even receive bonuses from TANF as an appreciation symbol.
Work Cited
Alexandra, Filindra. “Immigrant social policy in the American states: Race politics and state TANF and Medicaid eligibility rules for legal permanent residents.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 13.1 (2013): 26-48.
Anderson, Steven G, Anthony P Halter and Brian M Gryzlak. “Difficulties after leaving TANF: Inner-city women talk about reasons for returning to welfare.” Social work 49.2 (2004): 185-194.
Anthea, Seymour. “What’s New with the District’s Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program?” Medium. Medium, 23 February 2018. Web. 5 November 2018. https://medium.com/@DCHumanServ/whats-new-with-the-district-s-temporary-assistance-to-needy-families-program-d339f7f3410b.
Fellowes, Matthew C and Gretchen Rowe. “Politics and the new American welfare states.” American Journal of Political Science 48.2 (2004): 362-373.
Joseph, Lawrence B. Families, Poverty, and Welfare Reform: Confronting a New Policy Era. University of Illinois Press, 1999.
Parisi, Domenico, et al. “TANF participation rates: Do community conditions matter?” Rural Sociology 68.4 (2009): 491-512.
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