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              Congressional                                                     ____
          ~ Research Service






Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

(TANF) and Work Requirements



Updated April 26, 2023
The proposed Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 (H.R. 2811 as changed in the House Rules Committee,
hereinafter, Limit, Save, Grow proposal) would alter the work requirements that apply under Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). TANF is a broad purpose block grant, which is best known for
helping to fund states' family cash assistance (sometimes called welfare).
TANF  was created by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (also
known as the 1996 welfare reform law; P.L. 104-193) and is associated with policies that sought to
increase work. The statutory purpose of the TANF block grant is to increase the flexibility of states to
meet certain goals, including ending the dependence of needy parents on government benefits through
work, job preparation, and marriage.

TANF's Mandatory Work Participation Standards and Caseload
Reduction Credit

The main TANF  work requirements are numerical performance standards that states must meet. The law
says that a state must engage 50% of all families and 90% of two-parent families receiving assistance in
either work or activities. In turn, it is the states that determine the work participation requirements that
apply to individual recipients. States have adopted work requirements for individuals, some adopting
federal rules for what counts as being engaged in work.
A state can meet its mandatory work participation standard either partially or wholly through reducing the
number of families receiving cash assistance, and thus receiving a caseload reduction credit. Under
current law, states can receive a caseload reduction credit of 1 percentage point for each percent decline in
the caseload not explicitly caused by policy changes that have occurred since FY2005. If a state reduced
the number of families receiving assistance since 2005 by half (50%) or more, it reduced its 50% work
standard to 0%. In FY2021, 32 jurisdictions had a 0% after-credit work standard.
The Limit, Save, Grow proposal would recalibrate the caseload reduction credit, to only count reductions
in the number of families receiving assistance since FY2022. Therefore, if, beginning for FY2025, the
state had not reduced the number of families receiving assistance from FY2022 levels, it would receive a
0 percentage point credit, and face a 50% standard.
                                                               Congressional Research Service
                                                               https://crsreports.congress.gov
                                                                                    IN12150

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