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1 1 (May 30, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/goveluf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ____ * ~ Research Service Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Work Requirements Updated May 30, 2023 The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (H.R. 3746), which embodies an agreement between President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy of budgetary and policy changes to accompany an increase in the debt limit, 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) programs. 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 have 50% of all families and 90% of two-parent families receiving assistance engaged in either work or activities. In turn, it is the states that determine the work participation requirements that apply to individual recipients. States have flexibility in setting work rules for individuals (see state rules here), though many have based their requirements for individuals on the 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. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN12150 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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