History of TANF

1. History of TANF • President Clinton signed welfare legislation “changing welfare as we know it” on August 22, 1996. • This eliminated the entitlement to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) • TANF block grant was seen as great opportunity for flexibility among the states. • Block grant of federal funds and a repeal of most of the federal regulations • States were encouraged to design programs that best met needs of state populations • Block grant amount has not increased since 1997

2. Participation Requirements • TANF recipients are required to participate in activities designed to move them to employment in exchange for receipt of TANF grant. (eg. Job search, education and training, barrier removal etc) • Federal government requires 50% of TANF population to participate full time • Federal definitions of what counts as participation are very restrictive. • In the past Washington has met the requirement with a mix of participation, caseload reduction credit and investment of excess Maintenance of Effort funding (MOE). • Federal rules have changed and Washington may no longer be able to meet the participation rate • Failure to meet the participation rate results in a financial penalty to the state TANF redesign effort identified federal regulations as a major barrier to doing the right thing for families.

3. Two Possible Solutions: • Assist low income working families to increase our participation rate. This was done in the past but stopped because of budget reductions. • Federal TANF waiver which would measure outcomes (how many families actually move to employment) rather than hours of participation.