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The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant is designed to provide a temporary safety net to families in poverty – primarily those with no other means to meet basic needs – but its reach has shrunk considerably over time.
In our new recently updated paper, policy brief, and blog, we explain that:
- Black children are disproportionately likely to live in the group of states with the lowest “TANF-to-poverty ratio,” compared to white children; as a result, Black children nationally are less likely than white children to have access to TANF assistance when they fall into crisis.
- In recent years, state TANF caseloads have fallen much more than the number of poor families, and the biggest caseload declines occurred in states that made restrictive policy changes that created barriers to TANF.
- TANF lifts far fewer people out of deep poverty than the previous program, AFDC, and has put poor children at risk of much greater hardship, with the potential for long-term negative consequences to children’s academic, health and economic outcomes.
TANF’s strength depends greatly on where a family lives. Nationally, Black and Latinx children are likely to live in the six states with the weakest TANF programs.
TANF should do more.
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