States Harming People Most in Need - by Stephen Lendman
In 1996, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation ("welfare reform") Act (PRWORA) passed. Until then, needy households got welfare payments (since 1935) through Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a program protecting states by sharing costs of increased caseloads during hard times.
Thereafter, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) set five year time limits, allocating fixed block grants to states to administer at their own discretion, putting needy people at risk during economic downturns when little or no additional federal funding is forthcoming.
TANF also requires recipients to work or be trained to qualify, even during hard times like now when skilled workers can't find jobs, let alone single mothers with young children needing them as caregivers in their most formative years.
During today's dire economic times, budget strapped states are implementing harsh cuts, harming vulnerable residents most, including families with children on TANF.
On May 19, a new Liz Schott/LaDonna Pavetti Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) study highlights the problem, titled "Many States Cutting TANF Benefits Harshly Despite High Unemployment and Unprecedented Need."
Deep cuts will affect 700,000 poor families, including 1.3 million children, about one-third of all households on TANF. Moreover, those numbers will rise, perhaps precipitously, as states keep slashing social benefits, hitting vulnerable residents hardest.
Already they're cutting cash payments or ending them entirely, including for "many families with physical or mental health issues or other challenges." As a result, poor ones are getting poorer. In addition, work-related aid, including child care, is being reduced, making it harder for working parents to retain jobs, needing someone home looking after their children.
TANF cuts so far made include:
-- monthly cash benefit cuts in California, Washington, South Carolina, New Mexico, and the District of Columbia; for example, South Carolina pays the equivalent of 14% of poverty wages for a family of three, severely impacting poor families;
-- time limits for receiving benefits have been reduced; for example, California and Arizona (among others) cut theirs, and some states may limit payments to 18 months, down from the federally enacted five year maximum; and
-- TANF-funded supplementary aid is being cut; for example, Michigan is slashing its (partly TANF funded) Earned Income Tax Credit by two-thirds; in addition, other states weakened "make-work-pay" policies by reducing or eliminating them altogether.
Overall, "(s)tates are terminating or reducing benefits for some of the most vulnerable families, most of whom have very poor labor market prospects."
At issue is less federal aid, leaving them no choice but to apportion lower amounts gotten, on the way perhaps to nothing as Capitol Hill debates ways to end social benefits entirely to provide more funds for bankers, war profiteers and other corporate favorites.
In fact, Democrats and Republicans are hammering vulnerable Americans, including those already at or below the poverty line, showing no concern for growing millions in need.
For example, in 1994-1995, AFDC served 75 out of 100 impoverished families with children. In 2008-2009, only 28 of every 100 got aid, the ratio varying by state. Seven, in fact, help 10 or less families out of 100 impoverished ones when all of them most need it.
