DOES TANF NEED HELP?

Cash assistance benefits for the nation’s poorest families with children fell again in purchasing power in 2013. When it was created in 1996 nearly 70% of poor families received Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) grants; last year that proportion fell to 25%. Today, benefit levels are at least 20% below their 1996 levels in 37 states, after adjusting for inflation. Seven states increased grant amounts last year. Encouragingly, no state cut benefits, but most kept family grant levels unchanged, allowing inflation to continue eroding the benefits’ value.  Connecticut is one of only three states that increase benefits through annual cost-of-living adjustments.

 

Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 10/21/13, TANF