The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program was developed to help needy families become self-sufficient.¹ The TANF program was created by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996.² TANF was created by The Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) out of the preexisting Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, which itself was created by Congress in 1935 as part of the Social Security Act.² There were some notable differences between the PRWORA and the TANF when it was created, the most noted differences were that the TANF allowed states to use TANF dollars to support child care, for job search support, social services,etc. and there were no requirements on how much could be spent on cash aid directly.² Also, the entitlement aspect of the PRWORA ended and states were not required to serve all eligible families/individuals.² There are four major purposes of the TANF and they are: 1) To provide assistance to needy families so that their children can be taken care of in their own homes, 2) To reduce the dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation, work and marriage, 3) To prevent and reduce the frequency of pregnancies that were not from married couples, and 4) To encourage the formation of two-parent families.¹ What the TANF program provides to these needy families are cash benefits to help them through their financial difficulties. Currently state and local agencies are responsible for establishing the eligibility requirements for their respective TANF program, the federal government does not do this. In Tennessee, there are general eligibility requirements as well as work requirements. Although not all specific eligibility requirements will be ... ... middle of paper ... ...m in long overdue for a revision. In the future, there are several aspects that need to be addressed. Those are 1) How to make the TANF Program more of an effective safety net for needy families, 2) How to make TANF a more effective working program through training and and education, 3) How to better target state and federal funds, and 4) How to strengthen federal funding and contingency funds, which the ACA aims to do. ⁴ The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will likely impact this program in many ways. It will provide opportunities for TANF to become a more efficient program, by changing income and eligibility requirements. The ACA will expand medicaid in most states, allowing more funding to go towards programs such as TANF. The ACA will also provide more education and training for TANF recipients through programs such as Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG).¹
There have been numerous debates within the last decade over what needs to be done about welfare and what is the best welfare reform plan. In the mid-1990s the TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Act was proposed under the Clinton administration. This plan was not received well since it had put a five year lifetime limit on receiving welfare and did not supply the necessary accommodations to help people in poverty follow this guideline. Under the impression that people could easily have found a job and worked their way out of poverty in five years, the plan was passed in 1996 and people in poverty were immediately forced to start looking for jobs. When the TANF Act was up for renewal earlier this year, the Bush administration carefully looked at what the TANF Act had done for the poverty stricken. Bush realized that, in his opinion, the plan had been successful and should stay in effect with some minor tweaking. Bush proposed a similar plan which kept the five year welfare restriction in place but did raise the budgeted amount of money to be placed towards childcare and food stamps. Both the TANF Act and Bush's revised bill have caused a huge controversy between liberal and conservative activists. The liberals feel that it is cruel to put people in a situation where they can no longer receive help from the government since so many people can not simply go out and get a job and work their way out of poverty. They feel if finding a job was that easy, most people would have already worked their way out of poverty. The conservatives feel that the plans, such as the TANF Act, are a surefire way to lower poverty levels and unemployment rates as well as decrease the amount o...
In January of 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson declared “war on poverty” in a state of the union speech. His dream for a better America came with the greatest prosperity of the post war years. The nations GNP was up, unemployment was down and disposable personal income was at an all-time high. As the baby boom generation aged more American’s than ever would enter the work force and it was imperative that the county develop some a plan for its growing nation. As part of Johnsons war on poverty he create the idea of a “great society” in which ground rules where laid out for programs that the president was sure would help the nation. Johnsons first ever reference to the great society came in a speech directed toward students at the Ohio University in Athens where he proudly boasted “and with your courage and with your compassion and your desire, we will build the great society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled”. Johnson was dedicated to this ideal of a new society, together with Sargent Shriver, he worked on developing a committee of civil rights activist. He also arraigned a team of sociologist, psychologist and pediatricians including pediatrician Dr. Robert Cooke of John Hopkins University. Johnson and his crew worked rigorously to develop a program to help America’s children overcome the obstacle of poverty. The name head start was chosen as a representation of the gap that is ever present between middle class and lower class children academically and the ideal that this program would give underprivileged children a much needed head start on education and over all wellbeing.
Welfare is a federally funded program that provides health care, food stamps, child care assistance, unemployment, cash aid, and housing that is under the umbrella of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). Per Welfare Information, eligibility is determined by net income, family size, and any crisis situation such as: pregnancy, homelessness, and unemployment. TANF also requires the recipient to obtain employment within two years of receiving help (2014). A majority of the monies that support Welfare come from taxes paid by the working class and donations from private companie...
Healthcare has been a topic of discussion with the majority of the country. Issues with insurance coverage, rising costs, limited options to gain coverage, and the quality of healthcare have become concerns for law makers, healthcare providers and the general public. Some of those concerns were alleviated with the passing of the Affordable Care Act, but new concerns have developed with problems that have occurred in the implementation of the new law. The main concerns of the country are if the Affordable Care Act will be able to overcome the issues that plagued the old healthcare system, the cost of the program, and how will the new law affect the quality of the health delivery system.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Administration for children and families: about TANF. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/tanf/about.html
...an feel safe and escape from the cycle they are in wich could vary in helping them to cope with an abusive household and to inform them of what they can do to stop the abuse, or if they are in a wrongfull relationship with an adult. Also to teach them why teen/adult sex is not permited and to make them understad that if they dont want to tell who is the father is ok, but it would be best idea to tell if they are, and that nothing would happen to them if they tell. Some of the comparisons the supporters use to prove that this proposition would work in california had an origin in states with different demographics as in california where most of the teens where white or or from families that are economically stable. Unfortunately this is not true to the state of california in which most of the teens using this services are from minorities, and from low income families.
I feel that TANF is a useful program, because it allows people to have access to things that they would not generally have. It also allows for the opportunity to receive actual help in bettering other people’s lives. I wish more programs like this existed and offered not only monetary support, but also childcare and education assistance. If more programs like TANF existed there would be more opportunity to better one’s self and less of a sense of being trapped in a poor economic condition.
This paper will examine a subgroup of the homeless population, homeless families. It will explore the multiple causes of family homelessness and the consequences homelessness has on family life. The three main reasons for the abundance of dispossessed families within America are the following: 1) the lack of affordable housing, 2) low wages in the job-market, and 3) insufficient federal aid. In today’s society, these causes are the main contributors towards the heartbreaking condition of family homelessness, which often leads to family breakups, health issues, and educational obstacles. This paper will also give possible solutions to family homelessness and improvement plans for the future.
Throughout the years, social welfare policies have been created, reauthorized, and amended. Social welfare is all social interventions intended to enhance or maintain the social functioning of humans. Many programs have been created through social welfare policies to ensure people are having their needs met. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is one of those programs that were created from the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 that was designed to meet the needs of people.
Assistance was provided to lower class citizens through New Deal programs. Aid was given to farmers and poor citizens through acts and agencies such as the Rural Electric Act, Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Taylor Grazing Act (“New” 9; Young 159). This government support helped alleviate the poverty resulting from the Great Depression. Over time, these programs assisted in forming a middle class, lowering the poverty rate and allowing a better quality of living for American citizens. In addition to providing assistance to the lower class, the New Deal formed government entitlement programs. Service organizations, such as Social Security and Financial Aid, were created (Brinkley 597). These types of programs influenced Americas relationship with the government, by forming a stronger federal power willing to help the lower class, many of which are still intact today. Branching off these original entitlement programs, there are many government agencies and programs that aim to aid and support the lower class. Food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, Disability, unemployment compensation, and benefits provided for Veterans are all governmentally funded organizations that assist the lower class population (“Budget” 2). The New Deal influenced the relationship between citizens and the American government today by
Karen Bridget Murray’s article, “Governing ‘Unwed Mothers’ in Toronto at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”, is a valuable reference into the struggles and triumphs of social welfare for unwed mothers. For me the article highlighted how government ideologies influence social welfare, how important the change from religious reformers practices to social work was and finally how appalling it is that the struggles and barriers these women faced are still relevant to single mothers today.
Food Stamp is a government-funded program in the United States. This is a program that helps people buy food for their families; in other words, it is a very important program to families living in poverty. It is the nation’s most important program in the fight against hunger. This program was developed in the 1960’s; it is made to improve the nutrition level and food purchasing power of people with low-income. This program is offered to people who cannot afford to buy groceries for their families, regardless of age, color, sex or religion. Food Stamps can only be used to buy food items not hygiene or household items, and it’s offered only on a monthly basis.
Statement #1: In its current form, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) simply won’t achieve its original goals of expanding access, making health care more affordable, and improving the quality of care.
Half the children in this country live in homes in which one or both parents work. Twelve million children in this country do not have health insurance, and over 4.5% of all children are victims of suspected child abuse or neglect (Doktor and Poertner). Believe it or not, these are all indicators of the demand for Family Resource Centers within our school systems. Many question whether Family Resource Centers are worth the money the state pours into them. However, in serving students, parents and teachers, there should be no question of their significance. Due to The Kentucky Education Reform Act in the early 1990's we have seen the development of Family Resource Centers in Kentucky, and they are fulfilling expectations and serve a valuable purpose in spite of some skepticism. Being a social work major and growing up in a school system under KERA, I know that family resource centers are important and that all parents, students and teachers need to be informed of all the good they do for a community. To address these points we will discuss the purpose of family resource centers the controversy that surround them and their effectiveness.
Millions of people in the United States today are on some type of public assistance. Some Americans are on Medicare, which provides to the people who cannot afford private health insurance and for those 65 or older. Another type of public assistance is TANF, which many families are on; an organization that helps needy families with some grants and guidance provided by the government. Some states are taking all obligatory measurements to make sure that the taxpayers’ money for public assistance is being used properly by those people who actually need the help and not to buy drugs and alcohol. These public restrictions are put in place, so the people who actually need the help to survive and who wish to live their lives with the American dream in mind, may have a chance.