William_T._Bianco,_David_T._Canon]_American_Polit

Social policy today 605

over the issue for two years, with the president vetoing three versions of the bill that he

believed were too harsh.

Finally, in 1996 they agreed on a major reform called Temporary Assistance for

Needy Families (TANF). The new law set a five-year lifetime limit on welfare benefits,

required single mothers with children above the age of five to find work after two years

of receiving benefits, required unmarried mothers who were younger than 18 years

old to live with an adult and attend school to get full benefits, denied benefits to drug

users who were convicted of a felony, and limited people who were not raising children

and were between the ages of 18 and 50 to three months of food stamps in any three-

year period in which they were not working. Perhaps most important, welfare lost its

status as an entitlement and would be administered by the states with the assistance of

federal block grants. In 2006, Congress reauthorized TANF and required that half of

a state’s caseload participate in work activities for at least 30 hours per week. Congress

has not reauthorized TANF since 2010 but has extended the program through annual

block grants to states. Welfare reform significantly reduced the number of people on

welfare, as Figure 16.9 shows, but it has been criticized for being too hard on the people

who need government assistance the most. When the policy was enacted in 1996, two-

thirds of all families in poverty received TANF assistance; in 2016 the fraction was less

than one-quarter (23 percent). Critics also point out that TANF block grants have not

been adjusted for inflation in most states since they were first created and were worth

25 percent less in 2018 than in 1996.^72

Temporary Assistance for

Needy Families (TANF)

The welfare program that replaced

AFDC in 1996, eliminating the

entitlement status of welfare, shifting

implementation of the policy to the

states, and introducing several new

restrictions on receiving aid. These

changes led to a significant decrease

in the number of welfare recipients.

FIGURE

16.8

1972 1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014 2018

0

2

4

6

Thousands of$8

2012 dollars

Medicaid

SNAP

Earned income

tax credit

AFDC/TANF

Supplemental

security income

Note: Data from AFDC/TANF and the EITC cover people of all ages, including the elderly.

Source: “Growth in Means-Tested Programs and Tax Credits for Low-Income Households,” Congressional Budget Office, February 2013, http://www.cbo.gov (accessed 6/10/16).

Most recent data collected from a variety of sources.

Average Yearly Benefits in Means-Tested

Programs

Some types of social welfare benefits have increased in the past few decades, whereas others have

decreased and some have remained the same. Identify examples from each category and try to provide

a political explanation for why those benefits have increased, decreased, or been funded at about the

same level.

Full_17_APT_64431_ch16_572-613.indd 605 16/11/18 11:28 AM