Welfare Time Limits: An Update on State Policies, Implementation, and Effects on Families

摘要

Time limits on benefit receipt became a central feature of federal welfare policy in the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). Proponents of welfare reform argued that the time limits in the new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), would send a firm message to recipients that welfare is intended to be temporary and that, when presented with a deadline, recipients would find jobs or other sources of support. Conversely, critics pointed out that many welfare recipients have low levels of education and skills and other personal and family challenges that make steady work difficult, and they predicted that time limits would cause harm to many vulnerable families. This report provides a comprehensive examination of what has been learned to date about time limits: the implementation of state policies, the number of families affected by time limits, the effects of time limits on employment and welfare receipt, and the circumstances of families whose welfare cases have been closed because they reached a time limit. It updates a study conducted in 2002 that examined states and families early experiences with TANF time limits.1 The earlier study included a survey of state welfare administrators to obtain information on states time-limit policies and their experiences implementing the policies.