A government program designed to ease low-income families off welfare by helping them find work may not increase employment because of loopholes that allow the money to be spent elsewhere.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a federal block grant given to states on the condition that they use the money to provide half of “work-eligible” recipients with “work-related activities” such as job training.
While some states have implemented successful work and education programs, others have relied on TANF provisions that lower the work participation requirement for states that shrink the number of people receiving such assistance, the Government Accountability Office found.
GAO cited concerns that states are not meeting the “spirit of the law” by avoiding their responsibility to provide job assistance because “welfare-to-work” programs are more expensive than other kinds of programs that are still allowed under the law.
Under the direction of the Department of Health and Human Services, TANF hands out $16.5 billion every year to 1.6 million families. At the federal level, TANF “lacks incentives” for states and localities to adopt programs that have been proven to work, GAO said.
HHS caps reliance on the program at five years, although some states have stricter limits. Others extend the welfare payments by using a “hardship exemption.”
Federal and state spending on work-related activities has fallen since 2011 as the block grant has evolved into “a flexible funding stream for supporting a broad range of allowable services,” the report said.
Accountability provisions in the federal law have failed to keep up with TANF’s growth in the states. The congressional watchdog agency pointed to a December 2012 report in which it found “reporting gaps” that prevented HHS from determining how some states’ programs fit into TANF goals.
Pressure to meet work requirements included in TANF regulations has caused some state programs to focus on recipients who are ready to work at the expense of those who are “hard-to-employ.” As a result, people who lack education, are disabled, or have substance abuse problems may find themselves without services, GAO said.
Go here to read the full GAO report.
