Moving on to other programs in the US's monstrous-creating-widespread-dependency-nanny-state...
TANF Cash Benefits Have Fallen by More Than 20 Percent in Most States and Continue to Erode
October 30, 2014
by
Ife Floyd and
Liz Schott
"Cash assistance benefits for the nation's poorest families with children fell again in purchasing power in 2014 and are now at least 20 percent below their 1996 levels in 38 states,
after adjusting for inflation [emphasis mine]. While eight states raised Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits between July 2013 (the start of fiscal year 2014 in most states) and July 2014, the remaining states did not, allowing inflation to continue to erode the benefits' value. (No state cut TANF benefits in nominal dollars in the past year.) For 99 percent of TANF recipients nationally, the purchasing power of their benefits is below 1996 levels, after adjusting for inflation. As the country moves past the economic downturn and public coffers regain strength, states should halt the erosion of TANF benefits and begin restoring the purchasing power lost over the past 18 years.
"The erosion of TANF benefits since 1996 comes on top of even larger benefit declines over the preceding quarter-century. Between 1970 and 1996, the value of cash assistance benefits for poor families with children fell by more than 40 percent in real terms in two-thirds of the states.
"As of July 1, 2014, every state's TANF benefits for a family of three with no other cash income were below 50 percent of the poverty line, measured by the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) 2014 poverty guidelines. Most states' benefits were below
30 percent of the poverty line. Also, benefits for a family of three with no other cash income were below the Fair Market Rent (the Department of Housing and Urban Development's estimate of the rent and utility costs of a modest housing unit in a local area) for a two-bedroom apartment in every state; in 29 states they covered less than
half of the Fair Market Rent. Even when SNAP (formerly food stamp) benefits are added to TANF family grants, families with no other income remain below the poverty line.
"TANF provides a safety net to significantly fewer poor families than in the past: in 2013, just 26 families received TANF benefits for every 100 poor families, down from 68 families receiving TANF for every 100 in poverty in 1996. But for the families that participate, it often is their only source of support, and without it, they would have no cash income to meet their basic needs."
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