There are over 127 million families in the United States according to the US Census Bureau as of 2018. Of these 127 million families, over 1.1 million of them receive benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), otherwise known as welfare (ACF, HHS, 2019). Many of those 1.1 million families rely on TANF to feed their children because their low wage jobs do not support them well enough. Many people have difficulty obtaining benefits from TANF as their jobs are above the maximum accepted wage bar, or in the case of Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner, they could be denied approval because they could not prove paternity. TANF requires beneficiaries to have at least one child and must be able to prove paternity of the child in order to obtain benefits. Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner were an LGBQ couple who had a child through the use of a sperm donor, and therefore could not receive benefits from their state’s TANF program as only Schreiner’s name was on the birth certificate. Eventually, the state tracked down the donor and sued him for medical expenses and tried him for not employing a physician in the artificial insemination process (Barnett, 2018). The great lengths that Bauer and Schreiner had to go through in order to attain benefits for their child and themselves speaks to the whole system in the fact that it is flawed and creates a dependency on welfare and can be difficult to get on to for those who need it.
The TANF system at its core is not well-functioning enough to develop its benefactors into working class people. Over 40% of people who are considered to be reliant on TANF benefits (received benefits for two years or more) had not graduated high school (Hildebrandt & Stevens, 2009). There are very few things in this world that an individual can do without a high school diploma, therefore many TANF recipients are unable to qualify for high paying jobs that would help wean them off their reliance on welfare. After leaving TANF benefits, former recipients reportedly continued to work low wage jobs and continued to live below the poverty line and typically would return to benefits after less than one year (Hildebrandt & Stevens, 2009). This is due to the lack of training that is supposedly provided to those benefiting from the program. Many TANF programs provide basic skills training for those looking for jobs, however the funding for this training operation in many states is extremely under-funded.
Welfare disadvantages those on it by not providing enough training to get higher paying jobs for the people on the program. The TANF program provides a program that gives people training for jobs and education for jobs. Funding, however, for these programs is extremely scarce and is often not enough to provide any substantial training for TANF beneficiaries. The government provides $3.1 billion for each of the 50 states for training, work, and education purposes (ACF, HHS, 2019). Compared to the $13 billion spent on basic assistance (ACF, HHS, 2019), it is clear to see the discrepancy in the relative importance given to each field of benefits . From 2016 to 2017 the amount of funding for work, education, and training saw a net increase, however the amount was still lower than the amount of funding that was allocated for basic assistance (ACF, HHS, 2019). The severe lack of funds for training purposes indirectly contributes to the amount of people dependent on welfare by not giving potential workers the recommended training and skills to acquire jobs that they can work at and earn a feasible wage. The under-fundedness of the training programs leave many of the aforementioned high school dropouts with no real social or work skills, setting them up to fail in the workplace and be doomed to the hopeless infinite cycle of welfare dependency.
The National Skills Coalition is one of many organizations that have been founded to try and fix the discrepancy in funding for training through TANF. The organization advocates for the expansion of access to education and training for TANF recipients. Their website states that all states with a TANF program must meet certain percentages of work participation in order to continue to receive the federal grant from the government. 50% of all adult TANF benefactors, as well as 90% of all two parent families, must have at least one adult actively participating in either a job or education and training from TANF (National Skills Coalition, 2016). Their website also states that in recent years, the types of qualifying work activities have been restricted, making it much harder for beneficiaries to continue to receive access to benefits and support from TANF. The NSC also explains that TANF is currently pending re-authorization by Congress and describes how they believe that “expanding education and training opportunities for low-income Americans should be a priority,” (National Skills Coalition, 2016). Expanding access to education and training for welfare recipients could break the endless cycle of receiving welfare benefits by providing vocational education to all people on the program instead of less than 10 percent of work-eligible recipients, as well as job skills training for all members of the program instead of less than 5 percent (National Skills Coalition, “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Reauthorization Recommendations”, 2016). The NSC calls for lawmakers to completely do away with the two-parent work participation rate and suggests that states should be given the opportunity to choose between continuing to use the current 50 percent work participation rate or “[transition] to negotiated performance rates for skills gains, credential attainment, employment, and earnings for work-eligible individuals,” (National Skills Coalition, 2016).
Sources
Barnett, M. J. . (2018). Queering the Welfare State: Paradigmatic Heteronormativity After Obergefell. New York University Law Review, 93(6), 1633–1667. Retrieved from http://proxygsu-sbar.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lgs&AN=133625836&site=eds-live&scope=site
Characteristics and Financial Circumstances of TANF Recipients, Fiscal Year 2017. (2018, November 20). Retrieved March 18, 2019, from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/resource/characteristics-and-financial-circumstances-of-tanf-recipients-fiscal-year-2017
Hildebrandt, E., & Stevens, P. (2009). Impoverished Women With Children and No Welfare Benefits: The Urgency of Researching Failures of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program. American Journal of Public Health, 99(5), 793–801. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2006.106211
National Skills Coalition. (2016, July). Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Reauthorization Recommendations. Retrieved from https://www.nationalskillscoalition.org/resources/publications/file/Temporary-Assistance-for-Needy-Families-Reauthorization-Recommendations_July2016.pdf
Issues with the American Welfare System 