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About 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold, a measurement that has been shown to underestimate the needs of families. Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic expenses. Using this standard, 43% of children live in low-income families.

(National Center for Children in Poverty, 2017).

Family Structure Impacts the likelihood that a child will experience poverty :

•    30 percent of all children residing with married parents—14.3 million—live in low-income families

• 11 percent of all children residing with married parents—5.2 million—live in poor families

•   68 percent of all children residing with a single parent—16.3 million—live in low-income families

•  40 percent of all children residing with a single parent—9.5 million—live in poor families

(National Center for Children in Poverty, 2017).

The effects of children and youth raised in poverty include but are not limited to:

•   Low birth weight

•   Developmental delays

•   Poor nutrition

•   Exposure to violence

•   Risk of emotional problems

•    Risk of behavioral problems

•   Poor academic outcomes

•   Abuse/ Neglect

(American Psychological Association, 2017).

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Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)  helps families in need achieve self-sufficiency.

States receive block grants in order to design and operate programs

TANF provides: temporary cash assistance, work opportunities, child care services, and healthcare through Medicaid.

In Michigan an individual can only receive support and benefits from TANF for a maximum of 60 months throughout their lifetime.

Four Purposes of TANF
1. Provide assistance to families in need in order to ensure that children can be taken care of in their own homes.
2. Promote job preparation, work, and marriage in order to reduce the dependency of needy parents.
3. Prevent and reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
4. Encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.
(Office of Family Assistance, 2017).

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Eligibility Requirements:
-Must be U.S. citizen
-Children must be citizens or have eligible alien status
-Must have a social security number
-Children must be 18 years or younger. If they are older than 18 they must be a full-time student with an expected graduation date before the age of 20. Families must have a child younger than 18 living at home.
-Pregnant women can apply for TANF one month before their due date
(TANF.us, 2017).

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• Funding for TANF takes place through a block grant called state family assistance grant (SFAG). Through this grant the federal government gives states a combined 16.5 billion each year to utilize on promoting the four purposes of TANF.

• The annual federal TANF block grant has been frozen since its creation and lost about a third of its value between 1997 and 2015 due to inflation.

• TANF is also funded by the states, which must document at 75% of non federal funding to avoid losing part of their SFAG allotments. The amount jumps to 80% if the state fails the work participation rate requirements. This money is referred to as the State Maintenance of Effort (MOE) Requirements.

Michigan:

•         In 2015, Michigan spent approximately $1.38 billion in federal and state funds under the TANF program.

•         Michigan spent 18 percent of these funds on core welfare reform activities, which include basic assistance, work activities and supports, and child care.

•         Michigan ranked 49th among states in the share of TANF funds spent on core activities.

(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2017).

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Although, the number of people receiving welfare dropped by two-thirds the states took advantage of the block grants funds and applied it to other programs, leaving very little funds when the economy decreased. As a result, families needed cash assistance and the block grants were no longer available. Therefore, the states put restrictions on eligibility and reducing time limits because the block grant was fixed at 16.6 billion a year. Congress stimulus package in February, 2009 added 5 million for temporary funds to TANF through the year 2010, which increased the number of families eligible for cash assistance, revamp short-term limits, and more subsidies for employment.

Blau. et al.

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The Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) widely known in the United States as welfare, administered by each state with the partnership of the federal government through block-grants under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) passed by Congress on August 22, 1996.Â  The PRWORA proposed that a cap be placed for funding the TANF programs at 16.5 billion for the first five years since the act passed. The federal funding is based on a set of criteria's such as: moving recipients from welfare to work, state efforts, collecting child support, and other mandates. The main benefactors of the TANF cash assistance program are single mothers who are the head of the households and are low-income. Unfortunately, the TANF program benefits are low and doesn't raise a family of three above the national poverty level. However, low-income mothers are eligible for program if they haven't reached the 5-year lifetime limit on assistance who meet the federal work participation requirement. TANF was designed to reduce to the rate of individuals depending on assistance, therefore the program excluded convicted drug felons, under age parents not living with an adult, immigrants, parents not cooperating with child support enforcements, and to regulate childbearing to single mothers already receiving welfare.

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- Webster's defines social as "of or having to do with human beings living together as a group in a situation requiring that they have dealings with one another".
- The term Welfare is confusing because it refers to both a particular program and to the condition or well-being of society. People often use the term when talking about the TANF program, which was formally called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Welfare is "the state of being or doing well; the condition of health, prosperity, happiness, and well-being."
- The Clinton Administration created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant through the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, as part of a federal effort to “end welfare as we know it.”
(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2017).
-  TANF replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which was a part of the Social Security Act of 1935 and provided cash welfare to poor families with children.
(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2017).
- Conservatives favored "Devolution", the 1996 conversion of the long-standing entitlement program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) into the state-run block grant TANF represents a major example of devolution, since then many other programs have also been transformed into blocked grants.
- Social welfare policy refers to the principles, activities, or framework for action adopted by a government to ensure a socially defined level of individual, family, and community well-being.
- Social Welfare policy can be thought of as a public response to problems that society is ready to address, a societal institution composed of government-funded programs and services targeted to some definition of basic needs, a strategy of action that guides government intervention in the are of social welfare provision.

blau. et al.

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American Psychological Association, 2017. Effects of Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness on Children and Youth. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/families/poverty.aspx

Blau, J. & Abramovitz, M. (2014). The dynamics of social welfare policy. (3rd ed.) New York: Oxford Press.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2017. How States Have Spent Federal and State Funds Under the TANF Block Grant. (2016, April 18). Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/research/how-states-have-spent-federal-and-state-funds-under-the-tanf-block-grant

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2017. Policy Basics: An Introduction to TANF. (2015, October 15). Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-an-introduction-to-tanf

National Center for Children in Poverty, 2017. Child Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html

Office of Family Assistance, 2017. About TANF. Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/tanf/about

TANF.us, 2017. Michigan Temporary Cash Assistance for Needy Families. Retrieved from http://www.tanf.us/michigan.html

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- The eligibility requirements could be a disadvantage of TANF in Michigan because if they do not meet the criteria than they are not eligible for the program.
- Since the early 1970s and early 1980s, congress has reduced the size of many of these programs (TANF,SSI, and general assistance) for the poor by tightening eligibility rules, lowering benefit levels, and otherwise restricting access.
- The average monthly SSI benefit exceeds that for TANF households, the difference reflects the widely held belief that the elderly, blind, and disabled recipients of SSI are more "deserving" of public aid than single mothers on TANF because the former are regarded as in need through no fault of their own.

blau. et al.