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Before social welfare, Americans needed assistance for basic life necessities: food, shelter, utilities etc.  This was a federal problem all through the nation, so a federal policy was needed. This policy was first Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).  AFDC was put into place to help impoverished parents (at this time only thought to be single mothers) with assistance (Gordon & Batlan, 2011). TANF replaced this program after demands for it to be changed to not allow for people to stay on welfare forever. TANF still allowed cash assistance, but implemented some new guidelines in order to receive the benefits (discussed in history).
Many people throughout the U.S. were impacted by this social problem of poverty.

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1992 President Clinton guaranteed to “end welfare as we know it” which required multiple things (Federal safety net, 2018). First, receiving public assistance had a 5-year lifetime limit. More rules with TANF included, a requirement that the head of the household (usually a female caretaker) works after 2 years when getting benefits. It also did not allow legal immigrants to get aid, the ones who came to the U.S. after August 22nd, 1996. (Blau &Abramovitz, 2014).

The majority of republicans had accomplished an agreement. Because the votes were so high Clinton signed the bill into law in 1996 AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) was replaced by TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) as the main U.S. welfare program. This ended the guarantee of federal assistance that AFDC had. In its place each state received a certain amount in the form of a block grant, based on the level of federal contributions to the state. TANF is now the current legislation for public assistance and basically strips the federal government of direct responsibility for the poor (Blau &Abramovitz, 2014). TANF focuses on reforming welfare to promote work and time limits, reducing projected spending, promoting parental responsibility, addressing out-of-wedlock birth, and promoting devolution (Federal safety net, 2018).

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TANF replaced AFDC as main welfare program in U.S.  This policy is expected to work by providing cash assistance to families with needy children. Each state has its own financial criteria for “needy”.  This policy provides block grants to states who then determine individual amounts given in each case. In Michigan, these amounts are given through the Bridge Card (State of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, 2017). This policy has also been implemented in other ways, such as funding for state-ran programs. In Michigan some examples of these implementations are in child development, emergency relief funds, food security, adoption assistance and domestic violence services. (State of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, 2017)

The short-term goals of this policy are to give assistance to help families with basic necessary expenditures.  The long-term goals of TANF are to provide assistance to needy families so that children can be cared for in their own homes, reduce dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation, work and marriage, prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families (Administration for Children and Families, 2017).

The policy was created based on research and critiquing of AFDC. At this time, there is no expected end date.

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TANF was unique in the way it rose from a social movement. This policy was derived from a movement to cut welfare, rather than to expand it. The triggers for this movement had grassroots  (from the floor up) and elite (from the top down) origins. It is argued that although conservatives who aimed to defund social welfare programing worked at it from a top down approach, it was the public who demanded change. Many felt as if single mothers were able to stay at home and receive welfare without working, when other working families were struggling to get by. (Blua & Abramovitz, 2014).

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TANF comprised of 0.54% of total federal assistance in 2015, which amounts to roughly $19.9 billion (Welfare and the Federal Budget, 2017). This number has fluctuated depending on the current legislative majority, but sits now at $16.5 billion (the original amount set in the 90's). The spending for the program is dwarfed by other 'welfare' programs such as Social Security and Medicare. All together, these programs make up about 5% of the Federal budget.
Roughly 1/3 of TANF spending goes to cash assistance, while the rest is split up into other benefits (transportation, child care, job training, etc.). The median maximum monthly payout among states in 2012 was $427.
Figure taken from (Welfare and the Federal Budget, 2017)

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Over TANF's controversial history, there have been several attempts to limit and extend the number of people qualified to receive benefits, along with general changes to the amount distributed for the block grant. It is a current legislative goal to cut back on government assistance spending to low-income families to promote economic self-sufficiency, and the Trump administration's current budget is set to decrease the amount by $22 billion over the next 10 years (decreasing the yearly stipend 10% in 2019, or $14.9 billion) (President Trump's Budget Cuts, 2018). This follows general conservative beliefs about welfare, specifically that it encourages dependency on the government and stifles economic growth.

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“Ideology ties together thee political and economic functions of income support programs” (Blau &Abramovitz, 2014). Income support programs believe that work must pay more than welfare.
Government intervention is essential in terms of defending the weak. “Social Welfare policy TANF represents a reluctance on the part of policy makers to provide support and assistance to those in need"

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The block grants that the states receive are for creating and functioning different programs that at least matches one of the TANF program purposes. The values and ideology help decide the anticipated end goals for the social policy. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the four main purposes include: Providing assistance to needy families so children can get the care they need in their own homes, Reduce dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage, eliminate/decrease out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families (U.S. department of health and human services, 2018).

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Administration for Children and Families. About TANF. (2017). Retrieved August 14, 2018 from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/tanf/about

Administration for Children and Families. About TANF. (2017). Retrieved August 14, 2018 from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/tanf/about

Administration for Children and Families. TANF Caseload Data 1997. (2004). Retrieved August 14, 2018, from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/archive/ofa/resource/caseload-data-1997

Administration for Children and Families. TANF Caseload Data 2017. (2017). Retrieved August 14, 2018, from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/archive/ofa/resource/caseload-data-2017

Gordon, L. & Batlan, F. (2011). The legal history of the Aid to Dependent Children Program. Social Welfare History Project. Retrieved August 14, 2018 from http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/public-welfare/aid-to-dependent-children-the-legal-history/

Pierce, A. (2014). The conservative ideology that fuels TANF denies low income [presentation]. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/zmyxaqqhqexu/the-conservative-ideology-that-fuels-tanf-denies-low-income/

President Trump's Budget Cuts TANF Despite Stated Goal to Reduce Poverty, Boost Work. (2017, October 11). Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/blog/president-trumps-budget-cuts-tanf-despite-stated-goal-to-reduce-poverty-boost-work

State of Michigan Department of Human and Health Services. (2017). Temporary Assistance for Needy Families State Plan. Retrieved August 14, 2018, from https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdhhs/TANF_State_Plan_2017_538823_7.pdf.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2018). Office of Family Assistance. Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/tanf/about

Welfare and the Federal Budget. (2017, August 29). Retrieved from https://econofact.org/welfare-and-the-federal-budget

(2018). Federal Safety Net. Retrieved from http://federalsafetynet.com/tanf.html