TANF Social Policy Analysis

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at why the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program has failed the very people it has targeted for assistance and discusses what can be done to improve their position. The paper first considers the way in which the TANF program aims to encourage marriage and to limit non-marital births. The paper then deals with the particular difficulties the TANF program poses for those with mental health and substance abuse troubles. Finally, the paper considers whether the TANF policy affects national and state government roles. The paper concludes that these policies show how the conservative desire for decentralization have won out with these programs. The paper contends that women, ethnic minorities and those with long-term mental health problems are more likely to become poverty-stricken, not less, under current TANF laws. The paper believes that policy makers on the left need to return to the more positive welfare reforms of the pre-WWII years, when mothers and those in need were provided for without needing to justify their benefits.

Outline:
Introduction
TANF and "Illegitimacy"
TANF and Mental Health
National and State Differences
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"It is undeniable that the United States, despite being a global leader in financial and economic matters, also has one of the highest rates of poverty in the developed world. Since the middle of the twentieth century, poverty, and issues of welfare reform, have been a constant thorn in the side of legislators.
"There have been two programs of Welfare provision within the last twenty-five years, and the two which will be regularly referred to throughout this work are the much reviled Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (Hereafter referred to as TANF), which was really brought into focus by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA, 1996), part of the Clinton Administration's vow to "End Poverty as [we] know it". Despite the face that it was a Democratic measure, many Republicans have seen the TANF measure as a route to achieving their own goals, and this is probably the reason why it remained fundamentally unchanged when the Bush government re-authorized the program in 2002."

Sample of Sources Used:

• American Psychological Association Briefing Sheet on TANF Reauthorisation http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/tanfreauthbrief.html (2007)
• Casey, Timothy "Welfare Reform and its Impact in the Nation and in New York" Http://www.wnyle.net/web/welfare-law/resourse-material/welrefor.htm (1998).
• DHR Office of Communications TANF at a glance http://www2.state.ga.us/Departments/DHR/tanfg.html.
• Ehrenreich, Barbara Nickel and Dimed
• Gilbert and Terrell The Mode of Finance: Sources of Funds.

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