Serving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Recipients in a Post-Recession Environment

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies are operating in a challenging post-recession environment, with growing program demands and shrinking state and local budgets. The recession of 2007–2009, one of the worst in recent history, and a slowly recovering economy has placed added strain on TANF and other public assistance programs (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2012). Before December 2007, the unemployment rate hovered around 5.0 percent for about 30 months. By October 2009, the rate had peaked at 10.0 percent, the second-highest unemployment rate within the last 60 years.1 The number of job openings since the recession gradually increased between July 2009 and October 2011, from 2.1 to 3.0 million per month, still less than the 4.8 million job openings just before the recession (March 2007). In addition, the recession had far-reaching effects on state and local governments. Forty-three states experienced budget shortfalls from 2009 to 2012, with more than $500 billion in cumulative gaps during this time (Gordon 2012). Furthermore, the policy and procedural changes required under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA)2 had a dramatic effect on state and local TANF programs. Yet the ways in which states are operating during this post-recession period has not been well-documented. This brief, supported by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), describes the changing demands on state TANF programs and how states have responded. It also describes opportunities for growth and improvement that TANF programs might consider. The findings are based on a study that included telephone interviews with TANF administrators in 30 states and an analysis of existing data.