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Public Policy

The goal of the Disability Policy Collaboration is to impact national public policy for people with developmental disabilities, including those with cerebral palsy and intellectual disability, and their friends, families and loved ones.

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TANF

President Announces TANF Reauthorization Proposal Study Shows Many on TANF Have Disabilities

Many Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) recipients have significant barriers to employment. A recent study by the General Accounting Office, a non-partisan research arm of Congress, found that 44 percent of TANF recipients had a physical or mental impairment. Similarly, research from the University of Michigan has documented that substantial numbers of recipients have difficulty finding employment due to physical or mental impairments, substance abuse, domestic violence, and very low skill levels. Anecdotal evidence indicates that there is little uniformity in how states are treating these persons with disabilities. In some states individuals with very low IQs have been sanctioned off TANF and had their children placed in foster care. In other states, notably Tennessee, efforts have been made to try a more comprehensive approach recognizing the abilities and capabilities of such individuals and the need for more individualized responses.

On February 26, 2002, the President announced his proposal for the reauthorization of TANF. The President would require within five years that 70 percent of welfare recipients would be working. The current participation rate is 50 percent. In addition, the work requirement would move from 30 to 40 hours a week, but allow 16 hours for education, job training or drug rehabilitation programs. The President would also provide up to $300 million to encourage parenting and family programs at the local level. (Included is $135 million for abstinence education programs.) Bush would promote flexibility in how states and local governments operate their welfare programs and provide a significant role for faith-based and charitable organizations. The President’s announcement and also the summary of the plan.

Increased work participation requirements will hurt TANF parents with disabilities and their children. To count toward the work participation requirements, the parent must either work in an unsubsidized or subsidized job or participate in an unpaid work experience program. States would be permitted to provide work credit for individuals participating in substance abuse treatment, rehabilitative services designed to maximize self-sufficiency through work, and work-related training enabling the recipient to work for the first 24 hours of the work requirement, but only for a period of no more than three consecutive months within any 24-month period. The current program allows 12 months of vocational education to count as work for many parents with disabilities; it is a step in the wrong direction. Adults without a child under age one would have to participate a total of 40 hours per week rather than the current 30, though states would have broader flexibility in the activities a parent can participate in for the additional 10 hours.

The President proposes a new requirement that states engage all recipients in work or other constructive activities leading to self-sufficiency within 60 days of first receiving TANF assistance. Particularly for TANF recipients who are awaiting disability determinations before the Social Security Administration, this expedited requirement may be difficult to achieve. States that do not satisfy this requirement would be subject to fiscal penalties. It is unreasonable to expect that some parents with disabilities who receive TANF will be able to move into working 24 hours per week immediately, and it is unfair to both the parents and the states not to give the states full credit, for as long as needed, if the state provides and the parent participates in the programs and services that will ultimately make the parent better able to work.

Taken together, the higher participation rate, the increased hourly requirements, and the inflexible rules around the types of activities families can participate in will make it difficult for states to achieve the proposed requirements and, in all likelihood, lead to increased sanctioning of families with disabilities. For a state to reach the 70 percent work rate, it will have to require virtually all parents to work. States will have less, not more, flexibility in their ability to address the needs of parents and children with disabilities in TANF.

There is increasing recognition among states of the need to design programs that address the needs of people with disabilities. People with disabilities often are going to need on-going, long-term supports in order to work. Despite the increased work requirements and forcing states to place parents in more expensive activities, the Administration’s budget calls for freezing TANF and child care funding at FY 2002 levels.

Finally, nothing in the President’s proposals addresses the problems faced by parents on TANF who have a child with a disability who needs their care, making it difficult or impossible to meet the work requirements. Some of these families will be helped by the retention of two current rules: 1) no work requirement for families with children under age one (although there is a new requirement that these parents be engaged in some activity, which could be a problem), and 2) the bar against sanctioning parents with children under age six if they are unable to find appropriate child care. For parents with children age six or older with disabilities, there are no specific protections. Presumably, these parents would have to be engaged under the universal engagement requirement within 60 days of receiving TANF.

In Congress there are two House bills introduced by Rep. Mink and Rep. Cardin. In addition, three Senate bills are expected: a Wellstone-Corzine bill; a Carper-Bayh bill; and a Graham-Rockefeller bill. In addition, Senator Breaux is expected to push for Transitional Medical Assistance. A Finance Committee hearing is expected in mid-March followed by Finance subcommittee hearings on focused topics possibly including the Child Care Block Grant (CCDBG). Senators Dodd and Kennedy will probably take the lead on CCDBG re-authorization, although there is joint jurisdiction between the Finance Committee and Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Markup in the Senate is expected in late spring or early summer. To date, none of the bills introduced have been endorsed by UCP. UCP is working with a broad coalition of disability advocates to focus attention on the needs of people with disabilities who are receiving TANF.