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Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

Cash welfare benefits exist to offer families short-term help during particularly difficult times.

That’s the purpose of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—to provide temporary assistance to those who need it the most, not to become another welfare trap.

To ensure that TANF ultimately encourages self-sufficiency and work over perpetual dependence, state and federal policymakers can enact commonsense reforms and preserve resources in a program that costs taxpayers more than $30 billion annually.

  • Implement a universal work requirement at the federal level across all major welfare programs, including TANF. Altogether, this would move nearly 10 million able-bodied adults into the workforce.
  • Set a time limit of 12 months for how long individuals can receive TANF benefits to prevent long-term dependence on cash welfare.
  • Make job searches mandatory—both at the time a TANF application is submitted and within 30 days of enrollment.

Our Promoting Work Over Welfare Reform Research

At FGA, we don’t just talk about changing policy—we make it happen.

By partnering with FGA through a gift, you can create more policy change that returns America to a country where entrepreneurship thrives, personal responsibility is rewarded, and paychecks replace welfare checks.