TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES - A GREEN LIGHT FOR THE STATES

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AF DC) with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant (TANF ). TANF substitutes a block grant for the open-ended matching grants t hat helped finance state welfare programs, reduces federal administrat ive authority, ends the entitlement of individuals to welfare, limits assistance to a family to sixty months, and gives states more discreti on to design their welfare programs. Instead of detailed federal presc riptions regarding the process and structure of state programs, TANF s ets a few goals and mandates for the states and guides their actions w ith financial incentives and penalties. Stales have new powers to rest rict access to welfare, although they also have opportunities to defle ct some of the law's restrictive provisions.