Welfare Reform: Tribes Are Using TANF Flexibility To Establish Their Own Programs Page: 4 of 21
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the law's 60-month time limit on receipt of TANF cash assistance.5
Furthermore, the act gave federally recognized American Indian tribes the
option to administer their own TANF programs either individually or as
part of a consortium, an option they did not have in the past. Under the
Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) program, the precursor
to TANF, tribal members enrolled in state welfare programs.
Under PRWORA, tribes implementing their own TANF programs have
greater flexibility than states in some areas. For example, for state
programs, PRWORA sets numerical goals for the percentage of adults to
be participating in work activities and specifically defines the approved
work activities that count for the purposes of meeting these federal
participation rate goals.' The law set state work participation rate goals at
25 percent in fiscal year 1997, increasing to 50 percent in fiscal year 2002.
In contrast, tribes can set their own participation rate goals and may
define work activities more broadly, subject to approval from HHS.
Finally, while states must adhere to a federal time limit on cash benefits of
60 months or less, tribal programs can set their own time limits. Tribes
have the same flexibility as states to set their own eligibility requirements
and to determine what policies will govern mandatory sanctions for
noncompliance with program rules. Tribes and states also have the same
flexibility to determine what types of work supports, such as childcare,
transportation, and job training, they will provide to recipients.
Some of the requirements to which tribal TANF programs are subject
differ from those to which states are subject. For example, eligible tribes
must submit a 3-year tribal TANF plan directly to HHS for review and
approval; HHS does not approve states' plans, though it certifies that they
are complete. Unlike states, whose TANF grants are based on the highest
of three possible funding formulas, tribal grants must be based on the
amount the state spent in fiscal year 1994 for all American Indians residing
5 For every month that a reservation has an unemployment rate of 50 percent or greater,
TANF recipients are not subject to the cash assistance time limit. Most states use the
biennial statistics maintained by the BIA.
6 Approved activities include: unsubsidized employment, subsidized private or public sector
employment, work experience, on-the-job training, job search and job readiness assistance,
community service programs, vocational educational training, job skills training directly
related to employment, education directly related to employment, satisfactory attendance
at a secondary school or a course of study leading to a certificate of general equivalence, or
the provision of child care services to an individual who is participating in a community
service program.GAO-02-695T
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United States. General Accounting Office. Welfare Reform: Tribes Are Using TANF Flexibility To Establish Their Own Programs, text, May 10, 2002; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc289452/m1/4/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.