Temporary Assistance For Needy Families Essay

Words: 586
Pages: 3

The United States has a long history of using its power to protect the general welfare by providing people in need with programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and etc. One such program that can increase the amount of money poor people have to budget is the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This programs provides monthly support to families to help pay for basic necessities.
Although the TANF program provides money to families so that they can provide for all their needs, its main goal is to help families become self-sustaining. The TANF program attempts to provide families with support so that needy families can work to achieve self-sufficiency. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the TANF program has four purposes: to provide assistance to needy families so that children can be taken care in their own homes, to reduce the number of pregnancies without marriage, to assist parents become self-sufficient by helping them improve their job seeking skills, work skills, and marriages, and to encourage the importance of two-parent families (“Temporary
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The amount of money awarded by TANF is dependent upon the income of the family, the expenses of the family, and the amount of money the family spends on child care. After receiving aid from the government, the recipient is required to start working within two years. Single parents must work for at least 30 hours a week, while two-parent families need to work between 35 and 55 hours a week. If the work requirements are not met, the government can reduce or terminate the assistance provided to the family (“Policy