Welfare Reform: TANF Provisions Related to Marriage and Two-Parent Families

Publication Date: October 2001

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Social conditions

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Abstract:

The impact of welfare policies on discouraging or encouraging marriage has long been a topic of discussion. Welfare programs, by providing single parents with the economic means to support their children, are thought to discourage marriage. Federal policies in place before the 1996 welfare reform law restricted the use of federal funding for cash aid for needy families with children with two able-bodied parents in the home. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, created in the 1996 welfare reform law (P.L. 104-193), ended federal constraints on aid to two-parent families. TANF goes further, however, by establishing a statutory goal to promote the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. States may spend TANF funds on a wide range of activities (services) for cash welfare recipients and other families toward the achievement of this goal. Moreover, TANF has a "High Performance Bonus" that, beginning in FY2002, will pay a total of $10 million to the 10 states with the greatest increase in the percent of children living in married couple families.

TANF does, however, have an especially high work participation requirement for two-parent families receiving cash welfare: in FY2002, 90% of two-parent families, compared with 50% of all families, must be engaged in work to avoid the loss to the state of some TANF funds (though work participation standards are reduced for caseload reduction). Some states have failed FY1997-FY1999 twoparent work participation standards; some have used TANF's flexibility to move two-parent families into state-funded programs that are free of TANF requirements.

As of spring 2001, 35 states had cash welfare eligibility standards for twoparent families that are the same as for single parents. These states eliminated special restrictions in place before welfare reform that might have been a disincentive to marry or form a two-parent family. (However, some of these states aided two-parent families ineligible for federally funded cash welfare with their own funds before welfare reform.) Some states have special benefits for two-parent families. West Virginia pays a "marriage incentive" bonus, providing an extra $100 per month for a family formed by marriage while on welfare.

States report that they provide a wide range of services to promote the formation or maintenance of two-parent families. However, states reported spending only a total of $113 million on these services in FY2000, one-half of 1% of total TANF expenditures. These include services aimed not only at promoting married two-parent families, but two-parent families in general (including noncustodial parents, who live outside of the child's home). Such services include "fatherhood initiatives"; employment and training services for noncustodial parents; and mentoring, family education, and similar services.

A number of legislative proposals related to two-parent families have been raised. These include eliminating the higher two-parent family work participation rate, which might be a disincentive for states to serve two-parent families. Some have called for federal action to spur states to spend more to promote marriage, including an idea to "earmark" a portion of the block grant for marriage activities.