Economic assistance programs help provide low-income individuals and families with income stability, with benefits accruing not just to the families receiving assistance but to the economy as a whole. This paper reviews how cash assistance…

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation compendium provides detailed summaries of each family self-sufficiency research project that was active or newly funded during FY 2021, along with brief overviews of past projects, and highlights…

This brief explores changes in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseloads during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines changes to the national and state caseloads by calculating percent changes since before the…

In 2020, for every 100 families in poverty, just 21 families received TANF cash assistance — down from 68 families when TANF was first enacted in 1996. The “TANF-to-poverty ratio” (TPR) is at the lowest point in TANF’s history. This interactive…