Examining the interaction between welfare and disability: Lessons from an in-depth data analysis

This brief focuses on the analysis of merged national-level SSI data and TANF data from the 26 states that report to the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) on their full TANF caseload. It found, counter to popular narratives, that the overlap between the two programs was small. It also found that TANF recipients who applied for SSI were not at particularly high risk of losing their TANF benefits. Finally, it found that medical award rates among TANF recipients who applied for SSI were comparable to that of SSI applicants who had not recently received TANF, once important age differences were taken into account. (author abstract)