This Office of Family Assistance brief is part of a broader study exploring how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs across the country use TANF funds to serve and support families experiencing or at risk of homelessness. It describes housing-related challenges that families faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, both nationally and in communities visited for this study. The brief also focuses on how the TANF agency in one of these communities, Boulder County, Colorado, responded to families’ housing needs specifically at the beginning of the pandemic. It details the shifts and associated actions Boulder County’s TANF agency took in response to housing challenges posed by the pandemic.

Increases in a family’s earnings are often offset by declines in public assistance benefits (commonly called “benefit cliffs” when the declines are sharp) and increases in taxes owed. This report summarizes insights from qualitative interviews with 43 respondents who currently or recently received TANF. Respondents reported experiencing tradeoffs between benefits, taxes, and work. It also presents results from microsimulation modeling of how benefits and taxes respond when income changes, and features 2018 data from Colorado, Minnesota, and New York.

The Family Resource Simulator shows how earnings, benefits, and expenses interact as circumstances change. It makes “what if” scenarios visible in a way that is difficult to capture through conversation alone. In Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) settings, the simulator can support planning discussions by helping families see how small changes in work hours, income, or benefits affect overall stability.

The National Center for Children in Poverty’s Basic Needs Budget Calculator breaks down what it actually costs to meet essential needs like housing, food, childcare, and transportation. It highlights gaps between wages, benefits, and real household expenses. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners can use it to support budgeting work that feels concrete and locally relevant, helping families understand what stability requires in practical terms.

Research from SmartAsset explores what it takes financially for one parent to stay home and the other to support the household. It adds context to the tradeoffs families face when making caregiving and work decisions. Within Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) services, it can support more realistic financial planning discussions and help families think through how income choices affect stability, caregiving roles, and long-term goals.

The MIT Living Wage Calculator estimates the income families need to cover basic expenses based on where they live and family size. It helps clarify a common disconnect in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) work—employment alone does not always equal economic stability. Practitioners can use it to ground conversations about self-sufficiency in local reality, making it easier to connect job planning and financial goals to actual household needs and improve family stability.

This toolkit is designed to help public sector organizations—including state and local agencies—develop and expand apprenticeship programs. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, this opens opportunities to connect participants to jobs within government and public service roles that offer stability, benefits, and clear career progression. Practitioners can use this resource to explore how their own agencies or partner organizations can create apprenticeship pathways for TANF clients. It can help them actively shape job opportunities, giving clients access to structured, paid pathways that support long-term employment and financial independence.

This Administration for Children and Families brief, co-authored by Assistant Secretary Alex Adams, explores how predictive risk modeling and modern data systems can strengthen child welfare decision-making and improve safety outcomes. For TANF programs partnered with child welfare programs, this brief highlights opportunities to enhance data-informed collaboration, identify families who may benefit from early supports, and strengthen prevention-focused service delivery across systems.

This America Succeeds report highlights the workplace value of durable skills: communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and leadership. TANF programs can integrate these into their case management or training to help participants build foundational and transferable skills for long-term career growth.

This tipsheet suggests ways TANF leaders can use technology to support program participation and participants’ employment outcomes. By investing in technology solutions, TANF agencies may efficiently deliver services that promote participant self-sufficiency and reduce dependence on government benefits. Technology options discussed in this resource include: 

• Virtual service delivery platforms, including digital service hubs, virtual case management tools, and online learning platforms
• Virtual platforms providing access to data and analytics
• Tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) 

This resource also discusses factors for TANF leaders to consider when evaluating potential technology solutions.