The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) will convene the 2024 Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) in person in Washington, DC on May 29–31, 2024. RECS 2024 will focus on programs, policies, and services that support families on the path to economic self-sufficiency. Presentations will feature research findings and their policy and practice implications for an audience that includes researchers, practitioners, state and local administrators, federal officials, and policymakers. Join OPRE for a virtual information session on Thursday, June 22, 2023 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. ET to hear more about the conference, conference tracks, proposal types, tips for preparing a successful proposal, and how to submit a proposal through the website.

This report outlines the TANF-related provisions in the recently passed and signed debt ceiling agreement. These provisions are:

Recalibration of the Caseload Reduction Credit (the agreement makes this effective in October 2025).

While the caseload reduction credit is currently calculated based on a comparison of the current number of families receiving TANF cash assistance with the caseload in 2005, the debt ceiling agreement changes the comparison year from 2005 to 2015.

Limitation on Counting Families Receiving Small Cash Payments Toward the Work Participation Rate (effective October 1, 2025).

Under the agreement, states can count working families as meeting the TANF work requirement  only if they receive a monthly cash grant of $35 or more. 

Data Reporting on Work Outcomes (effective October 1, 2024).

The legislation includes new data reporting requirements that are aligned with outcome measures under the main job training programs (known as Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) programs).

New Work Outcomes Pilot (effective October 1, 2024).

The agreement includes a pilot program that will allow up to five states to test a new approach to improving outcomes for families receiving income assistance through TANF (and related state-funded programs).

This report provides welfare dependence indicators through 2019 for most indicators and through 2020 for other indicators, reflecting changes that have taken place since enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996. Welfare dependence is defined in this report as the proportion of individuals who receive more than half of their total family income in one year from the TANF program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and/or the Supplemental Security Income program.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) will host a webinar on March 16, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. ET. This webinar will include ACF leaders who will discuss the President’s FY2024 budget requests and how it can make a difference for all those ACF serves.

Video recordings of the plenary and concurrent breakout sessions are now available for the Virtual Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) 2022, convened by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, held June 1 - 3, 2022. The conference recordings include sessions on the following topics:

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Programs, Policies, and Populations
• Employment and Mobility in the Labor Market
• Youth Well-Being and the Transition to Adulthood
• Strengthening Families, Fatherhood, Marriages, and Relationships
• Evaluating Social Programs, Building Evidence, and Using Data
• Approaches to Alleviate Poverty and Expand Opportunity

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) will host its Annual Tribal Consultation meeting in person and virtually on Monday, October 31, 2022. During the session, ACF leadership will speak with Tribal leaders and discuss issues important to the tribes and ACF tribal program priorities. The in-person meeting will take place at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento, California from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon PT. Virtual participation will also occur at 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Alaska time, 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. MT, 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT, and 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET.

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 programs—the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Child Tax Credit, and TANF—and other in-kind supports, such as SNAP, Medicaid, and housing assistance, serve as a backstop for unpredictable income, low income, and joblessness among low-income households who face economic transitions. The paper also highlights the critical role of the expanded Child Tax Credit, which provided families a monthly cash payment between July and December 2021.

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 select findings released in FY 2021. The studies in this report are organized into five sections:

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
• Employment and the Labor Market
• Education and Training
• Behavioral Science
• Cross-Cutting and Other Safety Net Research