Public benefits agencies can use public data and simple analytic techniques to make decisions about program design and service delivery to ensure they are reaching the people they are trying to serve. This Urban Institute report provides six recommendations for using public data for the goal of understanding more about populations of interest and access challenges. The report also describes the process of conducting these analyses and key considerations for other agencies, researchers, and advocates who wish to implement this approach.

The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency-Next Generation (BIAS-NG) project aims to make human services programs work better for the people receiving services by reshaping program processes using lessons from behavioral science. The BIAS-NG team worked with the Department of Social and Health Services to design and test an intervention aimed at increasing engagement in work activities among clients who were approved to receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report investigates whether providing staff materials and training to improve client engagement in selecting a work activity and support clients in developing a purposeful and realistic plan to attend an orientation meeting can increase clients’ engagement in TANF work activities.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released the new request for applications for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) pilot. The pilot will select up to five states to test innovative approaches aimed at promoting work and reducing government dependency.

The pilot is authorized under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 and reflects the Administration’s commitment to reshaping welfare programs to encourage employment, personal responsibility, and strong, stable two-parent families. States are encouraged to propose alternative performance measures to the work participation rate that prioritize rapid employment outcomes, earnings progression, and reduced dependency on TANF, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and other welfare. 

ACF encourages all states and territories to apply. The application period will close at 11:59 PM ET on August 15, 2025. The pilot program for the selected states will begin on October 1, 2025.

Further information on the TANF pilot program can be found on the Office of Family Assistance Fiscal Responsibility Act implementation page. If questions remain, please contact TANFquestions@acf.hhs.gov. 

The Improper Payments Information Act of 2002, amended by the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010, requires Federal agencies to estimate, report, and address improper payments in their programs. TANF was designated as high risk for improper payments and, as such, is required to estimate and report on the number of improper payments annually. This Office of Family Assistance information memorandum provides guidance to States on best practices for reduction of improper payments.

A benefit integrity program is meant to maintain program integrity by providing methods to ensure that benefit amounts provided to recipients in the TANF or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are accurate according to federal and state policies and based on the recipient's circumstances, and that misuses of program benefits are detected, prevented and ultimately deterred. This South Carolina Department of Social Services manual contains policy for the detection, investigation, establishment, and collection of payments made in error or due to fraud.

The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) offers a comprehensive system of programs and supports to help individuals and families achieve greater economic self-sufficiency, including food and nutritional assistance, economic assistance, and employment supports through programs such as Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled, and Children. The DTA works to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse as part of their core functions. The DTA’s Program Integrity (PI) Division uses advanced data analytics and a variety of fraud detection practices to promote PI. This DTA report describes the efforts of their PI division.

As part of TANF oversight, independent auditors conduct single audits, and states are required to take corrective action on audit findings as part of their responsibilities as TANF grant recipients. Based on a preliminary review of the most recently available state single audit reports, as of April 30, 2024, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified 155 unresolved TANF findings. This GAO report examines the extent to which single audit findings can relate to TANF fraud and is a part of a series of reports reviewing TANF.

In July 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) completed its first TANF fraud risk assessment using its Fraud Risk Assessment Portal. The HHS identified and assessed 21 fraud risks, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) categorized these 21 fraud risks into nine broad categories, including: billing fraud, conflict of interest, conspiracy, cyber exploit, diversion, misrepresentation, misuse of aware funds, personal identifiable information theft, and skimming. This GAO report examines the extent to which HHS identified and assessed TANF fraud risks and is a part of a series of reports reviewing TANF.

In FY2023, the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP), a cooperative venture between the Government Accountability Office, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of the Treasury, began an initiative to take a “whole of government” approach to advancing the prevention and recovery of improper payments. This initiative aims to reinforce and amplify each member organizations’ respective efforts to promote payment integrity; build off past success and apply lessons learned, especially from the COVID-19 pandemic; and develop a 3-year plan to advance payment integrity that will evolve as the work progresses. This PowerPoint describes the initiative and provides an overview of the three-year plan to advance payment integrity.

This Government Accountability Office (GAO) report provides a framework of five principles and corresponding practices that can help federal program managers mitigate improper payments, particularly in emergency assistance programs. The framework includes committing to managing improper payments, identifying and assessing improper payment risks, designing and implementing effective control activities, monitoring the effectiveness of controls in managing improper payments, and providing and obtaining information to manage improper payments.