Work Requirements, Time Limits, and Work Incentives in TANF, SNAP, and Housing Assistance

Summary

Congress is again debating work requirements in the context of programs to aid poor and low-income individuals and families. The last major debate in the 1990s both significantly expanded financial supports for working poor families with children and led to the enactment of the 1996 welfare reform law. That law created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, which time-limited federally funded aid and required work for families receiving cash assistance. Work requirements, time limits, and work incentives are intended to offset work disincentives in social assistance programs, promote a culture of work over dependency, and prioritize governmental resources. Another rationale for such policies is that without income from work, a person and his or her family members are almost certain to be poor. For many of these same reasons, some policymakers recently have expressed interest in extending mandatory work requirements and related policiessimilar to those included in TANFto the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and housing assistance (public housing and the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program).

Some work rules and related policies already exist for SNAP and housing assistance. For example, SNAP time-limits aid for able-bodied adult recipients without dependents who do not work. However, for other able-bodied, nonelderly adults, for the most part, states are only required to have those who are unemployed or underemployed register for work. States may opt to make other SNAP employment and training mandatory or voluntary for recipients. Public housing has an eight-hour-per-month community service and economic self-sufficiency requirement for nonworking, nonexempted individuals. No work requirements apply to those receiving rent subsidies through the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, and neither program has statutory time limits. However, public housing authorities that administer public housing and/or the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program may impose work requirements and time limits if they are participating in the Moving to Work Demonstration program. Further, all three programsTANF, SNAP, and housing assistanceinclude some form of earnings disregard policy intended to alleviate the work disincentive inherent in the structure of the benefits provided.

Over time, TANF data have reflected relatively modest participation among recipients in work or related activities. However, the cash assistance caseload declined substantially after enactment of TANF, owing mostly to a decline in the share of eligible families actually receiving benefits. TANF work requirements and time limits are likely a part of the cause of that decline, contributing to the behavioral changes of recipients leaving the rolls quicker and some eligible households not coming onto the rolls in the first place. In addition to TANF changes, other policies were put in place in the 1980s and 1990s that helped make work pay more than welfare.

If Congress considers extending the lessons of TANF through additional work-related policies in food and housing assistance programs, policymakers face numerous considerations, including the various ways in which TANF differs from SNAP and housing programs. The populations differ: TANF requirements apply mostly to single mothers with children, while SNAP and housing assistance programs serve more men. Additionally, TANF work requirements were intended to spur nonworking recipients into the labor force. SNAP and housing programs often serve households that already include workers, albeit those who earn low wages, as well as a substantial number of individuals not typically expected to work, such as the elderly and persons with disabilities. Additional considerations include whether to implement any new requirements as performance measures applicable to states or other administering entities (like TANF) or as direct requirements for individual recipients. Enforcing these policies, and/or offering supports to ensure their success, also costs money and requires an administrative structure.

TANF requirements were put into place following a decades-long period of experimentation and research on welfare-to-work programs. There is currently no such research base for SNAP and housing to help inform policymakers as to what works. Additionally, questions can be raised as to whether TANF-like work requirements, based on evidence from the 1980s and early 1990s, would be effective in the current economic environment. Additional research, either as a part of any reforms or in advance of any reforms to SNAP or housing assistance, might prove helpful in answering these questions.