The Office of Family Assistance published data tables which show TANF and Separate State Programs-Maintenance of Effort (SSP-MOE) caseloads separately, as well as combined by state and at the national level from October 2021 through March 2022. The tables are cross-tabbed to include total numbers of recipients, adult recipients, child recipients, families, one-parent families, two-parent families, no parent families, and monthly caseload data.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted the Using the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund webinar on March 8 and 9, 2022. Separate sessions were held for states, tribes, and territories that administer PEAF funds. Established by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, PEAF provides funding to states, tribes administering a TANF program, and all five U.S. territories to assist needy families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to use funds to provide certain non-recurrent, short term benefits.

During these webinars, OFA shared its newly developed brief, Responding to Winter Utility Needs: Using the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund and discussed how PEAF grantees can blend and braid PEAF allocations with other federal funds to help families with high utility costs. Current PEAF grantees also shared their PEAF experiences, and the webinar concluded with a facilitated discussion.

In this webinar, participants:

• Learned different approaches for distributing PEAF-funded cash assistance.
• Explored how COVID-19 impacted energy security for low-income families and how the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund can help.
• Heard from PEAF grantees who have allocated resources to help low-income families with utility assistance and other needs.

Each webinar was tailored to states, tribes, and territories administering PEAF resources.

Please note: Webinar recording for territories is unavailable. Please review the PowerPoint slides and/or watch the recording of the state webinar (see link below).

This practice guide, used in partnership with a research or technical assistance support team, can help program leaders make evidence-driven decisions as they manage change. The guide targets individuals thinking about or implementing a program change, including those operating TANF or workforce programs. The guide supports use of Learn, Innovate, Improve (LI2), an evidence-driven framework and process to address common practice challenges and improve programs. This practice guide was developed by Mathematica and The Adjacent Possible under the Office of Family Assistance’s Project IMPROVE initiative.

This Office of Family Assistance brief discusses the potential for the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund (PEAF) to support needy families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and by unusually high heating costs this winter. The brief is presented in a question and answer format and addresses:

• Why are energy costs higher than normal? 

• How has COVID-19 impacted energy security for low-income families?

• How can the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund help?

• How can PEAF be used to help families with energy costs? and

• How can grantees strategically use remaining PEAF allocations along with other federal funds?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) conducted the 2021 National TANF Directors’ Meeting from September 20 - 24, 2021. During this plenary, OFA officials began with a refresher on a range of TANF program policies, particularly those related to work requirements. Following this refresher, officials answered TANF policy questions from attendees.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) conducted the 2021 National TANF Directors’ Meeting from September 20 - 24, 2021. During this workshop, presenters included two economic mobility leaders in Georgia and Massachusetts who have changed the way they do business to better serve young parents and engage them in TANF, with the explicit goals of helping participants achieve greater economic mobility outcomes. The workshop also included interactive components where participants could consider how they might adjust some of their own operations in service of economic mobility.

The Office of Family Assistance has released tables that provide demographic data on the age, gender, and race/ethnicity of adults and children in TANF, Separate State Program-Maintenance-of-Effort active families, and closed cases, as well as data on the financial circumstances of TANF cash assistance recipients for Federal fiscal year 2020. The data is presented for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) conducted the 2021 National TANF Directors’ Meeting from September 20 - 24, 2021. During this workshop, discussion focused on transforming the delivery of anti-poverty tax credits. The California Department of Social Services (CDSS), together with the California Policy Lab (CPL) and Code for America (CFA), discussed the Department’s tax outreach effort for California's TANF and SNAP participants. Participants learned how to leverage data, communication strategies, and partnerships to increase economic supports available to clients via the tax system.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) conducted the 2021 National TANF Directors’ Meeting from September 20 - 24, 2021. During this concurrent workshop, speakers from two projects funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation presented research and on-the-ground experiences from programs that adapted service provision to maintain and develop new connections with employers during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as respond to job seekers’ health, substance use, and recovery needs.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) conducted the 2021 National TANF Directors’ Meeting from September 20 - 24, 2021. During this concurrent workshop, researchers from the TANF Data Collaborative (TDC) team identified key components to sustaining data analytic capacity in government agency environments, provided examples of activities and practices that fall within each sustainability component, and elicited audience participation to source additional strategies and examples of sustainable practices. The research is based on work with eight pilot states across the country and the results of a comprehensive TANF Data Needs Assessment.