The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has posted the fiscal year (FY) 2022 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) financial data tables, national and state pie charts.

• In FY 2022, combined federal TANF and state maintenance-of-effort (MOE) expenditures and transfers totaled $31.3 billion. Across the United States in FY 2022:
  •  23.0 percent of TANF and MOE funds was used for basic assistance,
  • 8.1 percent was used for work, education, and training activities; and
  • 15.5 percent was used for child care (including funds transferred to the Child Care Development Fund).
• 30 states used less than half of their TANF and MOE funds on the combination of basic assistance; work, education, and training activities; and child care.
  • 34 states spent less than 20 percent of their TANF and MOE funds on basic assistance.
  • 42 states and the District of Columbia spent less than 15 percent of their TANF and MOE funds on work, education, and training activities.
• From FY 2021 to FY 2022, the amount of funds used for basic assistance increased by $366 million and child care decreased by $58 million. The amount of funds used for work, education, and training activities increased by $211 million.

View the financial data tables, national and state pie charts for more information on how TANF and MOE funds were used in FY 2022. 

State pie charts will be published in the coming weeks.

This issue brief describes three specific program improvement strategies employed by six state, county and tribal TANF programs. The three strategies drove changes that resulted in tangible TANF program improvements across all six programs. The improvement strategies are:

1) Revisit and reimagine your working relationships with your community partners to improve collaboration and coordination;
2) actively listen to and learn from your TANF families, community members, and program staff; and
3) reorient or adapt outcome structures and monitoring elements to strengthen TANF program performance-based accountability.

The programs featured in this resource were among a group of 10 TANF programs that participated in the Office of Family Assistance’s initiative “Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience TANF Learning Community” {LASER TLC).

The Office of Family Assistance initiative, “Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience TANF Learning Community” (LASER TLC), supported ten TANF Programs across the country as they worked to address the challenges of human service delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and focused on improving and delivering more responsive services to their TANF families. This document shares Anne Arundel County Maryland Department of Social Services’ journey during their participation in the 18-month learning community. The site journey conveys how their LASER TLC site team, along with support from their dedicated coaching team and application of the LI2 framework, contributed to developing their action plan and strategizing the implementation of their change agenda to benefit TANF families.

The Office of Family Assistance initiative, “Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience TANF Learning Community” (LASER TLC), supported ten TANF Programs across the country as they worked to address the challenges of human service delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and focused on improving and delivering more responsive services to their TANF families. This document shares North Carolina Work First’s journey during their participation in the 18-month learning community. The site journey conveys how their LASER TLC site team, along with support from their dedicated coaching team and application of the LI2 framework, contributed to developing their action plan and strategizing the implementation of their change agenda to benefit TANF families.

The Office of Family Assistance initiative, “Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience TANF Learning Community” (LASER TLC), supported ten TANF Programs across the country as they worked to address the challenges of human service delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and focused on improving and delivering more responsive services to their TANF families. This document shares Pennsylvania’s journey during their participation in the 18-month learning community. The site journey conveys how their LASER TLC site team, along with support from their dedicated coaching team and application of the LI2 framework, contributed to developing their action plan and strategizing the implementation of their change agenda to benefit TANF families.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) held the 2022 Regions V-VIII State TANF Virtual Meeting on July 19-21, 2022. This virtual event brought together TANF program representatives from OFA Regions V-VIII and focused on how programs can best address the needs of families beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting included sessions on TANF fundamentals and updates, how the shift to the virtual world has impacted TANF customers and agencies, and changes programs can make to improve their support of customers throughout their TANF journey.

Also, participants chose from concurrent peer-to-peer sessions to attend based on their role within their state (case management, data personnel, or administrative/leadership) to discuss topics including eligibility and work requirements, TANF essentials, the new normal, and refocusing the customer.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on the livelihoods, finances, and well-being of millions of individuals in Indian Country. Compounding the burden of job losses are widespread school shutdowns and the lack of affordable child care, which simultaneously hinder TANF-participating parents, particularly mothers, from gaining meaningful employment while imposing additional costs on already tight family resources. These trends present urgent and essential demands on Tribal TANF programs. To respond to these challenges, the Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar on October 27, 2021, which provided insights on Federal and State resources that can assist parents in transitioning into employment, as well as innovative practices from Tribal TANF, child care, and community organizations to support low-income families. The webinar also identified strategies for coordinating Tribal TANF and Child Care offices.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar on Wednesday, July 14, 2021 to explore the role Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs play in supporting mothers as they reenter their community after a period of incarceration. Reentering mothers must overcome unique and difficult barriers to ensure their well-being and reduce their chances of recidivism. In this discussion, a panel of researchers and practitioners provided an overview of the impact of incarceration on children, the needs mothers face upon their release, and various approaches that state TANF programs, Department of Corrections reentry programs, and local non-profit organizations take to support reentering mothers in addressing these needs. Presenters also highlighted success stories and lessons learned from their experience helping reentering mothers and discussed how TANF can partner with community reentry programs to help mothers succeed.

The TANF Learning Community (TLC) is designed to help TANF agencies reimagine, develop, and implement innovative approaches and strategies to improve agency performance and outcomes for TANF recipients in a post-pandemic world. TANF agencies submitting self-nominations and selected to participate in the TLC will access and benefit from a compelling, comprehensive, and tailored set of TLC Training and Technical Assistance services. Self-nomination materials can be received by sending an email request to TANFLearningCommunity@blhtech.com. Questions about the self-nomination process can also be sent to the above email address. Additionally, materials from the June 2, 2021 TLC Interest Webinar are now available.

The deadline for nominations has been extended to June 28, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. ET.

The TANF Learning Community (TLC) is designed to help TANF agencies reimagine, develop, and implement innovative approaches and strategies to improve agency performance and outcomes for TANF recipients in a post-pandemic world. TANF agencies submitting self-nominations and selected to participate in the TLC will access and benefit from a compelling, comprehensive, and tailored set of TLC Training and Technical Assistance services. Self-nomination materials can be received by sending an email request to TANFLearningCommunity@blhtech.com. Questions about the self-nomination process can also be sent to the above email address. Additionally, materials from the June 2, 2021 TLC Interest Webinar are now available.

The deadline for nominations has been extended to June 28, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. ET.