Briefing By Catholic Charities USA, National Partnership for Women & Families Provides Recommendations on TANF Work Requirements

Catholic Charities USA
Thursday, 11 April 2002

Catholic Charities USA and the National Partnership for Women & Families held a joint briefing today for key congressional staff on how current proposals to raise hourly work requirements in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (TANF) may adversely affect families struggling to move from welfare to work.

The briefing comes on the heels of Catholic Charities USA's testimony yesterday before the Senate Finance Committee on improving work supports to help families.

Proposals to increase current work requirements, however well-intended, are inflexible, impractical, and unfair, said Sharon Daly, vice president for Social Policy of Catholic Charities USA at Thursday's briefing.

"TANF recipients are primarily single mothers with children. These working parents need access to primary support services, such as childcare, paid leave, transportation, and education and training. Under the current system, the supports available to working parents are insufficient to meet the needs of families," said Daly. "Proposals that raise hourly work requirements to 40 hours—when coupled with failure to provide necessary resources to support these working families—reflect a fundamental lack of understanding about the daily struggles facing such families."

Daly pointed out that these proposals ignore the work and family challenges—such as dealing with sick children, lack of child care during non-traditional hours, or family or medical emergencies—that have always made it difficult to transition into the workforce.

Work Support Recommendations

To help TANF families make the successful transition to work, Catholic Charities USA recommends that Congress focus on providing the work supports that are necessary to support low-income women as they move to employment.

Child Care. Increase the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) budget by at least $1 billion in fiscal 2003 as part of an annual commitment to narrowing the gap between the children who receive CCDBG aid and the number who need it, and provide incentives to states to improve the quality of child care.

Health Care. Ensure that families who leave TANF for work receive a full year of Transitional Medicaid Assistance, which can make a critical difference in whether or not a family can succeed in the workplace.

Food Stamps. Require states to automatically enroll families leaving welfare for work in the Food Stamp Program for one full year.

Child Support. Ensure that child support paid by non-custodial parents, primarily fathers, reaches the children who need it, and can give low-income families the help they need to succeed without welfare.

Benefits to Legal Immigrants. Restore access for legal immigrants to important work supports like food stamps and Medicaid and to temporary benefits that can help them weather temporary downturns in their economic situations.

Catholic Charities USA's members--1,640 local agencies and institutions nationwide--provide help and create hope for more than nine million people a year regardless of religious, social, or economic backgrounds. For more than 275 years, local Catholic Charities agencies have been providing a myriad of vital services in their communities, ranging from day care and counseling to food and housing.

For more information, or to contact Catholic Charities USA, see their website at: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org