Summary: Under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), families receive cash benefits in exchange for such work-related activities as job searches, vocational training, and subsidized or unsubsidized employment. Recipients also may be required to undertake other efforts to improve their lives, such as obtaining a high school diploma, enrolling in parenting education, entering drug treatment, or ensuring that their children are immunized and attend school. Families who do not comply lose all or part of their cash benefits and may jeopardize other public benefits as well. Although sanction rates in the states during 1998 were low, about 135,800 families nationwide were under sanctions in an average month during that year. State studies of these families indicate that they tended to have adults with lower levels of education and less work experience than did the TANF population in general. When TANF payments stopped, these families tended to rely on friends on relatives for support rather than income from a job. The characteristics of families affected by sanctions lend additional support to recent recommendations from Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General intended to help ensure that families understand their work and other responsibilities under TANF and the penalties for not meeting them.
