LaDonna Pavetti
Center on Budget
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Past articles by LaDonna:
TANF Policies Reflect Racist Legacy of Cash Assistance
Economic security programs can help families meet basic needs and improve their lives, but design features influenced by anti-Black racism and sexism have created an inadequate system of support that particularly harms Black families and other families of color. → Read More
LIFT Voices Describe Hardships Among Black and Latina Mothers in Pandemic
Key relief measures enacted so far during the pandemic have mitigated hardship for some families but left others behind. → Read More
TANF Studies Show Work Requirement Proposals for Other Programs Would Harm Millions, Do Little to Increase Work
Holding up the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program as a model, some state and federal policymakers are considering — or have already imposed — policies that would take away SNAP (formerly food stamp) benefits, Medicaid coverage, or housing assistance from people who don’t work or engage in work-related activities for a specified number of hours each month. A review of the many… → Read More
Farm Bill Funding for Work Programs Won’t Buy Much
Under the work requirement provisions in House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway’s farm bill, we estimate that states will need to provide employment assistance such as structured job search assistance, training, or volunteer work opportunities to 3 million people. But the bill’s $1 billion per year in funding for work programs amounts to just $30 per person per month. → Read More
Mandatory Work Programs Are Costly, Have Limited Long-Term Impact
President Trump and Republican lawmakers have argued that basing people’s eligibility for food, medical, and housing assistance on meeting rigid work requirements will set them on a path to a better future. In his 2018 farm bill to reauthorize SNAP (formerly food stamps), for example, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway has proposed expensive, untested new work requirements for… → Read More
Life After TANF in Kansas: For Most, Unsteady Work and Earnings Below Half the Poverty Line
Beginning in November 2011, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and a Republican-controlled legislature enacted a series of punitive eligibility changes in the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance program that made it harder for parents who lose their job or cannot work to receive the support needed to pay rent and utilities and afford basic goods. → Read More
Work Requirements Don’t Work
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is expected to announce this week that states may block some low-income adults from getting Medicaid coverage if they’re not working or participating in work-related activities. But evidence from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program — which policymakers are touting as a model for work requirements in other programs, including… → Read More
Harmful Provisions Jeopardize Extension of Effective Home Visiting Programs
A nationwide federal-state partnership that supports family- and child-related home visiting programs is slated to expire October 1, threatening a host of programs that strengthen high-risk families and save money over the long run. → Read More
The Empty Promise of Work Requirements
President Trump and some congressional Republicans are embracing proposals to let states impose harmful work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries, and they’ve also touted as a work requirement a harsh three-month time limit on SNAP (food stamp) benefits for childless working-age adults who aren’t working at least half time, claiming it will push very poor recipients into jobs. → Read More
TANF at 20, Part 4: Addressing TANF’s Failures
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant on August 22, this blog series will outline key facts about the program. → Read More
TANF at 20: Failing to Help Most Unemployed Parents Find and Maintain Work
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant on August 22, this blog series will outline key facts about the program. → Read More
TANF at 20: Time to Create a Program that Supports Work and Helps Families Meet Their Basic Needs
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, established 20 years ago, is overdue for reform. → Read More
TANF at 20, Part 1: Providing a Safety Net for Fewer Poor Families
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant on August 22, this blog series will outline key facts about the program. TANF provides cash assistance to a shrinking number of poor families, even though the need remains high. → Read More
Work Requirements Don’t Cut Poverty
In their poverty plan, House Speaker Paul Ryan and his Republican colleagues placed great stock in the ability of work requirements to reduce poverty. But, as we’ve explained, an array of rigorous evaluations show that work requirements don’t do that. Instead, the research shows: → Read More
Work Requirements Don’t Cut Poverty, Evidence Shows
House Republicans will likely propose work requirements for safety net programs in their plan to address poverty, but the evidence indicates that such requirements do little to reduce poverty, and in some cases, push families deeper into it. “First we will expect work-capable adults to work or prepare for work in exchange for receiving government benefits,” House Ways and Means Committee… → Read More
President’s Budget Boosts Funding to Fight Deep Poverty
Recognizing the long-term consequences that children face when they live in deep poverty — as researchers Kathy Edin and Luke Shaefer detailed in their book, $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America — the President’s budget includes new initiatives to help deepl → Read More
Improving Opportunity: Building on Past Successes
Various participants in the January 9 GOP poverty forum stressed the importance of improving the job prospects of poor individuals by improving their education and skills. Rigorous evaluations over the last several decades have shown which types of programs improve disadvantaged workers’ employment and earnings trajectories. To make good on the promise of increasing opportunity for unemployed… → Read More
Let’s Improve TANF and Hold States Accountable for Results
Most of the Republican presidential candidates at Saturday’s GOP poverty forum called for changing anti-poverty programs to measure results rather than inputs. Policymakers would do well to adopt reforms along those lines in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. → Read More
LaDonna Pavetti: How to Improve TANF
The draft legislation improves the structure of TANF work activities but does not go far enough. → Read More