Tennessee State Data

Welfare Reform in Tennessee

Fisseha Tegegne, Surendra P. Singh, Safdar Muhammad, Enefiok Ekanem, Anony akuley-Amenyenu and Sam Comer

Tennessee State University
Cooperative Agricultural Research Program
Nashville, Tennessee

Introduction

• Tennessee's welfare program, known as Families First (FF), replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (ADFC). It was granted waiver in July 1996 and implemented in September of the same year.

• The program combines work, education and training to reduce dependence on welfare by requiring participants to follow a customized personal responsibility plan.

• The state provides health care, child care, housing and transportation assistance to recipients while they are on the program and for a limited period after they leave FF.

• There are three categories of participants in the Families First Program
  • Those with education above grade 9
  • Those with education below grade 9
  • Exempt cases include
    • Disability
    • Caring for a disabled relative at home
    • 60 years of age or older
    • Child only cases
    • Those who did not get child care or transportation assistance from the state

• Each county has a Families First council comprising of government, community and business representatives creating partnerships needed to put welfare recipients to work.

• FF has some provisions that differ from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

A Comparison of Some Families First and TANF Provisions

Families First

TANF

Allows for post-secondary education to count as work activity Requires all non-exempt parents/caretakers to participate in full or part-time work, training or other work preparation activities immediately. Has 18-month time limit for any one period or assistance with a lifetime limit of 60-months. Parents with below 9th grade literacy levels are exempt from the time limits until they reach the 9th grade level, as long as they are participating in an Adult Basic Education/GED Program. Provides up to 18-months of transitional TennCare/Medicaid to families no longer eligible for the Families First cash grant. Provides up to 18-months of subsidized (on a sliding scale basis) transitional child care to families no longer eligible for the Families First cash grant.

Does not Requires participants to work only after the individual has received assistance for 24-months or when the state determines that the individual is ready. Has a lifetime limit of 60-months Does not make such provision. The transitional benefit period under TANF is only 12-months. Allows transitional child care.

Source: Tennessee Department of Human Services

Objective

• To analyze factors affecting welfare caseload changes at the county level.

Data Sources

• Regional Economic data base
• State County level data on
  • employment, unemployment, labor force and welfare caseloads
• Economic Research Service - Metro, non-metro classification of counties

Percent Change in Recipient Caseloads

	Jan 96-Dec 96		Jan 97-Dec 97		Jan 98-Dec 98		Jan 99-Nov 99		Jan 96-Nov 99
	Metro	Non-metro	Metro	Non-metro	Metro	Non-metro	Metro	Non-metro	Metro	Non-metro
Mean	-21.02	-22.08	-28.93	-29.35	-2.21	-4.80	-3.45	-3.21	-49.05	-52.28
Maximum	-9.13	-6.76	-16.38	.00	+11.37	+34.62	+27.81	+35.85	-26.01	-23.46
Minimum	-40.93	-38.85	-45.31	-48.89	-19.37	-44.44	-19.44	-24.42	-68.86	-69.54
Standard Deviation	7.24	7.44	7.30	9.62	8.20	13.10	9.81	11.41	11.94	10.18

Unemployment rate for Metro and Non-metro Counties in Tennessee (1997 and 1998)

Regression Results

• Regression analysis
  • Dependent Variable-Caseload Decline
  • Independent Variables and sign of coefficients
    • Recipients Characteristics*
      • Education level (-)
      • Size of household (+)
    • County Economic Characteristics
      • Unemployment rate (-)
      • Growth of Retail jobs (+)
      • Growth of wage and salary jobs (-)
      • Non-adjacent rural counties (+)

Summary and Implications

• Despite differences on some provisions, FF program is identical to TANF.
• Dramatic caseload decline has been registered, especially during the first year (1996-97).
• Decline in caseload is associated both with characteristics of recipients and local economic conditions.
• While a large segment of those who leave the program find jobs, they are mainly low paying and temporary.
• There is need to invest in human capital to address the issue of low earnings associated with low skill.
• Promote economic opportunities in areas characterized by high unemployment.