Fewer WV Low-Income Families Receive Cash Assistance

From Public News Service

Diane Bernard, Public News Service - WV

December 8, 2020

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Too few families struggling to make ends meet are able to access cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program than earlier federal assistance plans, according to a new study spanning 20 years.

Efe Floyd, senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is co-author of the report. She said the program in West Virginia has seen a dramatic drop in folks who qualify for benefits.

In 1996, 27 out of 100 families in poverty received TANF assistance, she said. But by 2019, that number dropped to 18 out of 100 - even during the pandemic.

"We only have data going up 'till June of 2020," Floyd said. "But what I've seen so far in West Virginia is that the caseload hasn't really risen that much to meet the incredible need that has come about because of the pandemic and the resulting recession."

She said low-income families in the Mountain State are especially struggling to meet their basic needs because only about 6,700 families are receiving TANF benefits out of the more than 37,500 families who live in poverty. Also, the benefit is low compared with the rest of the nation - $340 a month for a family of three.

Floyd noted the reasons for reduced access over the years include strict work requirements and very low income levels to apply.

"And the benefits are so low that when a person starts working, they could easily become ineligible from their earnings - even though they may not be out of poverty from their earnings," she said. "That limits a lot of the access to the program."

She also said racial stereotypes have long undermined federal support.

"There were these stereotypes - that's this idea of the 'welfare queen' - that Black women are somehow very lazy and are just taking advantage of government assistance in order to not work," she said. "But Black women have always had higher work rates than white women."

The report recommends policymakers loosen some of TANF's harsher restrictions - not cutting a family off, for instance, if one qualification isn't met.

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