AFDC was the nation’s most visible cash assistance program for 60 years. The program was created to aid children whose parents could not support them. About two-thirds of AFDC recipients were children. In order to receive assistance, a family had to include a dependent child who was under the age of 18, had to be a citizen or legal resident of the United States, and show proof that they were deprived of parental support because there was no father in their life financially supporting them. In 1992, 48 percent of households receiving aid from AFDC were headed by an unmarried adult. Because that it such a high percentage, some states changed the income levels at which people could qualify to receive aid, and some of those states lowered the eligibility threshold a lot lower than the poverty threshold. This made it difficult for families who were in dire need for aid to not qualify at all. AFDC provided monthly cash grants to those who met the criteria. Families with a large household received a larger grant than those whose earnings exceeded the standards and those whose family size was smaller. Many people saw the program as a bad thing because they believed that it discouraged women from working or finding a better job. The program also made the unemployment and poverty rate rise drastically …show more content…
Many states required you to sign an oath pressuring you to find a job within 30 days of joining the program. If no one followed their rules, they would be sanctioned (or punished) for 1-3 months. Within those 1-3 months of being sanctioned they would not be able to receive any assistance from TANF at all. You could only be sanctioned for a total of 3 times and after those 3 times, you would be completely cut off from the program receiving no more aid from them at all. You could be sanctioned for some really dumb things like, not showing up for an appointment, not reporting a schedule change in your job, not placing your child in daycare, and quitting/getting fired from your job. There is also a 5-year limit throughout your entire life. So once someone has been on TANF for 5 years, they were no longer able to receive any aid from them again unless they filed some type of extension. This limit also remains active while recipients are