According to the latest USDA Cost of Food report, the monthly cost to feed a child age 9-11 is about $230. Alabama’s TANF benefit is only $215 a month for a family of three, which is less than half the national median of $492.
benefit, the main cash assistance program for families with children who are in need or have extremely low incomes, can play an important role in ensuring that these families have enough money to meet their basic needs.
The low benefit in Alabama and across the country was created in part by the federal government, Gundlach said. In 1996, a revised proposal, championed by House Republicans and Republican governors,, replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children established in 1935. Unlike the cap that TANF imposed, states were previously entitled to unlimited federal cash at “matching” rates, related to state per capita income. And although states defined “need” and established their own benefit amounts, states were required to offer assistance to all individuals who qualified under federal law and whose income were within state-set limits.
“Most importantly, the federal government needs to do everything in its power to require states to direct as much cash as possible to families so they can meet their basic needs and chart their own future,” said Peggy Bailey, vice president for housing policy at CBPP.Gundlach said that when the federal government switched to block grants for TANF, it did two things: First, it set a cap, and the overall size of the block grant, or the amount of money states receive, have not increased since 1996.
But the state government is also to blame for the low TANF benefit. Alabama set its benefit amount at $164 for a family of three. Since then, it has only been raised once, in 2002, to $215, Gundlach said. The Legislature could have passed a bill to raise the benefits in the last 20 years, but to this point has chosen not to.
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