TANF cash assistance for families, and the name it goes by in every state
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is the federal name for the cash assistance program most people mean when they say welfare. Few states use that name themselves, which is why families searching for it often cannot find it.
This page covers what the program is, who it is for, and how the main rules work in plain terms. It ends with a directory giving the program name each state uses and a link to that state's page where this site has one.
The program requires a child in the household, or in some states a pregnancy. Adults without children have a separate and much thinner set of options, which are covered on the page about cash assistance for single adults.
Why the program looks different in every state
Congress does not pay these benefits directly. It sends each state a block grant, a fixed pot of money, and lets the state design its own program with it as long as the program serves the purposes written into federal law, such as caring for children in their own homes and moving parents into work.
States took that freedom and used it. They named their programs, set their own payment amounts, wrote their own income limits, and decided how strict to make the work rules and how long benefits last.
The result is that general descriptions of the program, including this one, can only describe the shape of it. The details that decide whether a specific family qualifies, and for how much, exist only in that family's state.
Who can qualify
The household must include a child, usually under eighteen, with the age extended in most states if the child is still in high school. The child must live with a parent or with a relative who is responsible for them.
That second route matters more than people realize. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and adult siblings raising a child can apply on the child's behalf, and several states have separate kinship programs for them with their own rules and names.
Some states accept an application during pregnancy, often only in the final months, while others require the child to be born first. Two-parent households are eligible in most states but may face higher work-hour requirements or be placed in a separate program.
Every state applies an income limit and most apply a limit on savings and other assets. Both limits are set at the state level and are low enough that many working families assume, wrongly, that they are over them. Applying is the only way to find out.
How the cash arrives and what it can pay for
Approved families receive a monthly payment, usually on an electronic benefits card that works like a debit card, or by direct deposit in some states. Unlike food benefits, the cash is not restricted to particular purchases.
Families use it for rent, utility bills, clothing, transportation, school costs, and the ordinary expenses of raising children. A few states send part of the payment directly to a landlord or utility company on the family's behalf rather than to the family.
Some states restrict where the card can be used, typically barring cash withdrawals at casinos, liquor stores, and similar businesses, with penalties for violations. The card itself, and the transaction history it creates, are the state's, so it pays to know those rules.
The amount depends on household size, income, and a base figure the state sets in its budget. How those pieces combine is explained on the page about the factors that set the size of a cash assistance payment, which also covers where to find the current figure for a given state.
Help the program pays for besides monthly cash
The monthly check is the best-known part of the program, but in most states it is a minority of what the block grant funds. A family can sometimes receive the other kinds of help without receiving cash at all.
Child care assistance while a parent works or trains is the largest example. Others include bus passes or gas money, car repairs, work clothing and tools, exam and licensing fees, and short-term help with a specific bill. Availability depends on the state and sometimes on the county.
Many states also offer a diversion payment. This is a single lump sum for a family with a temporary problem, such as a car repair that stands between a parent and a job, paid on the condition that the family does not open a monthly case for a set period afterward. For a short-term shortfall it can be faster than ongoing assistance and does not always count against time limits, so it is a thing to ask about by name.
Employment services run alongside all of this. Each state links its cash program to job search help, training, and placement, often through the same offices described in the guide to free job training programs and placement services.
Work requirements
Adults receiving cash are generally required to spend a set number of hours each week in approved activities. Paid work counts, and so do supervised job search, on-the-job training, vocational education, community service, and in many states finishing a high school diploma or equivalent.
The required hours vary by state and are usually higher for two-parent households and lower for a parent with a young child. The agency is expected to help remove obstacles to meeting them, which is where child care and transportation help usually comes from.
Exemptions exist but tend to be narrow, covering things like caring for an infant, a documented disability, or caring for a household member who cannot be left alone. A parent who cannot meet the hours should say so to the caseworker before the deadline passes rather than after, because good-cause rules are far easier to apply in advance.
Missing the requirement leads to a sanction. In some states that means a reduced payment, and in others the entire household loses benefits for a period, so the consequences are heavier than many families expect.
Time limits
Under federal law, an adult can receive federally funded cash assistance for a lifetime total of five years. The months count across every state where the person has received it, so moving does not restart the count.
Many states set a shorter limit than the federal one, and a few set limits of two or three years. The state's own limit is the one that matters day to day.
States can extend benefits past their limit for a share of families facing hardship, and can keep paying with state money. Cases that cover only the children, with no adult included in the payment, often do not use up the adult's months at all.
Because the limit is for a lifetime, some families deliberately keep months in reserve for a worse time later. A caseworker can say how many months have already been used.
Child support cooperation
Applying for cash normally requires cooperating with the state's child support agency. That means naming the other parent, helping to locate them, and helping the state establish and enforce a support order.
Every state has a good-cause exception, most often used when pursuing support would expose the applicant or a child to violence. Raising this during the application interview is the right time; it is harder to fix a case that has already been sanctioned for non-cooperation.
Support payments the state collects while a case is open may be kept by the state to offset what it has paid the family, with only a portion passed through, and in some states none at all. Families who expect child support and cash to arrive side by side should ask how their state handles this before assuming both will.
Applying, and what to have ready
Most states take applications online, and all take them by phone, by mail, or at a county office. The cash application usually doubles as the application for food benefits and Medicaid, which is a reason to complete every section even when cash is the only immediate need.
Documents to expect to provide include photo identification, Social Security numbers or proof of having applied for them, proof of address, birth certificates or other proof of each child's relationship to the applicant, and proof of all income, savings, and vehicles. Having these on hand shortens processing considerably.
An interview follows, usually by phone. From application to first payment commonly takes several weeks, which is why applying at the first sign of trouble beats waiting until a bill is already past due.
Cash assistance moves too slowly to stop a shutoff or eviction scheduled for this week or even next month or so. Households in that position should pursue the options on the page about what may actually put cash in hand today or tomorrow at the same time as the application.
When an application is denied
A denial has to come in writing with a reason, and every state provides a right to appeal within a deadline that is usually a matter of weeks. A large share of denials come from a missing document, a missed interview, or an income figure counted wrong rather than from a real finding that the family does not qualify.
Those are the easiest denials to reverse, sometimes without a formal hearing. Legal aid offices handle benefit appeals at no cost, and the process is laid out on the page about what to do when public or government assistance has been denied.
Tribal TANF programs
Many federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native organizations run their own cash assistance programs in place of the state's. These programs are approved directly by the federal government and funded from a share of the state's block grant.
A tribal program sets its own eligibility rules, benefit amounts, time limits, and definitions of work activity, and some count traditional and cultural activities the state program would not. Service areas frequently reach beyond a reservation into surrounding counties, so a family does not need to live on tribal land to be served by one.
A household is served either by the tribal program or by the state, not both, so an eligible family should ask which one covers them. The federal Office of Family Assistance lists tribal program contacts under each state in its help for families directory at https://acf.gov/ofa/map/about/help-families.
The program in each state
The directory below gives the name each state uses and links to this site's page for that state where one exists. Names were confirmed against the federal Office of Family Assistance directory and, where a state uses its own name, against the state agency.
Applications go to the state or county agency, never through this site. Each state page linked below carries that state's current application phone number, and for the states without a page here, along with the territories and tribal programs, the federal directory linked in the tribal section above lists every agency's phone number. >USA.gov at https://www.usa.gov/welfare-benefits also points readers to their state's program.
Alabama - Family Assistance Program
Alaska - Alaska Temporary Assistance Program (ATAP)
Arizona - Cash assistance
Arkansas - Transitional Employment Assistance
California - CalWORKs
Colorado - Colorado Works
Connecticut - Temporary Family Assistance (TFA)
Delaware - TANF
District of Columbia - TANF
Florida - Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA)
Georgia - TANF
Hawaii - TANF
Idaho - Temporary Assistance for Families in Idaho (TAFI)
Illinois - TANF
Indiana - TANF, cash assistance
Iowa - Family Investment Program (FIP)
Kansas - Successful Families Program
Kentucky - Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program (K-TAP)
Louisiana - Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program (FITAP)
Maine - TANF
Maryland - Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA)
Massachusetts - Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC)
Michigan - Family Independence Program (FIP), with the PATH work program
Minnesota - Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP)
Mississippi - TANF
Missouri - Temporary Assistance (TA)
Montana - TANF
Nebraska - Aid to Dependent Children (ADC)
Nevada - TANF
New Hampshire - Financial Assistance to Needy Families (FANF)
New Jersey - Work First New Jersey (WFNJ)
New Mexico - NMWorks (New Mexico Works)
New York - Temporary Assistance, called Cash Assistance in New York City
North Carolina - Work First
North Dakota - TANF
Ohio - Ohio Works First (OWF)
Oklahoma - TANF
Oregon - TANF
Pennsylvania - TANF
Rhode Island - Rhode Island Works (RIW)
South Carolina - Family Independence (FI)
South Dakota - TANF
Tennessee - Families First
Texas - TANF
Utah - Family Employment Program (FEP)
Vermont - Reach Up
Virginia - TANF
Washington - TANF, with the WorkFirst program
West Virginia - WV WORKS
Wisconsin - Wisconsin Works (W-2)
Wyoming - Personal Opportunities With Employment Responsibility (POWER)
Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands operate their own programs through their territorial human services agencies, with contacts in the federal directory linked above.
Other benefits that usually come with it
A family that qualifies for cash almost always qualifies for more, and the same office typically handles all of it. Medicaid and child care assistance are the most common companions, and the cash application often serves as the application for them.
Food benefits are the other one, and they arrive faster than cash in most states. The application process, with each state's program name and phone number, is covered on the page about how to apply for food stamps in your state.
Every rule described here is set by the individual state and can change with state legislation and budgets. Confirm current eligibility rules, payment amounts, and time limits with the agency in your state before acting on anything on this page. This content is informational only and is not legal or financial advice.
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