Resumen
This instrumental case study examines how policy devolution shapes the social and economic rights of families through Connecticut’s implementation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Using interviews with administrators, advocates, and legislators as well as publicly available documents, including public hearing transcripts, the study frames TANF in Connecticut through the human rights principles of human dignity, equity and nondiscrimination, participation, transparency and accountability, and adequacy. Findings highlight that administrative decisions often prioritize state budgetary needs over the program’s intended purpose of supporting families in poverty. The study demonstrates the need for increased federal oversight to ensure equity in social welfare provision and emphasizes the need for transparent, participatory policymaking processes that respect the dignity and rights of families.
| Idioma original | English |
|---|---|
| Número de artículo | 10443894251331246 |
| Publicación | Families in Society |
| DOI | |
| Estado | Accepted/In press - 2025 |
Nota bibliográfica
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Financiación
The obligation by the federal government to ensure an adequate standard of living to everyone is not being met through TANF. Under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which established TANF, the goals of the program are centered on the provision of assistance to families with children, promoting work and marriage, and the reduction of “out-of-wedlock pregnancies” (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of , Sec. 401). PRWORA transformed the federal entitlement to cash assistance that existed under TANF’s predecessor, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), into a time-limited benefit funded by a fixed block grant issued to states. The funding granted to each state is determined by the state’s spending levels on AFDC prior to 1996, and this calculation remains unchanged today (). States may impose benefit reductions, known as sanctions, and time limits to mandate compliance with their own TANF program rules (). States must also submit plans periodically to the federal government to outline how their TANF program works toward the stated goals of the policy. The federal government does not mandate that states provide a minimum set of benefits or that they serve all who fall below a certain income level (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of ). The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut and the Social and Economic Rights Associates (SERA).
| Financiadores |
|---|
| TANF’s predecessor |
| Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute |
| Connecticut 06520 Yale University New Haven Connecticut 06520 |
| Social and Economic Rights Associates |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
Huella
Profundice en los temas de investigación de 'Serving State Budgets Instead of Families: A Case Study of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Spending and Human Rights in Connecticut'. En conjunto forman una huella única.Citar esto
- APA
- Author
- BIBTEX
- Harvard
- Standard
- RIS
- Vancouver