| Jobs for the Future is a national non-profit research, policy, and
consulting organization that seeks to improve education and economic
opportunities to help those struggling in our economy. We have developed
the TANF reauthorization policy recommendations below based on our work
with a wide range of employer organizations, employers, and providers of
workforce development services for those with few skills and little work
experience. Our recommendations focus primarily on employment retention
and advancement of current and former welfare recipients. With the slowing
of the economy and a slight increase in welfare caseloads across the
country, this next era of welfare reform must focus on helping those
transitioning off of welfare gain stable, family supporting employment.
For that reason, we respectfully submit the following recommendations for
consideration: 1) The statement of purpose and goals of TANF should
explicitly include increasing the extent of self-sufficiency of TANF
recipients. In support of this goal, state performance measures should
include sustained employment, earnings growth, and sub-state based
family-supporting income standards (that incorporate income from
employment and public sources such as EITC, childcare subsidies, health
insurance subsidies, and food stamps). 2) TANF policies should encourage
states to count participation in education and training programs that are
designed to meet occupational skill requirements toward fulfillment of the
work requirement. In particular, during economic downturns, work
requirements should be designed so that “downtime” is training time for
employees who are working part-time and for those who are jobless. 3) The
needs of those who are working and those who are going to work, as well as
the needs of employers, should drive education and training opportunities
funded by TANF. Policies should be designed to target employment in jobs
that lead to self-sufficiency where there is high demand, and education
and training should be connected to these employment opportunities. 4) The
TANF time limit clock should stop for individuals who receive cash
assistance while they are employed more than half-time or are
participating in education and training activities that improve employment
prospects. 5) Policies should encourage states to expand eligibility for
TANF-funded education and training opportunities as well as access to
other non-cash assistance that supports employment, education, and
training, to include all working poor. A priority should be placed on
upgrade training for low-wage, entry-level workers who are not making
progress toward achieving family-supporting income standards. 6) States
should be encouraged to fully utilize TANF resources in combination with
other available funding sources. Policy should mandate participation by
TANF and workforce development agencies in state and local planning
processes in order to promote collaboration, and should align outcome
criteria across agencies, with consistent ways of measuring outcomes, and
explicit provisions for collaborating agencies to share credit for
successful outcomes. The objective of these policies should be creation of
an employment and training system that is responsive to the needs of
employers and meets the needs of all job seekers. Rather than a patchwork
of programs that affect different workers in the same workplace
differently, policies should promote a more flexible, coherent service
delivery system. 7) Legislation should include a grants program to spur
states to experiment with different approaches to retention and
advancement, and the program should provide resources for capacity
building. 8) TANF policies should target resources to strengthen workforce
services valued by employers that have jobs that lead to self-sufficiency.
These policies should make systems and programs more responsive to
employers. The design of these policies should encourage use of resources
to reduce employers’ costs and risks and leverage employer investments in
retention and advancement activities. 9) Incentives should be provided for
use of TANF resources for intermediary organizations that are able to meet
the needs of employers as well as TANF recipients, and especially those
that connect small employers to workforce development service providers
that work with TANF recipients. 10) States should be given incentives to
experiment with publicly funded job creation programs. 11) TANF should be
reauthorized at current funding levels. Sufficient additional funding
should be provided to make income supports such as childcare subsidies,
health care subsidies, and food stamps available to all those who are
eligible. Thank you for your consideration. |
