For Nassau and Suffolk County Departments of Social Services
By Richard Koubek, Ph.D.
Catholic Charities
January, 2007
Federal “welfare reform,” adopted in 1996 as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation
Act, was supposed to be reauthorized in 2002. However, unresolved differences in Congress over funding for
child care and other aspects of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program – the core of
welfare reform - prevented agreement on reauthorization until 2005, when Congress adopted the Deficit
Reduction Act which included changes in TANF regulations.
The most far reaching change will require states to place in work activities 50 percent of adults receiving TANF
assistance, and 90 percent of two-parent households receiving TANF. Failure to meet these rates can result in
a state losing 5 percent of its federal funding which must be made up with state funds.
On October 1, 2006, the federal Department of Health and Human Services issued new TANF guidelines that,
according to the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP):
“provide narrow definitions of these activities;”
limit “the extent to which activities designed to address barriers to employment – such as substance abuse
treatment, mental health counseling, and physical therapy – can count toward the participation rates;”
“impose significant limitations on education and training …such as English as a Second Language (ESL)
…when not part of employment or vocational educational training, from counting toward the work participation
rate.” (Analysis of the New Interim Final TANF Rules, July 21, 2006, CLASP, 2006, p.3.)
In another analysis, CLASP noted that the 50 percent work participation rate requirements “are lower for states
that reduce their TANF caseloads below 2005 levels, but few states are likely to accomplish this unless they
choose to restrict poor families’ access to assistance, given that caseloads are already at historic lows.”
(Implementing the TANF Changes in the Deficit Reduction Act, May 9, 2006, CLASP, p. 1.)
Among the new regulations that could negatively impact Nassau and Suffolk County Departments of Social
Services are:
1. The participation rate is calculated by dividing the number of clients in an acceptable work activity into the total
number of people receiving assistance including those who are not eligible to work such as people with
permanent disabilities. Thus, departments are now under greater pressure to place eligible clients in
countable activities.
2. The new regulations do not permit job search, job readiness and vocational training to be counted as a part
of a client’s “work experience.” For example, if a client takes five hours during a week away from a work
experience to attend a job fair or is referred to an employer for an interview, these five hours are counted as an
excused absence, but cannot count as work experience. The five hours can be applied to “Job Search and Job
Readiness,” another core activity, but this additional clerical entry will further burden the case workers
responsible for monitoring and reporting clients’ countable activities.
3. The new regulations allow only six weeks a year for mental health, substance abuse and rehabilitative
treatments to be counted as “job search and job readiness assistance.” This six week limitation is unrealistic
for effective treatment. Additionally, the new regulations do not permit these activities to count as “work
experience” even though they ultimately improve a client’s employability.
4. Clients who are permanently disabled (9 percent in Suffolk County) and who are in the process of applying
for SSI (a process that averages 19.3 months) are considered work eligible under the new regulations. Since
these individuals cannot participate in a countable work activity, they should be excluded from calculating the
participation rate.
5. Clients who are determined eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability
(SSD) are eligible for TANF benefits. Under the new regulations, these disabled SSI/SSD TANF recipients who
cannot work are still calculated in the work participation rate. Such individuals should be excluded from the
TANF denominator when calculating the participation rate.
6. Individuals who care for an adult disabled household member can no longer use this activity to count as
“community service.” These individuals should be able to have their home-care activities count as work
participation. Other “community service” activities that may no longer be countable toward the participation rate
are: providing foster care; court-mandated activities; domestic violence services.
7. “On the Job Training” definitions, under the new regulations, do not include training in the public or private
sectors for unpaid interns and externs who are currently placed in these settings as part of their education and
training assignment. Thus, a two week internship with an employer required for the Certified Nursing Program,
will no longer be considered a “countable work activity.”
8. The new regulations allow only 10 excused absences in a 12 month period. TANF clients should be afforded
13 sick days per year as well as additional days for religious observance. Good cause absences should also
be allowed, in hourly increments, for emergencies such as a parent having to leave an assignment to pick up a
sick child.
Sources: Letter by Suffolk County DSS Commissioner Janet DeMarzo to HHS Assistant Secretary Wade Horn,
August 24, 2006; Preliminary Analysis of Interim Final TANF Regulations, NYS Office of Temporary and
Disability Assistance, July 12, 2006; Elizabeth Lower Basch, Evelyn Ganzglass, Elisa Minoff, Sharon Parrott, Liz
Schott, Analysis of New Interim Final TANF Rules, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), July 21, 2006.
Wendy Bach, Summary of Key TANF Changes … and the Potential Impact on New York State, CUNY School of
Law, 2006.
