Op-Ed

Will DC Learn Before It’s Too Late? Welfare Time Limits Hurt Children

It looks like DC may consider scrapping a welfare time limit that threatened to leave thousands of families with children with no cash resources to pay for rent, school uniforms, transportation, or other basic needs.

A Working Group convened by Mayor Bowser concluded that the District needs a stronger safety net for children. Twenty years of federal welfare reform – known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF – – has shown that that strict time limits often fall on families with serious challenges, that most do not find sustainable employment, and that children often fall into extreme poverty as a result.

 

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