The Demise of the Welfare Queen

Ronald Reagan created a mythical character during his run for the Presidency in 1980. The welfare queen was a lazy, shiftless character who lived on public assistance and drove a cadillac. They laughed at you as you drove to work in the morning, content to live high on the hog on your tax dollars and a little too lazy to get a job. Even though this character never really existed she became a force in American politics, one that never failed to ratchet up the frustration with the working class. Many people still believe that one of the main problems we have in this country is that we have a whole class of people who no longer want to work, but are being provided for by the government. I believe this is a problem but it is on such a small scale at to be much smaller than some of our other problems (more on this in a minute).

As an example I looked up the current figures on TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). There is no such thing as Welfare in the US anymore. The welfare program was replaced by TANF in 1996. There were some very important changes to the system put in place at that time which I will discuss in more detail in a moment but for now I want to concentrate on numbers.

TANF is funded by a combination of State and Federal taxes. The Federal Portion of the funding for TANF totaled 17.1 billion dollars in 2013 according to US government numbers. While 17.1 billion dollars is not an insignificant number it is massively outweighed by several other programs in the budget. Let’s start with Corporate Welfare in the form of subsidies and tax breaks to the largest corporations in the US.
According to US government numbers in 2013 Fortune 500 companies alone received 63 billion in federal subsidies. If we look at the top 965 companies in the US this number swells to 110 billion. Boeing, a company with many well paid employees in our area, received almost 13 billion in that year. In other words, we handed 6.4 times more money to corporate interest in 2013 than we spent on the whole TANF program.

Let’s take a look at where the TANF money actually goes, how it is distributed. The actual cash distribution to needy families is 28% of the TANF budget. In other words, we actually handed out in EBT transfers 4.78 billion dollars to needy families. This means we handed Boeing 2.7 times the amount of money we gave to needy families all over the country in 2013. While no one thinks 4.7 billion dollars is insignificant, I have a hard time understanding why are were simply not outraged that we are handing 2.7 times that amount in one year to one of the largest, wealthiest corporations in the US. Public assistance is a problem and a drain on our budget. Understanding that it is 6.4 times less of a problem financially than the corporate welfare that lobbyist pull out of Congress every year tends to make me think we have other problems that need our attention worse.

Let’s look at who is eligible to received TANF money. This information is all on the TANF website for the state of Alabama. The second requirement specifies that no adult can receive Family Assistance benefits for more than 5 years in their lifetime. There are no exceptions to this rule. In other words, as soon as they have received 5 years of benefits they are through. They will receive no more benefits for the rest of their life on penalty of imprisonment. This is a cumulative total and does not reset if they go off of benefits. The old welfare queen stereotype Reagan rode into office simply doesn’t exist at all. No one simply chooses not to work and draw benefits for the rest of their life on the TANF system.

Children are eligible for benefits as long as they are under 18 and in school. If they drop out of school they are no longer eligible. All persons who receive TANF benefits must be US citizens. No one, adult or child is eligible for TANF benefits if they can’t prove US citizenship. It seems like the myth of illegals coming here to live on welfare doesn’t have any basis in reality either. No child who is receiving foster care is eligible. All Child support payments the child is receiving through the court system must be turned over to the state. No child may receive benefits if their parent or guardian is on a strike.

For a child to receive TANF benefits their parent or guardian must be employed or participating in the state JOBS program to receive training for employment. Such relatives must accept any job offered to them unless the County department tells him or her otherwise. All relatives must apply for any other benefits they are eligible for such as Veteran’s benefits, Social Security, Unemployment Compensation etc. These benefits will be counted as income along with any income from jobs of any family members living in the same household and TANF benefits reduced accordingly.

Any child or relative convicted of a felony is not eligible from that point forward. Any child or relative convicted of a controlled substance violation is no longer eligible for benefits from that point forward. There are restrictions on where benefits (EBT) cards can be used and what they cannot be used to purchase. The following are places where EBT cards cannot be used on punishment of fines and/or imprisonment. Liquor, wine, or beer stores, gambling establishments, strip clubs, tattoo or piercing store, or a place providing psychic services. Benefits cannot be used to buy liquor, wine, beer, tobacco products, or lottery tickets.

Let’s look at what money people on TANF can receive for assistance. The numbers are based on family size in Alabama. The following table specifies the amount for families of varying sizes.

1- $165
2- $190
3- $215
4- $245
5- $275
6- $305
7- $335
8- $365
9- $395
10- $425
11- $455
12- $485
13- $515
14- $545
15- $575
16- $605

Since most families receiving TANF benefits are also receiving some other forms of assistance this is not the amount they will receive. Any income from jobs (51% on TANF have jobs) or other assistance is first subtracted from this benefit. In other words, for a family of four this means $245 dollars a month is the maximum TANF benefit they can receive. I am sure you are aware that this hardly leads to a life of luxury. There aren’t a lot of people standing in line to try to buy groceries for four people a month on $245.

Perhaps the real problem is that we are in some way encouraging people not to work by making it possible for them to just go on public assistance. In other words, what can we do to reduce the number of people on assistance, to get more people off of assistance and into the work place? As it turns out we know the answer to that because we are already doing it. Since 1996 when the TANF program went into place to replace the welfare system we had at that time, the government and independent concerns have been tracking the numbers of people on public assistance to see if the TANF program is an improvement. When TANF went into operation there were a little over 14 million individuals on the existing welfare system. As of 2013 there are a little less than 4 million people on the TANF system. While this is far too many, it is a 350% reduction in people on public assistance. All of this has taken place while the number of people in the US has grown by 48 million people.

In other words, we are looking at a problem has been reduced 350% in the last 18 years. One would never know that to listen to conservative pundits but numbers don’t lie, it is a problem that is getting smaller instead of one that is getting larger. Just in case you are wondering the Alabama TANF program has shrank 38.5% since its implementation in 1996. We never had as big a problem here as in some of the larger urban areas but the truth is that it is shrinking everywhere across the nation and usually by much larger numbers than ours as is evidenced by the overall 350% reduction.

Let’s look a little deeper at statistics about who is collecting TANF benefits. The average TANF family has 2.4 persons, including an average of 1.8 children. In other words, 75% of the people receiving TANF benefits are actually children. Over half of the TANF families receiving benefits have no adults in the household receiving TANF benefits. 51% of the families receiving TANF benefits are single parent families where the head of the household also has a job.

Let’s look at the average adult on the TANF program and the length of time they have been on it. After all, the narrative says that there are whole generations of families out there living on public assistance because they are simply too lazy to get a job. 41% of adults on TANF have been on it less than a year. Another 23% have been on TANF for less than two years. Only 12% have accrued a lifetime total of over 4 years. This same data shows that only 2% of adult TANF beneficiaries actually ever reach the 60 month limit.

I think everyone agrees that public assistance is a necessary evil, one that has to be carefully implemented and controlled both for the benefit of the people receiving it and those paying for it through their hard earned tax dollars. The old “welfare queen” narrative of people living high on the hog because they are simply too lazy to work and getting fat and happy on the government dole just doesn’t exist anymore. We have made a lot of good progress since 1996 towards eradicating the problem and we are still making progress in the direction. Unfortunately, that is not the message getting out to the American public.

Perhaps here in the modern land of OZ we should pay more attention to what is actually going on behind the curtain. Maybe if we weren’t so distracted by the booming voice of a corporate conglomeration intent upon distracting us with infuriating scenarios of a society too lazy to work while they pick our pockets and raid our treasury to finance the candidates they choose, we might actually be able to take control of our government again.