Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act

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The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) is a United States federal law that was considered to be a fundamental shift in both the method and goal of cash assistance to the poor. PRWORA instituted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) which became effective July 1, 1997, and replaced what was then commonly known as welfare, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) programs. Essentially a cash stipend to the indigent with young children, its impacts were threefold: 1) It shifted welfare from an entitlement to greater requirements for compliance by the client. 2) Placed a lifetime limit of no more than 60 months of benefits and 3) Was instituted as a block grant to states, allowing much greater freedom to the individual states to determine the rules of compliance. There is also a component that aims to encourage two-parent families and discourage out-of-wedlock births.

Although PRWORA has expired, Congress has continued to fund the program until a new bill is enacted.

To continue to receive benefits, TANF clients must work or look for work. Hence, individual state programs emphasize this shift with names for the program such as "Wisconsin Works" or "WorkFirst". Since the Act, enormous numbers of clients have left or been terminated from the program, with most states' caseloads dropping by 50% over the first few years. Since there is less training and education available than with the earlier JOBS program, these "last hired, first fired" clients have been returning to welfare and the caseloads have been increasing.

Although there is a limit of no more than 60 months of benefits some states enacted far briefer limits but all states have allowed exceptions, with the intent of not punishing children because their parents have gone over the time limit.

Federal reporting requirements have ensured some measure of uniformity across states, but the block grant approach has led individual states to carve up the pie of money in different ways, some states more actively encouraging a component of education or using the money to fund private enterprise to help job seekers.

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