Browse By Policies & Programs

• Cash Assistance

  Cash Assistance is provided to families through TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and administered through Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare.  TANF provides money for dependent children and their parents or other relatives with whom they live, and for pregnant women. To be eligible for TANF, families must have very low income and meet other requirements. County Assistance Office staff can provide more information. Individuals can only receive Cash Assistance for 60 months (five years) over the course of their lifetime, although some exceptions apply.

   

  Employment Opportunities

  Anyone who receives Cash Assistance and is able to work must participate in employment or training programs for a certain number of hours each week.  After meeting with a caseworker at the local County Assistance Office, the participant completes an initial job search at a neighborhood EARN Center. Here participants decide which programs will best help them find a job, given their work history, skills, level of education, availability of transportation, and child care arrangements. 

   

  Transportation

  TANF recipients who are enrolled in a school, job training program, or EARN Center are eligible to receive a car fare stipend—enough for a weekly or monthly transportation pass to get them to and from work. Those who do not attend a program sponsored by the County Assistance Office for various reasons—they must stay home to take care of very young children or children with medical conditions, for example—often struggle to pull together the bus fare to get to an appointment or job interview.

   

  Wages

  Once recipients get a job, they still have to figure out if their wages will be enough to support their family with the added expenses of child care and transportation.  TANF recipients who secure employment receive reduced Cash Assistance, either in a reduced TANF grant or in the form of Transitional Cash Assistance.  Participants and their children leaving TANF retain Medicaid eligibility for up to 1 year.

   

  Welfare Sanctions

  Receiving Cash Assistance has certain requirements and not meeting those requirements (such as failing to complete the required number of employment/training hours each week without "good cause") can result in sanctions. Sanctions usually mean a decrease in the amount of cash assistance that a family receives. Welfare sanctions have been shown to decrease food security and increase hospitalizations of young children ("Welfare Reform and the Health of Young Children"). Additionally, C-SNAP research has found that welfare sanctions negatively affect the health and well-being of young children ("The Impact of Welfare Sanctions on the Health of Infants and Toddlers").

   

   

  Child Care Assistance, Computer Access, Employment Opportunities, Transportation, Wages, Welfare Sanctions, Welfare to Work