Comparing the New (TANF) with the Old (AFDC) - Teen Mothers And Welfare

TANF contains provisions to encourage two-parent families and reduce out-of-wedlock births. Several provisions deal specifically with the reduction of births among teen mothers. According to Rebecca A. Maynard, in Kids Having Kids: A Robin Hood Foundation Special Report on the Costs of Adolescent Childbearing (New York, NY: Robin Hood Foundation, 1996), 70 percent of teen mothers received welfare and approximately 40 percent stayed on AFDC for five years or more. Teen mothers tend to have less education and fewer job skills. The Family Planning Councils of America (FPCA) estimates that approximately 80 percent of children whose unmarried mother did not graduate from high school live in poverty.

The birth rate for unmarried teens is high, although it declined in the 1990s. (See Figure 7.1.) Between 1991 and 2002 the birth rate for fifteen to seventeen year olds fell by about a third (from over thirty births per 1,000 unmarried women to just over twenty).

TABLE 7.12
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—Percent distribution of TANF families receiving assistance, October 2000–September 2001

		Type of assistance
			Food stamps		Subsidized housing		Subsidized child care
State	Total families	Medical assistance	Percent	Monthly average	Public housing	Rent subsidy	Federal	State/local
U.S. Total	2,120,474	98.9	80.9	$227.70	7.2	12.8	6.9	1.9
Alabama	18,368	95.0	74.5	257.89	13.6	5.4	0.3	0.0
Alaska	5,818	98.0	72.7	275.33	3.0	13.3	15.5	0.0
Arizona	33,478	94.2	75.6	250.43	4.7	0.0	10.3	0.0
Arkansas	11,625	98.8	78.4	279.08	4.7	7.4	1.4	0.9
California	473,616	100.0	85.3	199.55	3.1	13.2	3.5	0.2
Colorado	10,640	93.3	68.9	242.89	20.0	8.9	15.5	0.0
Connecticut	25,650	100.0	75.9	201.03	1.1	32.9	0.0	8.3
Delaware	5,448	100.0	66.1	210.39	14.4	0.0	19.2	9.3
Dist. of Col.	16,337	99.2	79.0	254.81	24.6	8.4	6.5	1.6
Florida	58,850	100.0	64.1	219.91	7.9	10.4	8.2	0.0
Gerogia	50,636	96.5	71.8	229.23	11.7	6.0	—	—
Guam1	2,806	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Hawaii	12,852	100.0	85.3	372.55	3.8	13.9	13.9	0.5
Idaho	1,291	96.1	43.3	197.01	0.0	2.2	10.1	0.0
Illinois	62,031	99.7	77.8	277.25	—	—	0.0	18.7
Indiana	41,186	99.5	89.2	250.17	10.4	13.0	15.2	0.0
Iowa	20,152	66.9	71.7	209.90	—	—	10.5	0.0
Kansas	13,024	100.0	78.7	242.42	5.6	12.2	9.6	0.0
Kentucky	36,127	99.4	76.1	199.27	2.1	10.6	4.3	0.0
Louisania	25,176	100.0	86.8	254.68	8.1	5.8	9.4	0.0
Maine	9,663	100.0	89.2	210.49	3.0	6.6	10.2	0.0
Maryland	27,957	100.0	70.1	237.86	9.5	15.8	0.3	0.0
Massachusetts	42,368	100.0	77.9	163.74	13.5	33.0	4.6	3.8
Michigan	71,746	97.1	79.5	221.36	0.0	9.6	14.7	0.0
Minnesota	38,558	99.2	99.4	264.20	0.0	26.1	9.4	0.0
Mississippi	15,658	100.0	82.1	195.02	4.5	6.7	0.6	0.0
Missouri	45,557	100.0	71.2	248.82	7.8	14.5	14.9	0.0
Montana	5,002	100.0	85.0	240.30	3.3	31.4	10.7	0.0
Nebraska	9,487	100.0	73.6	243.15	2.6	0.0	17.8	0.0
Nevada	7,439	99.9	50.8	275.27	0.1	23.6	7.5	0.1
New Hampshire	5,659	100.0	70.5	220.74	3.9	0.0	13.1	0.0
New Jersey	45,320	97.3	76.2	239.02	6.8	13.7	12.4	0.0
New Mexico	19,323	100.0	93.0	245.27	24.3	0.0	9.6	0.0
New York	226,390	100.0	87.6	229.52	12.9	14.0	2.8	0.0
North Carolina	42,555	100.0	2	2	13.5	9.0	6.8	2.5
North Dekota	2,991	99.6	82.6	241.54	7.7	41.9	24.5	0.0
Ohio	85,005	99.8	70.5	202.25	3.7	9.3	8.1	0.0
Oklahoma	14,473	100.0	66.3	271.19	0.0	24.7	26.4	0.0
Oregon	15,868	99.6	69.9	233.73	9.1	14.8	11.8	0.0
Pennsylvania	81,600	100.0	79.5	260.66	9.9	11.8	8.6	0.0
Puerto Rico	26,213	93.4	97.4	259.81	23.1	13.1	0.5	15.5
Rhode Island	15,227	100.0	92.5	106.32	12.0	18.1	2.1	11.8
South Carolina	16,939	100.0	80.5	240.64	12.4	12.3	10.7	0.0
South Dakota	2,714	100.0	68.6	222.04	35.8	0.0	7.3	0.0
Tennessee	59,541	100.0	84.0	250.32	1.0	1.7	0.0	22.7
Texas	131,997	100.0	87.0	258.74	11.8	13.8	10.7	0.4
Utah	7,488	100.0	76.7	251.49	—	—	15.7	0.0
Vermont	5,523	100.0	87.8	220.83	0.4	28.5	19.0	0.2
Virgin Islands	738	98.8	89.6	465.27	0.0	0.0	3.8	0.0
Virgina	29,271	100.0	66.0	239.81	—	—	6.6	0.0
Washington	54,161	99.7	81.0	225.08	0.0	20.5	21.0	0.0
West Virgina	14,732	99.1	86.2	226.90	9.8	12.5	3.7	0.4
Wisconsin	17,680	71.4	53.3	189.95	1.3	3.9	12.1	0.0
Wyoming	520	98.1	64.7	233.68	0.0	9.0	0.0	0.0
1Data not reported.
2Data reported but not reliable.
—Data not available.
SOURCE: "Table 10:13. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families—Active Cases: Percent Distribution of TANF Families Receiving Assistance, October 2000–September 2001," in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF) Fifth Annual Report to Congress, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, February 2003 [Online] http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/ofa/annualreport5/ [accessed January 11, 2004]

Births to teenagers represent a concern to society because teen mothers tend to have less education and less ability to support and care for their children. In addition, according to Maynard, in Kids Having Kids, babies born to teen mothers are:

• More likely to be born prematurely and to be of low birth weight.
• At risk for health problems, lower cognitive skills, and behavioral problems.
• Less likely to grow up in homes with their fathers, possibly causing emotional as well as financial problems.
• At greater risk to be abused.

According to "Kids Having Kids," a report published in 1996 by the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City, teen parents under age seventeen cost the United States close to $7 billion per year in direct costs such as public assistance, health care, and foster care, and indirect costs such as loss of tax revenues. These negative consequences motivated Congress to include provisions in the welfare-reform legislation to encourage the reduction of the incidence of births to unmarried women, with emphasis on teenagers.

To receive TANF benefits, states were required to submit plans detailing their efforts to reduce out-of-wedlock births, especially among teenagers. In order to be eligible for TANF benefits, unmarried minor parents are required to remain in high school or its equivalent as well as to live in an adult-supervised setting. One provision in the law allows for the creation of second-chance homes for teen parents and their children, a type of home that already existed in some states. These homes require that all residents either enroll in school or participate in a job-training program. They also provide parenting and life skills classes as well as counseling and support services.

A performance bonus that is separate from the TANF block grant rewards states for reductions in births outside of marriage combined with a decline in the abortion rate. Grant money is also available for states to implement abstinence-only education programs. In addition, the welfare-reform law directs the Department of Health and Human Services to provide a strategy to prevent unmarried teen pregnancies and to ensure that 25 percent of the communities FIGURE 7.1
Birth rates for unmarried women, by age of mother, 1980–2002 in the United States implement a teen pregnancy prevention program. These measures supplement already-existing federal and state efforts. Five states were awarded bonuses of $100 million in 1999 and 2000, and three states were awarded a total of $75 million in 2001 for successfully reducing the percentage of out-of-wedlock births.