Last week, Legal Momentum and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence published a study on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and how it assists, or specifically frequently fails to assist, victims of domestic violence who are living in poverty in the U.S. The full study, entitled Not Enough: What TANF Offers Family Violence Victims, is available here (pdf). From the press release:
Bureaucratic black holes, indifferent or hostile staff members, inadequate benefits, and shortsighted procedures and policies are preventing many family violence victims from getting the resources they need to escape abuse. According to an unprecedented new national survey of service providers, problems like these plague the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, effectively stopping victims of abuse from accessing help when they need it most.
The report, Not Enough: What TANF Offers Family Violence Victims, was produced by Legal Momentum and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV). The survey on which it is based is a unique, comprehensive effort to understand when TANF successfully assists victims of family violence, and when the program falls short, leaving victims to fend for themselves. Some 600 staff members from domestic violence programs, legal aid and anti-poverty agencies who work with victims on TANF-related issues completed the survey.
Victims feel lost, confused, and frustrated with the system and it gets to a point where going back to the abuser is easier than dealing with the current system.
Conducted in late 2009, the survey finds that when TANF works well, it makes a significant difference in the lives of victims. But many victims of family violence encounter serious difficulties that undermine their efforts to access resources and forge a path to safety for themselves and their children.
In the survey, a mere 14 percent of respondents said that the TANF family violence responses work well in their states, and 43 percent said fewer than half of family violence victims were able to access TANF benefits. One in four respondents said “no” when asked if family violence information disclosed by victims was handled in an appropriate way.
(All emphasis here and elsewhere in the post is mine.)
From the introduction to the study, here’s some background information about TANF and how it’s supposed to assist domestic violence victims:
In 1996, the federal government enacted sweeping welfare reform legislation, replacing AFDC with TANF as the national welfare program for families with children. Under TANF, the federal government provides funding to the states and each state then develops and administers its own TANF program. Although states must comply with some federal TANF requirements such as time limits on benefits, work requirements, and the pursuit of child support, each state determines the rules and scope of its program. For example, each state defines which families are eligible and determines the amount of aid provided to eligible families. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) supervises state compliance with federal requirements. TANF’s current federal authorization expires on September 30, 2010.
The 1996 law establishing TANF placed a number of requirements and responsibilities on recipients of government benefits. At the same time, the new law included a provision called the Family Violence Option (FVO) that acknowledged the unique challenges facing victims of family violence who live in poverty. States may voluntarily adopt the FVO as part of their TANF plan. By adopting the FVO, a state certifies that it will screen to identify domestic violence victims while maintaining their confidentiality, will refer those victims to supportive services, and will waive program requirements such as time limits on the receipt of benefits, work requirements, or cooperation with child support enforcement if those requirements make it more difficult to escape the violence or would unfairly penalize the victim. All states have either formally certified adoption of the FVO (41) or reported to the federal government adoption of a comparable policy.
The problem, of course, is that this program — which on paper is intended to provide an incredibly important service — isn’t working how it’s supposed to in most states. While the report shows that the program sometimes works extremely well, these cases are not the norm. In fact, while many victims have been provided with assistance that may have been life-saving, many others were not assisted, or were actually put in more danger.
Some excerpts from the study:
The survey asked respondents to estimate the percentage of victims served by their agency who were able to access TANF benefits when needed as part of their safety plan. Forty-three percent of respondents estimated that fewer than half of victims were able to access benefits and 20% estimated fewer than one quarter.
Survey respondents described tremendous adversity for victims simply trying to contact the TANF office. Victims face endless busy signals, unreturned calls, no ready way to get to the office (particularly in rural areas), and if they have limited proficiency in English, they may not have any way to communicate with the TANF staff once contact is made.
…
A significant barrier for victims is the requirement to “prove” the violence. Respondents describe TANF staff requiring particular types of documentation, such as hospital records, even if the victim reports she’s not been to a hospital. Victims are also asked to produce paperwork that they left behind when escaping violence. Some TANF workers determine that a domestic violence shelter is not a “proper address,” thereby making it more difficult for victims to access benefits after they’ve sought the safety of a shelter.
…
For those victims who do not disclose family violence to a TANF worker, respondents also rated the reasons victims may have for not disclosing. While 61% said victims frequently don’t disclose because they fear it is unsafe to do so, 63% said victims frequently don’t disclose because they see the TANF worker or system as unsympathetic.
…
In addition to the denial of benefits, waivers or options that can limit victims’ ability to escape violence, some TANF responses can add to victims’ struggle and danger. More than 25% of respondents said, “NO” when asked if family violence information disclosed by victims was handled in an appropriate way. Respondents described private information being disclosed to a victim’s abusive partner and even the location of the shelter being disclosed. In one situation, a victim was told that the law required information be sent to her former home address rather than the shelter at which she was currently staying, putting the victim at increased safety risk.
Additionally, victims are frequently not screened for violence, are sometimes asked questions at public counters instead of in private rooms, or are questioned about whether or not there is violence in their homes in front of their abusers.
And, of course, even when victims do receive benefits, they’re frequently held back for weeks by bureaucracy, and financial assistance can be incredibly inadequate:
TANF undermines victims’ efforts to escape abuse if the financial assistance that it provides does not allow victims to adequately provide for their own and their children’s needs. As of July 2008, the monthly TANF benefit for a family of three in every state was far below the official 2008 poverty guideline of $1,467, ranging from a low of 12% of the poverty guideline in Mississippi to a high of 50% of the guideline in Alaska, and equaling 29% of the guideline in the state with the median TANF benefit.
The study itself contains a lot more information than just these short excerpts, which are intended to give you an overview of the findings and the problem. I encourage you to try to find the time to check out the study in full.
The point is that government failures are increasing the vulnerability of some of society’s already most vulnerable citizens. While there are a myriad of reasons why victims stay in abusive relationships, financial hardship is among the most frequently cited reasons for why a victim feels that sie simply can’t leave. When financial support and other services promoting financial independence are not available to those victims, they and their children are essentially being forced back into abusive and dangerous situations. Since we know that people who are already marginalized based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc., are disproportionately likely to be poor in the U.S., the risk also tends to fall along lines of oppression.
Years of a victim’s life can be lost this way. So can a victim’s life itself.
The study found service providers primarily recommending 7 changes to the system to improve its ability to really assist survivors of domestic violence. They are, in order:
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Increase employment services that lead to a living wage
- Increase access to childcare
- Increase training for TANF and CSE staff workers around domestic and sexual violence
- Provide emergency relocation and other related assistance to
victims fleeing violence
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Increase transportation services
- Improve screening for family violence
- Increase TANF benefit levels
Many more suggestions are included in the full report, as are expansions on the points above. Of course, it’d be even more interesting and important to see what changes survivors themselves thought were most vital. But the ultimate and obvious conclusion is that the system is broken.
TANF is generally a flawed system that lets many families in need slip through the cracks. When violence and abuse are added into the equation, these failings get even more dire. All people should be able to count on food, shelter, and other necessities as basic human rights. And all victims should be able to count on government and community support when they find themselves ready and/or able to leave an abusive situation (in addition, of course, to support while they are still in the abusive relationship). Right now, both are far from true, and dramatic changes are needed now.