New Hope for Wisconsin Works

Created in 1935, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was a component of the Social Security Act, one which enabled states to provide assistance to needy children. Over the last sixty years, AFDC proliferated into an extensive set of programs designed to help needy families. As the program grew, complaints about its perceived problems also developed. Where some critics argued administering it was a wasteful, inefficient bureaucratic process, others said it created a cycle of dependency. Consensus was built around the notion that welfare as we knew it was in need of reform. On the national level the welfare reform environment thus can be characterized by widespread dissatisfaction with AFDC. Numerous proposals were made at the federal level, but sweeping changes came when President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act into law in 1996. As the name suggests, this act replaced AFDC benefits with benefits and services contingent upon a work requirement. It also replaced the matching-grant format of AFDC with a block grant program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). States were required to submit a plan for the delivery of TANF in order to be eligible for the block grant, and although the law contained detailed guidelines, many of the operational decisions were left in the hands of the states.