The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has posted the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) financial data tables, along with national (PDF) and state pie charts (PDF).
Executive Summary
Combined federal TANF and state maintenance-of-effort (MOE) spending in FY 2024 represented a mission creep not foreseen when the TANF program was created in 1996. Spending on Fatherhood and Two-Parent Family Programs totaled less than 1 percent of all TANF funds spent or transferred in FY 2024, despite being core to the statutory purposes of the program and less than 10 percent of funds used went to work, education, and training activities designed to move recipients from welfare to work.
Administrative costs accounted for $2.3 billion, with two states alone, California and New York, totaling more than half ($1.2 billion) of all administrative spending.
Finally, nearly $10 billion of accumulated federal TANF funds sat unspent in state reserves instead of going to American families in need.
- In FY 2024, combined federal TANF and state MOE expenditures and transfers totaled $37.5 billion. Across the United States in FY 2024:
- 21.8 percent of TANF and MOE funds were used for basic assistance;
- 7.7 percent used for work, education, and training activities; and
- 17.0 percent used for child care (including funds transferred to the Child Care Development Fund).
- 33 states used less than half of their TANF and MOE funds on the combination of basic assistance; work, education, and training activities; and child care.
- 34 states and the District of Columbia used less than 20 percent of their TANF and MOE funds on basic assistance.
- 44 states and the District of Columbia used less than 15 percent of their TANF and MOE funds on work, education, and training activities.
- From FY 2023 to FY 2024, the amount of funds used for basic assistance decreased by about $135 million and child care increased by approximately $1.2 billion. The amount of funds used for work, education, and training activities increased by nearly $224 million.
- Additional highlights on FY 2024 TANF and MOE expenditures and transfers:
- $3.0 billion used on child welfare services.
- $191 million used on Fatherhood and Two-Parent Family Programs, representing 0.5 percent of total funds.
- Marriage and family are central to all four statutory purposes of TANF; Less than 1 percent of funds used for Fatherhood and Two-Parent Family Programs represents a neglect of states to focus on TANF’s core mission.
- $2.3 billion used on administrative costs.
- California ($785 million) and New York ($449 million) had the highest administrative costs resulting in more than 50 percent of all administrative spending on TANF nationwide despite representing less than 20 percent of the U.S. population.
- California’s and New York’s state MOE and federal TANF administrative spending combined exceeded the total block grant allotment of all other states.
- By the end of FY 2024, states had a total of $8 billion in federal TANF unobligated balances. With the addition of federal unliquidated obligations, the amount of unspent federal TANF funds nationwide totaled $9.7 billion.
- Unspent federal TANF funds equaled nearly 60 percent of the annual federal appropriation for the program.
View OFA’s financial data tables, national (PDF), and state pie charts (PDF) for more information on how TANF and MOE funds were used in FY 2024.