The Prevalence of TANF Child-Only Cases Involving Immigration-Status-Ineligible Parents
How TANF Basic Assistance Flows to Households Headed by Ineligible Parents, Including Illegal Aliens
AUTHORS:
David Swegle, Director, Office of Family Assistance, Administration for Children and Families
Alex J. Adams, Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families
Key Points
- In fiscal year (FY) 2024, TANF basic assistance was provided to over 85,000 child-only households headed by a parent excluded from the assistance unit because of immigration status.1
- Annual cash assistance associated with these households totaled about $759 million, or 9% of all FY2024 TANF basic assistance spending nationwide.
- Based on reported data, California was the primary driver of the national total, accounting for about 59,600 households and about $617.5 million, or roughly 81% of nationwide spending on these cases.2
- From FY2001 through FY2024, an estimated $18.3 billion in TANF cash assistance was paid to immigration-status-ineligible child-only cases nationwide.
- Unlike ordinary TANF family cases, these child-only cases operate outside TANF’s core federal work and time-limit rules, exposing a double standard under which American families are held to tougher requirements than households headed by immigration-status-ineligible parents.
Background
Child-only cases arise for several reasons. The chart below shows the major FY2024 child-only case types nationwide. This brief focuses specifically on child-only cases involving a parent who is excluded from the assistance unit because of citizenship or immigration status. Under TANF, a child-only case exists when assistance is paid on behalf of a child while an adult in the household is excluded from the assistance unit. One subset of these cases involves a non-recipient parent who is excluded because of immigration status. The child may still qualify for assistance even though the parent does not. These cases receive relatively little public attention, yet ACF data show that they are far from a negligible part of the program.
Figure 1: Distribution of TANF Child-Only Cases by Type, FY2024
In FY2024, child-only cases accounted for 40.4% of all TANF basic assistance households nationwide. Among child-only cases, 24.8% involved a parent who was excluded from the assistance unit because of citizenship or immigration status.3
Figure 2: FY2024 National Scale of TANF Child-Only Cases Involving Immigration-Status-Ineligible Parents
In FY2024, TANF basic assistance was associated with roughly 85,277 households that included a non-recipient parent excluded because of immigration status. Annual cash assistance tied to those households totaled about $759 million, representing 9.3% of all TANF basic assistance spending nationwide. The average monthly cash benefit for these cases was about $742 per household or $8,904 per year.
Although the benefit is formally paid on behalf of the child, it still supports a household that includes an immigration-status-ineligible parent. The significance of these cases therefore cannot be judged solely by the fact that the adult is not the formal recipient.
These cases are especially significant because they are structured outside two of TANF’s core federal limitations. In a typical TANF family case, assistance is tied to work expectations and is subject to the federal 60-month lifetime limit. But when a parent is excluded from the assistance unit because of immigration status and the case is converted into a child-only case, those core constraints no longer operate in the same way. The excluded parent is not treated as a work-eligible individual for TANF work-participation purposes, and because no adult is receiving federally funded assistance, the case is not counted against the federal 60-month limit. The result is a striking disparity: needy American families are held to TANF’s central work and time-limit rules, while households headed by immigration-status-ineligible parents can receive child-only cash assistance under a structure that bypasses those rules and can allow support to continue from birth through age 18.
Figure 3: Traditional TANF Family Cases vs. Child-Only Cases Involving Immigration-Status-Ineligible Parents
Feature | Traditional TANF Family Case | Child-Only Case Involving Immigration-Status-Ineligible Parent |
|---|---|---|
| Adult included in assistance unit | Yes | No |
| Subject to federal work-participation expectation | Yes | No |
| Subject to 60-month lifetime limit | Yes | No |
The scale of these cases, and the amount of TANF cash assistance associated with them, conflict with Congress’s stated intent in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), the legislation that created TANF. In setting national policy on welfare and immigration, Congress declared that “aliens within the Nation’s borders [should] not depend on public resources to meet their needs” and that “the availability of public benefits [should] not constitute an incentive for immigration to the United States.” Congress further stated that “[i]t is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.”4 Yet TANF has nonetheless allowed child-only benefits to be paid on behalf of eligible children living with parents who are themselves ineligible due to immigration status.
These cases persist because federal law restricts the parent’s eligibility but does not clearly prohibit a child-only benefit paid on behalf of an eligible child living with that parent. PRWORA created the category of “qualified alien” and made non-qualified aliens ineligible for federal public benefits, while also imposing additional restrictions on some qualified aliens, including a five-year bar for many recent entrants. The excluded-parent population therefore can include both non-qualified aliens, including illegal aliens, and some qualified aliens who are still barred from federally funded assistance. ACF’s reporting can distinguish citizens, qualified aliens, non-qualified aliens, and unknown status, but it does not identify illegal aliens as a separate reportable category. It therefore cannot show exactly how many excluded parents are illegal aliens specifically.
Longitudinal Trend
From FY2001 through FY2024, TANF child-only cases involving a parent excluded due to citizenship or immigration status remained a substantial and persistent feature of the program. The number of affected households increased from 123,941 in FY2001 to a peak of 221,203 in FY2010, and stood at 85,277 in FY2024. That decline, however, occurred in parallel with a broader drop in total TANF caseloads nationwide. As a result, even after the absolute number of these cases fell, they still accounted for 10.0% of all TANF households in FY2024, up from 5.8% in FY2001.
As Figure 4 shows, the issue did not disappear as the overall TANF caseload changed over time. Instead, child-only cases involving immigration-status-ineligible parents became a consistently significant share of the program, generally accounting for about one-tenth of all TANF assistance households during much of the post-FY2009 period.
Figure 4: Child-Only TANF Households with Parent Excluded Due to Citizenship/ Immigration Status, FY2001-2024
Table 1 reports, for each fiscal year from FY2001 through FY2024, the total number of TANF households, the number of child-only households involving a parent excluded due to citizenship or immigration status, and those households as a share of the total TANF caseload.
Table 1: Average Monthly Child-Only TANF Households with Parent Excluded Due to Citizenship/Immigration Status, FY2001-2024
| Fiscal Year | Total TANF Households | Child-Only Households with Non-Recipient Parents Excluded Due to Citizenship/ Immigration Status | Share of Total TANF Caseload |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 2,120,474 | 123,941 | 5.8% |
| 2002 | 2,060,328 | 140,345 | 6.8% |
| 2003 | 2,027,581 | 152,254 | 7.5% |
| 2004 | 1,983,973 | 151,691 | 7.6% |
| 2005 | 1,914,036 | 164,861 | 8.6% |
| 2006 | 1,802,567 | 159,486 | 8.8% |
| 2007 | 1,696,951 | 158,276 | 9.3% |
| 2008 | 1,629,345 | 156,708 | 9.6% |
| 2009 | 1,726,560 | 184,580 | 10.7% |
| 2010 | 1,847,155 | 221,203 | 12.0% |
| 2011 | 1,864,160 | 197,256 | 10.6% |
| 2012 | 1,753,021 | 190,915 | 10.9% |
| 2013 | 1,638,983 | 202,073 | 12.3% |
| 2014 | 1,522,997 | 188,050 | 12.3% |
| 2015 | 1,333,707 | 164,762 | 12.4% |
| 2016 | 1,206,820 | 155,287 | 12.9% |
| 2017 | 1,095,368 | 134,847 | 12.3% |
| 2018 | 1,004,923 | 121,050 | 12.0% |
| 2019 | 916,614 | 109,506 | 11.9% |
| 2020 | 894,308 | 104,322 | 11.7% |
| 2021 | 804,193 | 97,234 | 12.1% |
| 2022 | 791,271 | 88,485 | 11.2% |
| 2023 | 826,345 | 93,942 | 11.4% |
| 2024 | 849,500 | 85,277 | 10.0% |
From FY2001 through FY2024, an estimated $18.3 billion in TANF cash assistance was paid to child-only cases involving an immigration-status-ineligible parent. This cumulative amount is substantial and underscores that these cases are not only persistent but financially significant.
National Scope and Characteristics
The scale of these cases is evident not only in the number of affected households, but also in the number of excluded adults associated with them. In FY2024, states reported 85,277 child-only households involving a parent excluded because of immigration status, but the same year’s data showed about 106,148 non-recipient parents marked as not work-eligible due to immigration status. The difference reflects the fact that the household count measures cases, while the parent count measures individual adults, and some households include two excluded parents.
More than 77,982 of the 85,277 affected households, or about 91.4%, also received SNAP in FY2024. In most cases, TANF cash assistance is layered on top of additional taxpayer-funded support and can even serve as a qualification for SNAP.
Among the roughly 106,148 non-recipient parents identified as not work-eligible due to immigration status, 87.1% were reported as Hispanic, while White parents accounted for 5.2%, Black parents for 4.3%, and Asian parents for 2.0%.
California as the Primary Driver
The issue is national in scope, but California is the primary driver of the national totals. In FY2024, California accounted for about 59,622 affected households, or roughly 70% of the national total. The state’s annual cash assistance associated with those households reached about $617.5 million, or about 81% of nationwide spending on these cases. At the adult level, California accounted for about 76,428 of the 106,148 excluded non-recipient parents identified through the immigration-status work-eligibility indicator, or about 72%.
California also devoted a substantial share of its TANF basic assistance spending to these cases. Spending on child-only cases involving immigration-status-ineligible parents equaled about 15.8% of all FY2024 TANF basic assistance spending in California. That concentration was accompanied by a sharp rise in benefit levels over time, as the average monthly benefit in California for child-only households with immigration-status-ineligible parents increased from an estimated $408 in FY2013 to $875 in FY2024, a rise of 114.5%. No other state approached California’s combination of scale, concentration, and fiscal impact.
Figure 5: Top 10 States by Annual Cash Assistance Provided to TANF Child-Only Households with Parent Excluded Due to Citizenship/Immigration Status, FY2024
The next-largest states were far smaller. New York ranked second at about 7,635 households and about $47.5 million in annual cash assistance, followed by Massachusetts at about 3,777 households and about $27.3 million, and Washington at about 1,796 households and about $12.2 million.
State-by-State Distribution
Table 2 displays FY2024 benefits provided to TANF households with non-recipient parents due to citizenship/immigration status. It includes all 50 states and the District of Columbia, sorted in descending order by average monthly number of households. For each state, the table shows the number of affected households, the annual cash assistance tied to those households, the share of that state’s TANF basic assistance spending, and the share of nationwide spending on these cases.
Table 2: FY2024 Benefits to TANF Households with Non-Recipient Parents Due to Citizenship/Immigration Status
| State | Households | Annual Cash Assistance (Millions) | State Share of Basic Assistance Expenditures | U.S. Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 59,622 | $617.55 | 15.8% | 81.4% | |
| New York | 7,635 | $47.52 | 3.2% | 6.3% | |
| Massachusetts | 3,777 | $27.33 | 7.7% | 3.6% | |
| Washington | 1,796 | $12.22 | 5.5% | 1.6% | |
| Texas | 1,442 | $3.48 | 17.6% | 0.5% | |
| Ohio | 1,402 | $7.98 | 3.6% | 1.1% | |
| Minnesota | 1,028 | $7.01 | 5.5% | 0.9% | |
| Florida | 966 | $1.83 | 1.2% | 0.2% | |
| Illinois | 877 | $4.48 | 7.8% | 0.6% | |
| New Mexico | 793 | $4.19 | 8.5% | 0.6% | |
| Nevada | 648 | $2.40 | 9.7% | 0.3% | |
| Nebraska | 576 | $3.21 | 16.9% | 0.4% | |
| Pennsylvania | 573 | $1.80 | 2.0% | 0.2% | |
| New Jersey | 492 | $2.32 | 2.3% | 0.3% | |
| Colorado | 461 | $1.75 | 2.5% | 0.2% | |
| Indiana | 395 | $1.18 | 6.0% | 0.2% | |
| District of Columbia | 353 | $2.21 | 4.3% | 0.3% | |
| Rhode Island | 311 | $1.90 | 6.6% | 0.2% | |
| Virginia | 236 | $1.17 | 1.7% | 0.2% | |
| Kansas | 217 | $0.61 | 6.2% | 0.1% | |
| North Carolina | 206 | $0.52 | 3.1% | 0.1% | |
| Missouri | 183 | $0.54 | 3.7% | 0.1% | |
| Michigan | 171 | $0.86 | 0.8% | 0.1% | |
| Iowa | 139 | $0.51 | 3.2% | 0.1% | |
| Connecticut | 136 | $0.89 | 2.1% | 0.1% | |
| Tennessee | 120 | $0.45 | 0.7% | 0.1% | |
| Kentucky | 115 | $0.57 | 0.7% | 0.1% | |
| Delaware | 92 | $0.28 | 4.8% | 0.0% | |
| Alabama | 67 | $0.40 | 1.3% | 0.1% | |
| Utah | 62 | $0.37 | 1.8% | 0.0% | |
| Georgia | 62 | $0.16 | 0.2% | 0.0% | |
| Arizona | 48 | $0.12 | 0.3% | 0.0% | |
| South Carolina | 43 | $0.14 | 0.4% | 0.0% | |
| New Hampshire | 29 | $0.34 | 1.2% | 0.0% | |
| Maine | 21 | $0.07 | 0.1% | 0.0% | |
| Hawaii | 9 | $0.05 | 0.2% | 0.0% | |
| Vermont | 8 | $0.04 | 0.3% | 0.0% | |
| Alaska | 7 | $0.04 | 0.2% | 0.0% | |
| South Dakota | 6 | $0.04 | 0.3% | 0.0% | |
| Oregon | 5 | $0.02 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| North Dakota | 3 | $0.02 | 0.3% | 0.0% | |
| Idaho | 1 | $0.00 | 0.1% | 0.0% | |
| Montana | 1 | $0.01 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| Arkansas | 0 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| Louisiana | 0 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| Maryland | 0 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| Mississippi | 0 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| Oklahoma | 0 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| West Virginia | 0 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| Wisconsin | 0 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| Wyoming | 0 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
Conclusion
ACF data show that child-only cases involving a parent excluded because of immigration status represent a substantial and longstanding use of welfare funding. In FY2024 alone, roughly 85,000 such households received about $759 million in annual cash assistance, accounting for over 9% of all TANF basic assistance spending nationwide.
The issue is not new. From FY2001 through FY2024, these cases remained a persistent part of the TANF caseload and were associated with an estimated $18.3 billion in cumulative cash assistance nationwide. The historical record therefore shows that this is not a minor byproduct of TANF, but a durable feature of the program’s child-only case structure.
ACF’s data cannot isolate the exact number of immigration-status-ineligible parents who are illegal aliens. But the central fact is clear: TANF’s child-only case structure channels substantial taxpayer-funded cash assistance into households headed by parents who are barred from receiving TANF because of immigration status, including illegal aliens.
Footnotes
1Caseload numbers presented here and throughout this document reflect average monthly caseload figures, rather than unduplicated counts or point-in-time totals.
2This brief is based on TANF active case data reported by state TANF programs to ACF. Thirty-three states and territories report data on all recipient families in their caseload, while twenty-one (including California) report data on a representative portion of their caseload. States that use sampling must follow scientifically acceptable methods.
3The data used for this brief does not include families receiving assistance through Separate State Program (SSP)-Maintenance-of-Effort (MOE) programs. Many such families receive small benefit payments that are not representative of the main TANF caseload.
4U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Budget, Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, H. Rept. 104-651.