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The Welfare Rules Database

The Welfare Rules Database is a comprehensive, sophisticated resource for comparing cash assistance programs across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, researching changes across time in cash assistance rules within a single state, or determining the rules governing cash assistance in one state at a point in time. The WRD is longitudinal, and currently provides information on state Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and TANF policies from 1996 through 2005. The WRD was initially developed to meet the needs of researchers under the Urban Institute’s Assessing the New Federalism project and was made publicly available in August 1999. The Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (DHHS/ACF) and the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (DHHS/ASPE) are currently funding the maintenance and development of the WRD.

The Development of the WRD

The WRD was developed in response to the increasing difficulty since the early 1990s of tracking how states operate their cash assistance programs for needy families. Under AFDC, the structure of eligibility and benefit computation was mostly determined at the federal level. States were allowed to set certain policies—such as the standards used to establish eligibility and benefits, and the rules for two-parent families—but those choices were detailed in the State Plans they submitted to DHHS/ACF, and in annual reports issued by DHHS/ACF summarizing the State Plans. In the early to mid-1990s, as more states received waivers to experiment with their welfare rules, it became increasingly difficult to research states’ policies. The Waiver Terms and Conditions agreed to by the state and the federal government often did not provide full implementation details, and the implementation schedules often changed after the agreement was reached. The August 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), replacing AFDC with the TANF block grant, further increased both the degree of variation across state programs and the difficulty of tracking program rules.

Currently, states are periodically required to submit to the federal government TANF State Plans that provide an overview of their choices under the block grant. However, the Plans’ level of detail varies considerably across states and they generally offer insufficient information to completely understand the details of eligibility, benefit computation, and client requirements. Further, although states are expected to notify the federal government if any of their choices change after the submission of a Plan, they are not required to do so.

The WRD was developed to provide a source of detailed information about states’ TANF policies, going beyond the level of detail in most states’ official State Plans and capturing changes in policies that occur between the submissions of those Plans. The WRD focuses on cash assistance policies and some closely tied transitional benefits. Its main focus is federally funded policies; however, some information on policies provided under state-separate funding is included when those benefits are considered part of the same basic program by the state and are therefore included in the caseworker manual. Thus, benefits paid to two-parent units and certain immigrant units are included, even when they do not use federal funds. The WRD does not attempt to capture other uses of federal TANF funds (such as state earned income tax credits, child care programs, etc.).

Contents of the WRD

The WRD provides detailed information on a wide range of policy topics. These topics are currently organized into 29 categories that together describe most of the significant dimensions of state policies. While the categories may be ordered in various ways, it is useful to consider the rules in the sequence in which individuals seeking and receiving assistance will likely encounter them. The 29 categories are listed below, organized into five sections, beginning with initial eligibility.

1. Initial Eligibility

1. Does the state try to divert some families from becoming recipients?
   Diversion

2. How does family composition or individual status affect eligibility?
   Eligibility by Number/Type of Parents
   Eligibility of Units Headed by a Minor Parent
   Eligibility of Pregnant Women
   Employment-Related Eligibility of Two-Parent Families
   Eligibility of Individual Family Members
   Inclusion of Noncitizens in the Unit

3. What level of assets can a family have and still be eligible?
   Asset Test

4. How is income counted in determining eligibility?
   Countable Income
   Income and Assets of Children
   In-Kind Income
   Deemed Income
   Child Support
   Earned Income Disregards

5. How much income can a family have and still be eligible?
   Income Eligibility Tests
   Dollar Amounts1

2. Benefits

1. If a family passes all eligibility tests, what is received?
   Benefit Computation2

3. Requirements

1. Once determined eligible, what must a recipient family do to maintain benefits?
   Contracts and Agreements
   School Policies for Dependent Children
   Immunization and Health Screening Requirements
   Child Support Sanctions3

2. What work activities are required?
   Activities Exemptions
   Activities Requirements
   Activities Sanctions
   Minor Parent Activities Requirements and Bonuses
   Components

4. Ongoing Eligibility

1. How long can a family receive benefits?
   Time Limits

2. Are children eligible if born while the family receives benefits?
   Family Cap

Note: The categories under sections I.B-I.E and II may be relevant to ongoing eligibility. In most states, recipients are also required to pass nonfinancial and financial tests in order to continue receiving benefits. These tests may differ for initial and ongoing eligibility.

5. Transition to Self-Support

1. What happens after cash assistance ends?
   Transitional Benefits

Sources of Information for the WRD, and Verification of the Data

The primary sources of information for the WRD (and thus for the tables in the Databook) are the caseworker manuals and/or regulations used in each state and the District of Columbia.4 The Urban Institute has a subscription with each state to obtain the manuals or regulations as well as the ongoing updates to those manuals or regulations. These documents provide a consistent source of detailed information on policy changes and implementation dates across states and time.

States were given the opportunity to verify the key policies in the 2004 Databook tables.

The 46 states that reviewed the Databook tables are:

Alabama	Illinois	Montana	Rhode Island
Alaska	Indiana	Nebraska	South Carolina
Arizona	Iowa	New Hampshire	South Dakota
Arkansas	Kansas	New Jersey	Texas
California	Kentucky	New Mexico	Utah
Colorado	Louisiana	New York	Vermont
Connecticut	Maryland	North Carolina	Virginia
Delaware	Massachusetts	North Dakota	West Virginia
D.C.	Michigan	Ohio	Wisconsin
Florida	Minnesota	Oklahoma	Wyoming
Hawaii	Mississippi	Oregon
Idaho	Missouri	Pennsylvania

A similar verification process was performed in the last five years for the 1999- 2003 data. In those rounds of verification, 44 states reviewed the complete 1999 data or the 1999 tables, 46 states reviewed the complete 2000 data or the 2000 tables, 45 states reviewed the 2001 tables, 46 states reviewed the 2002 tables, and 45 states reviewed the 2003 tables. Portions of the 1996–98 data in the WRD have been verified against selected secondary sources but have not been fully reviewed by state TANF staff because of their historic nature.

General Points about the WRD

The WRD

• contains information on the cash assistance rules in effect in each state across time. It does not include information on proposals or legislation that has not been implemented.

• focuses on welfare rules. The database does not contain information regarding caseloads, budgets, outcomes, or administrative practices.

• contains at least one “record” (a set of coded variables) for each state, year, and category of rules.

• contains additional records when the state changes a policy during the year or when the state’s policies vary by geographic regions of the state, demographic characteristics of the assistance units, or “component” groups across the state. (The term “component” is used when the state’s caseload is divided into mutually exclusive groups based on multiple characteristics.)

• indicates when states vary policies by county. For those policies determined at the county level, the WRD captures the policies for the largest county in the state.5

• for every year, state, and category of rules contains one record that is designated the “majority rule” record. This record represents the policy that affected the majority of the caseload for the majority of the year.

It is important to note that neither the WRD nor the Databook addresses the issue of how rules may be implemented in practice. As noted above, the WRD is based on caseworker manuals and regulations, which typically do not include information on the likelihood of various outcomes. For instance, if a particular type of recipient may be assigned to one of several work activities, the manuals do not typically address the issue of which activity is the most likely assignment. Thus, for certain policies, two states may look quite similar in the database and yet in practice be quite different, and other states’ policies may look quite different and yet be similar in practice.

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