The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has published the data tables, Characteristics and Financial Circumstances of TANF Recipients for FY 2021.
The Characteristics and Financial Circumstances of TANF Recipients tables provide demographic data on adults and children in TANF active families receiving cash assistance and closed cases.
Key highlights from the data show that in an average month in FY 2021:
- About 417,300 adults and 1.43 million children received TANF cash assistance.
- There were approximately 419,100 child-only families (those in which no adult received TANF cash assistance), which accounted for 52.1 percent of the total TANF caseload in an average month.
- On average, TANF recipient families received $517 in cash assistance per month.
- Over one third of adult TANF recipients (34.5 percent) had less than a high school education, 56.0 percent had completed high school (or its equivalent) but no further education, and 9.5 percent had education beyond high school.
- In an average month, 17.5 percent of TANF adult recipients were employed.
National and state-level data are available, as well as data on families receiving assistance through Separate State Program (SSP)-Maintenance-of-Effort (MOE) programs. FY 2021 Characteristics and Financial Circumstances of TANF Recipients data tables can be found here: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/data/characteristics-and-financial-circumstances-tanf-recipients-fiscal-year-2021