Transition from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
to Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and Wisconsin Works (W-2)
Historical Data for 1997 and 1998
The transition from AFDC to TANF and Separate State Programs (SSP) occurred between early 1997 and March 1998. Following the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in August 1996, Wisconsin converted AFDC cases to TANF funded and non-TANF funded cases based upon work requirements and eligibility changes under the new law.
Under the AFDC program, some cases contained adult recipients who had work requirements under federally approved waivers as a condition of receiving cash payments. AFDC cases that did not have work requirements included Non-legally Responsible Relatives (NLRR) taking care of children, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disabled adults taking care of their own children (SSI caretakers), adult recipients applying for SSI disability and custodial parents that were exempted from working due to various conditions, e.g., illness, caring for a newborn etc.
TANF Funded Cases
AFDC cases that included adult recipients of custodial children, who were capable of working, were transitioned to W-2. Unless exempted, the adults were required to seek work and received cash payments for work related activities. Unlike AFDC, which based the cash payments on the number of eligible family members, W-2 paid a fixed cash amount based upon successful completion of work activities. Some cases were exempted from the work requirement temporarily due to specific circumstances, such as caring for a newborn child. W-2 cases not receiving cash payments received other types of supportive services and are referred to as case-management only cases.
AFDC cases, which had an NLRR caring for a child, were transitioned to the Kinship Care program. Payments to these cases were dependent upon the number of children in the household and there were no work requirements for the adults in these cases. Another group of TANF-funded cases in which there was no work requirement for the adults, were cases where the adult was receiving SSI and caring for a child. These cases were labeled SSI Caretaker Supplement and like Kinship Care, the cash payment is dependent upon the number of children in the household. Kinship Care and SSI Caretaker Supplement cases are often referred to collectively as "Child Only" cases.
Data for Child Only cases can be found at: TANF Child Only Cases
Separate State Programs (SSP)
Some cases that transitioned from the AFDC caseloads were placed in SSP. The major categories for this group of State-funded programs were the W-2 Qualified Alien and the W-2 Interim Assistance cases.
Qualified Aliens were specifically excluded from TANF funding under PRWORA, but Wisconsin opted to provide cash payments to this group with SSP funds. W-2 Interim Assistance cases were those cases that had formally applied for SSI disability determination. Although the W-2 Qualified Alien and Interim Assistance cases are not TANF funded, they do have work requirements and otherwise may look like other W-2 cases funded by TANF.
Statistical data are available in two file formats:
Excel 97 & Excel 5.0/95 (.xls) View data in this format if you have Excel or an application that supports conversion for Excel files.
Comma Delimited (.csv) View data in this format if you do not have Excel or an application that supports conversion for
Excel files.
Total AFDC and W-2 Caseloads by Calendar Year:
Excel
1997,
1998
CSV
1997,
1998
AFDC and W-2 Caseloads With Payment by Calendar Year:
Excel
1997,
1998
CSV
1997,
1998
W-2 Caseloads Without Payment by Calendar Year:
Excel
1997,
1998
CSV
1997,
1998