TANF has a goal of promoting work and helping  welfare recipients move toward self-sufficiency. The Rural TANF Caseload Is About 14 Percent of the National Caseload, Is Concentrated in Economically Disadvantaged Counties, and Has Declined at About the Same Rate as the Urban Caseload

Rural TANF families constitute about 14 percent of the total TANF  monthly caseload for the 48 states covered by our study combined. However, when states are looked at individually, the rural portion of the  TANF caseload ranges from 0.02 percent to 77 percent. TANF Families Living in Rural Counties Are About 14 Percent of the National Caseload but Form a Larger Percentage in Most Individual States

In 2003, during an average month, about 293,000 families living in rural  counties received cash assistance under TANF programs of the combined  48 states included in our analysis. Rural Areas Present TANF Clients with Shortages in Jobs and Services but Also Foster Program Collaboration and Personal Attention to Clients

Several studies and our own site visits indicate that transportation  shortages, fewer jobs, low wages, and a scarcity of ancillary services are  common challenges to welfare reform in rural areas. Transportation is a fundamental challenge for rural TANF recipients. Rural areas also have less variety in  the types of jobs available. On the other hand, the welfare reform-related studies that have looked at  employment in rural areas present a more positive picture. Rural TANF Programs Foster Collaboration and Personal Attention from Caseworkers

Caseworkers and service providers cited strengths that their areas have in  implementing welfare reform that they associate with the rural  environment. Rural TANF Programs Transport Services to Clients and Leverage Resources to Provide Mentoring, Transportation, Job, and Child Care Assistance

The rural TANF programs we visited have devised many ways to bring  services to distant clients, and they have tended to leverage their  resources by collaborating with one another and with community  institutions, focusing effort as they did so on helping clients surmount  rural shortages in transportation, child care, and jobs. HHS Has Several Initiatives That Could Benefit Rural TANF Programs

HHS’s Administration for Children and Families has planned and  undertaken several initiatives that could assist TANF programs and TANF  families in rural areas. ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and  Evaluation is currently sponsoring a demonstration project to evaluate the  effectiveness of welfare-to-work strategies being used in rural areas of  Illinois and Nebraska. Technical assistance to TANF programs. Summaries and results of these meetings or conference  calls are posted on ACF’s Web site. Promoting use of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Rural TANF programs we visited have developed some  strategies to help them address the challenges their clients face, but the  challenges continue. Appendix I: Scope and Methodology of TANF Caseload Data Analysis

To address questions about the rural Temporary Assistance for Needy  Families (TANF) caseload, we collected and analyzed county-level TANF  caseload data from states. 4 and table 2 of app. Do Income Support  Levels and Work Incentives Differ between Rural and Urban Areas? Welfare Reform: Moving Hard-to-Employ Recipients into the  Workforce.
Why GAO Did This Study

About 49 million people, or 17 percent of the country's total population, live in rural communities, and 18 states have at least a third of their population in rural areas. Rural areas often have less favorable employment conditions than urban areas and have fewer public transportation options to help people get to and from work. Given these conditions and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program's emphasis on moving recipients into jobs and on the path toward self-sufficiency, some have questioned how welfare reform is working in rural areas. To inform discussions of these concerns, GAO is reporting on (1) the size and distribution of the rural TANF caseload and how the caseload's size has changed over time, (2) the challenges and strengths that rural TANF programs have in implementing welfare reform, (3) the strategies being used to address these challenges, and (4) what the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is doing to help rural areas address these challenges. To obtain this information, we used multiple methodologies, including analysis of county-level caseload data, as well as site visits, a review of studies on welfare reform in rural areas, and numerous interviews with caseworkers, government officials and other experts.

What GAO Found

According to our analysis of 48 states, about 293,000 families living in rural counties received TANF cash assistance during an average month in 2003. Rural TANF families are about 14 percent of all TANF families, but the rural portion of individual states' TANF caseload ranges from 0.02 percent to 77 percent. Rural TANF families are concentrated in counties with disadvantaged conditions, including high unemployment and low median income. Since 1997, when welfare reform was implemented nationally, rural and urban TANF caseloads have declined by about the same amount--44 percent--when all reporting states' counties are aggregated. The rural TANF caseworkers and service providers at sites we visited reported that transportation difficulties, job shortages, low wages, and lack of services, especially child care, challenged their efforts to help clients become employed and move toward self-sufficiency. However, they also cited strengths, including collaboration and personal attention to clients. To address the challenges they face, the rural TANF programs we visited have employed a variety of strategies including nontraditional methods of connecting clients with services and cooperative arrangements that leverage resources. Some of the strategies adopted by rural TANF agencies take a more targeted approach, working to overcome one particular challenge or set of challenges that clients face, especially in the areas of transportation, employment, and child care. The Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families has undertaken several efforts that could assist TANF programs and recipients in rural areas. These include rural conferences, a demonstration project, technical assistance to rural programs, and a rural task force with representatives from different programs, including TANF. Plans are under way for an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) initiative targeting rural TANF recipients.