The Intersection of Welfare and Disability: Early Findings from the TANF/SSI Disability...

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)/Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) Disability Transition Project attempted to understand how TANF can best serve recipients with disabilities. This first report “described how TANF agencies work with participants who have a disability and how they interact with local Social Security Administration (SSA) offices. The report also presented findings from analyses of merged TANF and SSI data, documenting the extent to which adult TANF recipients are connected with the SSI system and how they contribute to the overall dynamics of caseload changes in SSI” (p.v). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

Full publication title: The Intersection of Welfare and Disability: Early Findings from the TANF/SSI Disability Transition Project

The major findings include:

• “The overlap between the TANF and SSI populations was not large. In the research sample, less than 10 percent of TANF recipients had an open SSI application, and just 6 percent of adults applying for SSI received TANF benefits within a year of the application.
• Most TANF recipients who applied for SSI did so long before nearing their federal benefit time limit.
• After accounting for differences in basic eligibility characteristics between the two groups (differences driven by TANF eligibility rules), TANF recipients who applied for SSI were slightly less likely to be found disabled, especially at the initial level, than other SSI applicants.
• TANF recipients who were exempt from requirements to participate in work activities due to a disability generally had access to few targeted services designed to increase their self-sufficiency.
• There was little coordination between the TANF programs and the SSA field office or the Disability Determination Services—the state agency that makes the initial disability determination for SSA—during TANF recipients’ SSI application period. TANF employment counselors have expressed strong interest in knowing more about the SSI application process” (p.v). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2013
• Author(s): Farrell, Mary; Walter, Johanna
• Organizational Author(s): MDRC
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Jon Gavazzi
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies