United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Health, Education, and Human Services Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-06-14 monographic deposited born digital 2 p. GA 1.13:HEHS-00-133R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-133R P0b002ee1803a2c15 f:he00133r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-133R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-133R HEHS-00-133R Public assistance programs Families State-administered programs Noncompliance Sanctions Statistical data Welfare benefits Data collection HHS Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program Correspondence HEHS Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO followed up on its previous report on the scope and limits of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program's 1998 sanction data, focusing on: (1) whether the number of full-family sanctions in an average month in 1998 can be annualized and used to determine the impact full-family sanctions had that year on caseload size; and (2) what constitutes the combined number of full-family and partial sanctions in an average month during 1998.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) under TANF, full-family sanctions can be imposed, and thus cases can be closed and reopened, multiple times in a year; (2) thus, annualizing the number of full-family sanctions in an average month, while providing an indication of the total number of times full-family sanctions were imposed in a year, would probably overstate the number of families who received full-family sanctions during that year and, thus, the impact of full-family sanctions on caseload size; (3) an unduplicated count of families receiving full-family sanctions could not be derived from the data the states furnished to GAO; (4) developing an unduplicated count of all families whose cases were closed due to full-family sanctions in a given year would require substantial resources; (5) GAO calculated the total number of sanctions in an average month in 1998 by combining the number of full-family sanctions in an average month and the number of partial sanctions in an average month that year; (6) however, in state automated data systems, case closures associated with full-family sanctions are recorded only in the month the action is taken to close the case; (7) in contrast, benefit reductions associated with partial sanctions are recorded by states not only in the month action initiating a benefit reduction is taken, but also in each subsequent month that the benefit reduction remains in effect; and (8) as a result, a family that received a partial sanction in 1998 that remained in effect for 3 months, for example, appeared 3 times in a state's monthly numbers of partially sanctioned cases that year, while a family that received a full-family sanction was counted only in the month the case was closed due to full-family sanction. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-133R/html/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-133R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-133R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-133R.pdf GAO/HEHS-00-133R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-133R Correspondence GAO/HEHS-00-133R; Additional Information about the Scope and Limits of; Public assistance programs Families State-administered programs Noncompliance Sanctions Statistical data Welfare benefits Data collection HHS Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program