Welfare to Work

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on state implementation of transitional benefits, focusing on: (1) the proportion of eligible families receiving transitional child care (TCC) or transitional Medicaid benefits; (2) the reasons for variations among states; (2) state efforts to track the rates at which families return to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program when their transitional benefits expire; and (3) the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) efforts to evaluate and report on the effectiveness of these benefits. GAO found that: (1) most states lack readily available data to evaluate the success of their efforts to deliver transitional benefits; (2) state case loads for transitional benefits increased during the first 15 months after the benefits became available; (3) not all states comply with legislative and regulatory requirements to inform families about transitional benefits; (4) not all states comply with HHS regulations that allow families to request TCC and begin receiving it after their AFDC benefits are terminated; and (5) mandated HHS evaluations of transitional benefits have not progressed beyond initial design work that HHS began in early 1990.