NEW REPORT: Outdated and Ineffective: Why New Jersey Needs to Update Its Top Anti-Poverty Program
For Immediate Release

May 22, 2024 – New Jersey’s top anti-poverty program has failed to keep up with inflation and falls far short of lifting families out of deep poverty, according to a new report by New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP).

The report, Outdated and Ineffective: Why New Jersey Needs to Update Its Top Anti-Poverty Program, finds that benefit levels in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) have remained largely the same since the program started in 1998. Amid rising costs, the program is no longer effective in helping families with little to no income afford the most basic necessities.

“There’s this expectation that New Jersey has a strong safety net if any of us ever fall on hard times, but benefit levels are so low that they can’t even protect families from the very real harms of deep poverty,” said Brittany Holom-Trundy, Ph.D., NJPP Senior Policy Analyst and report author. “Since this program was created, the cost of living has continued to rise while grant amounts remain the same. Unlike fashion trends from the 1990s, these benefit levels are not making a comeback, and they must be updated to meet today’s needs.”

The report examines the maximum monthly TANF grant amounts and measures the loss in purchasing power of TANF benefits since the program was created. Because TANF is targeted to families with the absolute lowest incomes, many of the families eligible for the program have little to no additional income and have to live off of their grant amounts.

For a family of three, New Jersey’s maximum TANF grant is $559 per month, or roughly $6,700 per year. This amounts to a mere half of the income required to escape what the federal government considers “deep poverty,” which is about $13,000 per year for a family of three. The federal government defines “deep poverty” as living in a household with an income below half of the Federal Poverty Level.

The report finds that, since 1998, New Jersey’s TANF grants have lost 30 percent of their value. As a result, monthly benefits that used to cover the average cost of groceries with enough left over to help pay other bills, like rent, now barely covers the average cost for the month’s groceries. Unless TANF benefits are updated and indexed to inflation, the purchasing power will continue to erode as the cost of living increases.

“Too many of New Jersey’s families remain trapped in a cycle of deep poverty in which they struggle to keep a roof over their head, put food on the table, and get access to health care when they need it,” said Maura Collinsgru, New Jersey Citizen Action Director of Policy and Advocacy. “We must ensure TANF enables our most vulnerable residents to meet their basic needs, while also helping lift them out of a cycle created by long standing social, racial, and economic inequities. For this reason we urge our lawmakers to significantly raise the level of the TANF grant awards, while taking other measures to ensure the program is more accessible to New Jerseyans who need it most.”

The report also compares TANF benefits to the actual cost of living in New Jersey. According to Legal Service’s of New Jersey’s True Poverty threshold, a single parent with two children needs roughly $87,000 per year to meet their basic needs. Even excluding child care costs, a single parent with two children needs $63,000 per year, more than twice the federal poverty level for a family of three, to cover bills.

“WorkFirst NJ benefits are far too low to meet critical basic needs for families in crisis,” said Maura Sanders, Chief Counsel for Public Benefits of Legal Services of New Jersey. “Legal Services of New Jersey urges Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Legislature to support legislation to adjust the program’s benefit levels.”

By reducing childhood poverty, raising TANF benefits would promote better education outcomes for children, address systemic economic disparities, and help families achieve financial stability. The report recommends adjusting the TANF grant to at least 50 percent of the federal poverty level and indexing TANF benefits to inflation so they meet the needs of families today and in the future.

“No one should have to live in deep poverty, and updating the state’s TANF program is a great first step to make that a reality,” said Brittany Holom-Trundy. “Lawmakers have a chance to make a life-changing difference for families in every corner of the state.”

Read the full report online here.

Read the full report as a PDF here.

# # #

New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) is a nonpartisan think tank that drives policy change to advance economic, social, and racial justice through evidence-based, independent research, analysis, and advocacy.