This report presents information on the work requirements currently in use in TANF, SNAP, and federal housing assistance programs and discusses the available evidence on implementation experiences and impacts. It also describes Medicaid waiver requests currently under consideration at CMS that would include work requirements and closes by highlighting key questions for consideration when assessing the use of work requirements in safety net programs. For example, given the evidence that employment among families who are subject to current work requirements rarely pays high enough wages to move a family off assistance and out of poverty, what are the expected benefits of implementing new work requirements?

 

This report was modified on December 28, 2017. The author list was incorrect; Laura Wheaton was not an author on this report. Table 1 was inserted. On page 17, “Kansas” was corrected to “Maine,” and note 35 was amended to discuss Maine rather than Kansas.