Report: TAFDC Grants Inadequate

   

In 1987, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless in a lawsuit versus the Secretary of Human Servic es. The suit charged that Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) grants are inadequate to provide for families' basic needs. As a result, the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) is required to submit a report annually to the Legislature assessing the adequacy of the TAFDC grants in meeting the "Standard Budgets of Assistance" which would enable TAFDC parents to raise their children in their own homes. These annual reports consistently highlight the inadequacies of the TAFDC payments.  Unfortunately, while the court ordered DTA to provide the Legislature with this critical information, the court stopped short of requiring the Legislature to act on it by raising the grants, described by advocates as “woefully low”.

For a copy of DTA's report click here

-From “ Department of Transitional Assistance's FY'11 Report on the Standard Budgets of Assistance for Families With Dependent Children”, News from Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, February 18, 2011.

 

 

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