Last year, 11,717 low-income residents of Mississippi applied to get a meager government benefit to help them make ends meet. The state’s welfare program, part of federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), gives a maximum of just $170 a month to a family of three. These applicants had applied hoping to get at least that crumb of cash assistance.
But out of the pool—more than 11 thousand—only 167 people were actually approved and enrolled in the program, according to state data obtained by ThinkProgress. Every other applicant was denied or withdrew, resulting in an acceptance rate of just 1.42 percent. Statistically speaking, it’s more like a rounding error.
The numbers follow a disturbing trend in the state over the past several years. Between 2003 and 2010, according to a report by the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative (MLICCI), roughly half of the applicants to the state’s TANF program were rejected, already a large share of poor people denied assistance. But then in 2011, the rejection rate catapulted to 89 percent. It has gradually increased every year since.
States are generally incentivized to reduce their TANF caseloads, given that any unused money can be redirected to other purposes. But Mississippi stands out for its astonishing rejection rate. “Mississippi appears to be a huge outlier,” said Liz Schott, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. No other state has a rejection rate above 90 percent; the closest is Texas, which rejected 89.7 percent of applicants in 2015. “It does stick out like a sore thumb,” said Nisha Patel, former director of the Office of Family Assistance within the Administration for Children and Families, which overseas TANF.
The numbers shock even people familiar with state and federal welfare programs. Matt Williams, research director at MLICCI, called the sharp uptick in denials in 2011 “really drastic.” Schott said she didn’t believe the data was actually valid until looking at the numbers provided to ThinkProgress. Patel said she was “quite taken aback” by the data.
No one seems able to explain what’s behind the enormous rejection rate.
“We’ve been trying to figure it out. The big question is why,” Williams said.
The state did not respond to repeated requests from ThinkProgress for an explanation of what changed, but it did send a statement saying, “Upon review of our caseload, there are a significant number of TANF applications being denied; however, there are many reasons the denials are taking place.” Those include failing to meet eligibility criteria, unresolved noncompliance issues, an ongoing mandatory work sanction period, unverified compliance with upfront requirements, failing to provide necessary data, voluntarily quitting or being fired from a job for one’s own behavior, failing to cooperate with child support enforcement, failing to show up for appointments, or voluntarily withdrawing an application. ... What’s going on in Mississippi is a direct result of the way TANF functions today. In 1996, the welfare reform bill signed into law by President Bill Clinton turned it into a block grant in which states get a fixed amount of money from the federal government to run their programs. With that change came a lot more discretion in deciding how they would run them and less oversight of the decisions they make. It also ended the entitlement structure that meant anyone who was eligible was supposed to get benefits; today, states can decide who does and doesn’t get help.