The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) ended ‘welfare as we knew it’, replacing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). PRWORA did not end the debate on welfare; indeed the requirement that TANF be reauthorised by 30th September 2002 intensified it. This chapter reviews the American social assistance system, its recent history, the changes brought about by PRWORA, and the debate over reauthorisation. What was missing from that debate was a sense of what Americans want the experience of social assistance to be and what changes in organisation might move the reality closer to the political ideal. British experience, Chapter Seven will suggest, has much to offer on both fronts. Like other contributions in this book, this analysis concentrates on policy for persons of working age, their families, and their children.

The system

The United States is a residual welfare state in which most income support is means tested and only the state pension (Social Security) system for older people and the associated national health insurance programme (Medicare) are genuinely universal. What is provided for poor and near-poor households is constructed from a number of building blocks – components that are administered by various national, state, and local agencies. The result is that assistance available to poor people and the terms under which such assistance may be obtained depend in part upon where such people live and very much on age and family circumstance.

Major means-tested programmes

A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) study counted 84 means-tested antipoverty programmes, ranging from Medicaid to assistance with home weatherproofing. Seven of these programmes – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Food Stamp Program, the Earned Income Tax Credit, general assistance, Supplemental Security Income, housing assistance, and Medicaid/children's health insurance – are particularly pertinent to comparison with British social assistance. These programmes are summarised in Table 2.1. For each the responsible national agency, target group, and benefit are listed as well as the source of funds. Much recent reform in the US has been about linking benefits to recipient obligations, and these obligations generally involve work or preparation for work. The table identifies this work connection where present. A sense of scale is provided both by funding and by number of recipients.