Hhs Awards $200 Million In Bonus Payments To States
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded $200 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) bonuses to 41 states and the District of Columbia for success in employment and other program achievements during fiscal year 2001.
The welfare reform legislation of 1996 authorized funding for annual performance achievement bonuses within the TANF program, called the High Performance Bonus. States can choose to compete in any or all of the performance bonus categories, but must supply data to HHS in order to be considered for the award.
About 70 percent of the bonuses were awarded for employment achievement among TANF recipient adults — including job entry, job retention and increased earnings. Bonuses also were awarded for program achievements in helping low-income working families take advantage of available Food Stamps and Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage; in providing child care; and in increasing the proportion of children living in married couple families. Most of these awards are made for relative performance in the given year and for greatest improvement from the previous year.
Award amounts for each state depend upon the size of each state’s TANF block grant. Under the law, states are limited to receiving bonuses in a given year of no more than five percent of their annual TANF block grant. Nine of the 41 states received their maximum possible bonus.
The states receiving bonuses and the amount of their bonuses are:
Alaska $3,180,454
Arkansas $2,836,643
California $6,733,931
Connecticut $11,745,032
Delaware $357,059
District of Columbia $167,022
Florida $28,117,006
Hawaii $178,375
Idaho $1,345,692
Indiana $9,104,087
Iowa $591,291
Kansas $5,096,553
Kentucky $5,979,825
Maine $372,895
Maryland $1,581,788
Massachusetts $2,192,717
Michigan $8,997,878
Mississippi $390,077
Missouri $10,852,587
Montana $1,633,862
Nebraska $2,901,429
Nevada $303,634
New Hampshire $1,580,950
New Jersey $4,253,547
New Mexico $3,288,880
New York $10,982,581
North Dakota $853,586
Oklahoma $6,516,123
Oregon $4,115,730
Pennsylvania $18,964,930
Rhode Island $ 2,153,419
South Carolina $1,554,819
South Dakota $949,973
Tennessee $9,576,190
Texas $5,119,153
Utah $3,841,461
Vermont $919,053
Virginia $7,914,259
Washington $729,211
West Virginia $1,358,603
Wisconsin $10,288,002
Wyoming $379,696
