Every month, Monique Jackson must decide how to spend the $629 she receives from the District’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Since Jackson lost her job as a paralegal in 2024, TANF has been the only steady cash coming into her household.
TANF helps Jackson, a lifelong Washingtonian, pay for clothing, household items, phone and internet bills, and extracurricular activities for her eight-year-old son. But with a slate of changes to the program taking effect this year, she’ll soon have less to work with.
Under TANF time limits passed as part of last year’s budget and going into effect this October, Jackson, who has been supported by the program on and off for eight years, will see her benefits decrease to $440 a month. By October 2029, her monthly benefit will be just $157.
Under Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed budget for the coming year, the drop could be even sharper; Jackson would receive no TANF benefits starting in October 2027.
District officials estimate 8,000 households may be in the same boat as Jackson, and will have to make less money stretch further when changes to the TANF program begin to go into effect later this year.
Three coming changes
TANF is a federal cash assistance program for extremely low-income families run by states, including D.C. In 2025, Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed sweeping changes to D.C.’s program, limiting how long people can receive aid. Although the D.C. Council rejected these new limitations for this year, fiscal year 2026, they are set to go into effect in October, when fiscal year 2027 begins.
These changes will cause some TANF households to lose thousands in benefits every year. By October 2028, benefits will be cut by up to 81% for some families, according to a letter signed by local organizations.
Starting in October, the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS), which administers TANF, will eliminate the cost-of-living adjustment. This adjustment historically increased the maximum benefit people could receive by 2.9% annually, to keep up with inflation. Now, the maximum monthly benefit amount for a family of three will remain at $803 indefinitely.
DHS will also increase sanctions for those who fail to meet TANF’s work requirements, such as being employed, searching for work, or participating in education or training programs. Starting in October, households that don’t meet the requirement will lose 25% of their benefits, up from 6%.
The federal government only funds TANF for families up to 60 months. Since 2001, the District has covered benefits for families who exceed this time limit. Starting in October, DHS will reduce benefits for families who have been in the program longer than five years. The department will implement these cuts gradually, reducing benefits by 30% in 2026, 50% in 2027, and 75% in 2028.
If a family of three reaches the 60-month time limit, their maximum benefit would fall from $803 today to $562 by the end of 2026, $402 in 2027, and $201 in 2028.
“The local cost share [of TANF] has compounded to unsustainable levels,” a representative from DHS said in an email. “TANF program expenses have grown 48% since 2020 and are forecasted to grow $11M more in FY26.” According to District officials, these cuts will save the city millions.
The mayor’s proposed budget would escalate these changes, increasing cuts for families who have reached this time limit to 100% next year. If the proposal is passed as written, starting in October 2027, D.C. families who have received TANF for over five years would no longer receive any support from the program.
These cuts are happening as the District is introducing new federally-mandated work requirements to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. “We’re in the midst of the greatest reduction of D.C.’s safety net in, at least, a generation,” said Ed Lazere, director of legislative advocacy at the United Planning Organization.
Impacts of TANF cuts
Between 15,000 and 17,000 families receive TANF benefits in the District, officials said at a March 6 hearing. Families use this money to pay for whatever they might need during the month: snacks, clothing, field trips, and, most often, rent.
“TANF is a critical safety net for families,” Jessica Berger, supervising attorney in the public benefits unit at Legal Aid DC, said.
According to District officials, roughly half of households receiving TANF in the District will reach the 60-month time limit this fiscal year. While officials expect 2,000 families to receive hardship extensions from time limit penalties, officials said, roughly 6,000 will see their benefits cut by 75% by 2028, or cut entirely next year, if Bowser’s budget is passed as written.
Increased hunger and homelessness will be two of the primary impacts of these cuts, advocates said. According to the Children’s Law Center, TANF cuts could also decrease school attendance, reduce educational success, limit brain development, and increase financial stress and child neglect.
“Our children are the future, so it’s also harming the city’s future if we pull the rug out from under our youngest residents and just make it harder for them to grow up healthy and strong,” said Lazere.
Cuts to TANF will disproportionately impact children of color and families living in Wards 7 and 8, where more than 50% of TANF recipients live. Over 96% of TANF recipients in the District are Black.
A 2021 study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argued that TANF policies like time limits and work requirements disproportionately cut off benefits for families of color. While 68% of families experiencing poverty received benefits in 1996, that number had dropped to 23% by 2019.
“These types of punitive policies stem from history of anti-Black racism and the idea that only some families are deserving of support,” Legal Aid DC’s Lisa Meehan testified in a Feb. 26 hearing. “This history of racism bears out in the disproportionate impact of these cuts.”
Employment and education
Jackson first began receiving TANF eight years ago when she had her son. Before then, she was a social worker. While on TANF, Jackson has completed courses in electrical wiring, HVAC, stationary steam engineering, and law. Jackson also founded and ran a nonprofit organization, Children of the Light, which supported underprivileged children in D.C. Jackson always wanted to help people in her community. “D.C. is the community that made me,” she said.
Despite her resume, Jackson has struggled to find and maintain employment. In February 2023, Jackson found a job as a paralegal specialist with the D.C. government. But the department laid her off in March 2024 due to budget cuts.
Similar experiences are common for TANF recipients. In fiscal year 2025, the District’s TANF Employment and Education Program (TEP), which provides job coaching to recipients, only helped 10 people find jobs for every 1000 work-eligible TANF recipients, according to responses from DHS before the March hearing. DHS cited job cuts, budget constraints, and slow hiring for these low rates.
The mayor’s budget proposes cutting $11 million from TEP. “The District is prioritizing investments in other more cost-effective workforce development programs,” a representative from DHS wrote in an email.
While the D.C. Council will have hearings on the proposed budget over the next few months, Jackson and others like her will already begin to lose hundreds in income this October, regardless of whether these new changes are passed.
Jackson said she has “no clue” how coming TANF cuts will impact her and her son, or how she’ll manage the household after losing hundreds in income. She hopes she is able to find employment again before the cuts occur.
“It is such a drastic cut, that I don’t want to think about it,” said Jackson. She said the cuts will cause a huge setback, not only to her finances, but to what she’s accomplished in her life and education. She also said it would likely mean her son wouldn’t be able to participate in extracurricular activities.
“What these policies are doing is they’re asking the people with the least resources, the people that need the most help, to pay the biggest cost here. And that is just devastating,” said Berger. “That’s not reflective of D.C. values. We need to look real hard at ourselves in a tough budget year: Who is going to be paying that burden? It should not be our families in D.C. who have the most limited resources.”
This article originally appeared in Street Sense’s April 22, 2026 edition.
