We need to allow fathers in the homes for all families on the Federal welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Originally created by Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democrat Party in 1950 as the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, it requires a parent must be absent from the home. Usually that parent is the father. Look at what almost 75 years of fatherless homes has done to the nuclear family. It also created child support and a financial hardship on the fathers including tax intercepts. Once the fathers were out of the homes and loaded with a huge financial debt to the government, they were called dead beat dads and the office of child support enforcement was created to collect from them what the state paid to help their children. It’s a horrible system for fathers and children and it needs to be drastically revamped! We pay for welfare programs for other countries, like Ukraine, which allows fathers in the home and we never make them pay us back. We should do the same for our own fathers.
Give them incentives to stay and take care of there family. But also have a time limit, and assistance afterwards to keep them from going back on welfare.
Is this one of the cash programs that they offered to illegal immigrants and if so did they separate families, because there was a big argument about not separating families at the border, so I don’t know why they would do it to American families receiving these services after Covid-Inflation attacked American families back to back, because the government failed to keep America safe after giving American tax dollars to the Gain of function research that caused a reengineered bat virus to attach human cells and shutdown our economy forcing people on to those welfare programs. And if they wanted to get off inflation came in making the cost of living triple.
MYTHCHECK: I am a welfare eligibility worker in California. The Cash Aid program does NOT require that there be an absent parent in the home to qualify. Many of my cases involve TWO parents with very low income. In fact, if the father has little to no income, then keeping him in the home would INCREASE your eligibility to Cash Aid, Food Stamps and Medi-caid.
Most of the cases involve a single mom, sometimes she is divorced and a lot of times never married/never even lived together in the first place.
This assistance for single moms exists BECAUSE of absent and unsupportive fathers, and as well as for women fleeing abusive fathers. Most women do NOT end up getting child support. A lot of women avoid the Cash Aid program because they’re too scared to enter the family court system/open a child support case.
My personal theory is that the increase of single mother households and absent/unsupportive fatherhood coincides with the combined effects of the previous sexual revolution and abortion ideology. The sexual revolution and abortion ideology gave way to men thinking they have some right to irresponsible sex and to their idea that it’s their right and choice to not parent their child.
We do need systemic, legislative, educational and cultural reforms to fix this mess though. It starts with a culture of life and respect for women’s bodies and family responsibilities. There is no path to a healthy, happy society without putting those three things first.
That must depend on the state… In WA state, even if you’re married you all qualify for TANF if you have no income…
If you’re separated they go after the father for the “child support” the state is paying for but if you file for TANF as an entire family (father included) that money doesn’t have to be paid back.
Similar here in CA. For cases with parents living together, there is no child support case opened or collected.
How about if your going to apply for welfare you have to name the father and mother so they can be held accountable for support of the child. No more making a business out of sex
I wonder if this is a state program and not Federally funded. Do you know the name of the program?
Naming the father is a requirement. Unfortunately, there are some people who abuse public benefits programs, but most are not getting rich. It is a shame those who abuse programs make those who really need it look bad.
It is so frustrating the rules for the same program aren’t the same in every state. Maybe it has something to do with a state supplement. 
I couldn’t agree with this concept more.
That’s exactly what we do. For single parent households, we request that the applicant complete the CW 2.1 and CW 2.1 (Q) forms to identify the nonresidential parent. We also request a copy of the birth certificate, which also usually has the father’s name on it. After the Cash aid case gets approved, the County will open a child support case against the residential father. As long as the Cash Aid case is active, the County keeps most of the child support he sends to pay back the Cash Aid being paid to her. Cash Aid is kind of like child support.
@GeorgiaKitty55 - yes this is federally funded. It’s called Cash Aid. Although in my state we call it “CalWorks.”
No, we need to stop welfare for all except those too old, too ill, too mentally challenged or in dire situations. We need to switch to workfare where you get a supplement in your salary for every dollar you EARN for a limited time to enable good workers to build up to a living wage. It should be paid to through the employer, NOT sent by the government to the individual. Welfare isn’t just a drain on society, it’s a drain on self esteem and confidence. Don’t stop a rule…stop the welfare.
We’re making the fathers pay back the program but we still completely fund programs in other countries and the fathers don’t have to pay back the welfare.
We’re making the fathers pay back the program but we still completely fund programs in other countries and the fathers don’t have to pay back the welfare.
I agree with the last paragraph completely. There are fathers who are not in the home or paying support because they do not even know they are fathers. Not because they choose not to be included. Seems like there are a lot of exceptions and individual circumstances. We’re still making the identified fathers pay back the program but we completely fund programs in other countries and the fathers don’t have to pay back the welfare. We can cut back on wasteful government spending elsewhere and stop the required payback. There are many ways a father can contribute to the growth and development of child if they are included in a child’s life. We can even help the fathers with employment so none of this needed.
Again: most fathers are NOT paying back the welfare (based on my observation of my cases, although I do not have any data on that). They are not being stopped from being involved in their child’s lives. This program was created in response to the harms caused by the pre-existence of absent fatherhood.
It would actually serve to benefit more single parent families if we removed the requirement that the county file a child support case against the father. I wish we would make that optional. A LOT of women refuse to apply for Cash Aid simply because they are too scared/don’t want to be forced to enter the family court system or anger the father by demanding child support. I always dread the moment I have to hand out the absent parent forms because this child support requirement brings stress and anxiety to the mothers applying for benefits.
Cash Aid is kind of like child support though. That’s why the father is asked to pay it. Also, bear in mind the politics of it. Society doesn’t want to just hand out free money to single moms, and leave the absent father off the hook from his responsibility. The government believes they are saving money by having the dad pay his share of the child support.
Here are some suggestions that I made in my detailed policy idea that I think would help effectuate this goal to lessen the prevalence of absent/unsupportive fatherhood:
Right to Education and Coaching on Management of Pregnancy and Parenting
- Require high schools to offer an awareness class, taught by a non-ideological, independently contracted source, regarding: fetal & child development;what abortion procedures are really like; physical/psychological risks/experiences of pregnancy & abortion; resources/options available to low-income families; the maternal/fetal healthcare rights; adoption; parenting skills & perspectives; primary attachment theory; child’s need for routine, care & attention; causes/examples/harms of: toxic stress, absent fatherhood, counter-parenting, all forms of abuse, coercion & exploitation; biological sex differences between men & women; various disabilities and disorders (including Down Syndrome, ADHD & Autism).
- Mandate that Medi-Caid and health insurance offers parents of newborns, as well as recently separated parents, access to an in-home parental coach (independently contracted and selected by the mother), to provide direct, real-time information, advice and assistance to the parents, at their homes, regarding all of the above mentioned topics. These (limited allowable) visits may be free or have a co-pay based on each parent’s income. The parenting coach can also advise separated parents on developmentally appropriate parental custodial schedules.
I think your additional ideas are very good. In the mid 90s in GA we had two programs that were state funded that were cut during the economic downturn in 1997+. One was Positive Employment and Community Help. It worked with mothers on cash assistance and helped them become educated, obtain community service jobs with government agencies, and matches with private employers for employment. It was really good, I still have letters from some of the children of the mothers I served who were so thankful their moms went to school too. It helped them see the importance of an education and helped the moms have pride in themselves. Among a lot of other positive outcomes. We also had a Fatherhood Initiative that focused on doing the same with fathers and also teaching them childhood development so they could be involved in the lives of their children. It helped the fathers work with the child enforcement agency and they were given credits for participating. Tax intercepts and wage garnishments were adjusted so the fathers had a fighting chance of becoming financially independent and supportive fathers. There were a lot of fathers who really didn’t have the education or work experience to provide for children some didn’t even know they had until a child support enforcement agent found them and began collecting their repayment to the state for aid for their child/ren. I am excited about major changes for fathers in the welfare system so they too can become more involved in lives of their children. Best of success with your paper.
If I’m understanding correctly, that fathers who pay child support need to have access to the child to lower the cost or wipe it completely? Like if the mother prohibits the father from seeing the child the father doesn’t need to pay child support?