Work activities

Work activities

To what extent can states count adult basic education as a work activity for purposes of meeting the federal work participation rates?

To what extent can states count adult basic education as a work activity for purposes of meeting the federal work participation rates?

Under the current federal TANF rules, participation in a GED or adult basic education program is an allowable work activity. However, for purposes of meeting the federal work participation rates (which increased to 50% for single parent families in 2002), the federal TANF rules prohibit states from counting a recipient's participation in a GED or adult basic education program for the first 20 hours of work activity. This prohibition does not prevent the states from counting participation in GED programs as an allowable work activity. A state can allow a recipient to participate in this type of education for the entire hourly work requirement, although these individuals cannot be factored into the count for purposes of meeting the federal work participation rate.

Allowing adult basic education or GED program participation to count toward the recipient's entire hourly work requirement under the current rules does not pose a problem due to the fact that most states are not in danger of failing to meet the federal work participation rate for single parent families. The fact that these individuals can not be factored into the count for the federal participation rate could potentially be a problem for some states in meeting the required rates for two-parent families, as the rate of required participation is much higher (90% since 1999). This has been less of an issue for states with a separate program for two-parent families, which removes the federal work participation requirements. If the state wishes to allow recipients to count GED participation toward their entire work requirements there typically has not been a problem, as there are enough working recipients who are countable for purposes of the federal participation rate.

Work participation rates and the rules about which activities can count toward those requirements are currently under debate in the discussions about federal TANF reauthorization. For further information about TANF reauthorization and how it could affect state decisions regarding work participation, call or email Sheri Steisel in NCSL's Washington, D.C. office at 202-624-5400 or sheri.steisel@ncsl.org.

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