Library: News Releases
OKLAHOMA CAPITOL --- There were 1,116 fewer children and adults on the cash public assistance rolls as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program cases dropped by 330 from 14,576 in October to 14,246 in November, an Oklahoma Department of Human Services official announced today.
OKDHS Director Howard H. Hendrick said, "We hope this is the beginning of a positive sign for children and families in our state. After several years of declining caseload numbers we saw a slow but gradual increase beginning in July of this year and we have been watching it very closely. The slight drop in the November numbers is encouraging.
Oklahoma’s TANF caseload reached its lowest point in nearly 30 years in June, dropping to 13,517. The 13,517 cases equates to a 73.7 percent decline since the state reached its zenith in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, now TANF, in October 1992.
That month, there were 51,333 open AFDC cases totaling payments of $15.4 million. Early in ’92, the Oklahoma Commission for Human Services had authorized OKDHS measures to begin Oklahoma’s welfare reform efforts.
When Oklahoma initiated TANF in October 1996, to comply with new federal mandates for the block grant program, the caseload had been reduced to 34,827 cases, which included 92,872 persons (26,349 adults and 66,523 children). Cash payments that month had been reduced to $9.03 million.
Those numbers compare to the 14,246 open cases in November, which includes 34,778 persons (7,969 adults and 26,809 children), receiving payments of $3.1 million. The reductions have kept Oklahoma listed in the top five states in the nation on reducing the number of persons receiving cash assistance during the past five years.
"The AFDC and TANF programs have been fostered from their beginnings to care for children when families fall on economic hard times," Hendrick said. "More than 6,400 of the 14,246 November TANF cases have cash support for the children in the household only. There is no supplement in the payments for the adults who care for them."
###
