Thirty years ago this month, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 (PROWRA) — a law to “end welfare as we know it.” Among its biggest reforms, PROWRA transformed the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) — a guaranteed lifetime entitlement to cash for all low-income families — into the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
Unlike AFDC, TANF requires parents to work, or be looking for work, to qualify for benefits. TANF recipients also have a 60-month lifetime limit of federally funded cash assistance.
With progressives seeking to dismantle these reforms in favor of a more expansive and universal welfare system, it is imperative to ask whether Americans agree that the days of prioritizing work are behind us. According to a survey conducted by the Manhattan Institute, this does not appear to be the case.
By and large, the American public supports welfare assistance that is tied to work.
Asked about the law’s major reforms, voters express overwhelming support for requiring welfare recipients to demonstrate that they are seeking work (74% support to 17% oppose). A majority supports restricting welfare eligibility for recent legal immigrants (58%), while pluralities support replacing the former federal entitlement with state-administered block grants (50%), limiting lifetime welfare benefits to five years (48%), and restricting food stamp eligibility for individuals with felony drug convictions (49%)
Work requirements remain the law’s most durable legacy. Support extends across virtually every demographic and political group, including majorities of Republicans, independents, and Democrats. Even among somewhat left-leaning voters, more than six in ten support requiring welfare recipients to seek employment.
Across the political spectrum, Americans also prefer a targeted safety net, with benefits going to those in need. And while the DSA continues to raise alarm on inequality, Americans do not believe that government assistance programs should be trying to close the gap between the rich and the poor.
Americans generally favor assistance that is targeted toward those most in need, encourages work and self-sufficiency, provides a basic standard of living rather than equalizing incomes, and delivers benefits through specific programs rather than unrestricted cash payments.
By an overwhelming majority, 67% to 24%, respondents say that government assistance should be focused on those who are truly unable to provide for themselves rather than made available universally as a basic benefit. Similarly, nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) say the primary goal of welfare programs should be ensuring that everyone can meet their basic needs, while just 21% believe the goal should be reducing the gap between rich and poor. Even among Democrats and self-described left-leaning voters, the basic-minimum approach commands substantially more support than redistribution.
Ultimately, these survey results demonstrate that the public has not abandoned the ethos of 1996. By maintaining broad, cross-partisan backing for work requirements, time limits, and reciprocal obligation, voters continue to view gainful employment not as an obstacle to aid, but as its essential core.
For policymakers, the message from the public is straightforward: effective welfare policy must continue to encourage and reward work.