TOPEKA — Spending on Kansas’ cash assistance program for low-income families has dwindled by nearly 40% in the past 14 years while lawmakers limited eligibility and inflation surged, according to a new audit.
State auditors presented findings to legislators Tuesday that show spending on cash assistance decreased from about $15.2 million in 2009 to $9.4 million in 2023. Spending on foster care and preventative services increased by an estimated $25 million over the same timespan, according to the audit, which involved reviewing five financial reports created between fiscal years 2009 and 2023.
Kansas families with children or an expectant mother that make an insufficient income qualify for cash assistance, which is accessed through electronic benefit transfer cards, or EBT. The state’s cash assistance program is funded by the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program, which also funds other state initiatives including employment support and child care assistance. The Kansas Department for Children and Families administers TANF funds and the cash assistance program.
Legislative involvement in regulating cash assistance has been limited since the 2015 Hope, Opportunity and Prosperity for Everyone, or HOPE, Act, which restricted access to Kansas’ program. The federal government allows people to receive cash assistance for up to 60 months in their lifetime. Kansas’ maximum was 48 months, but the HOPE Act reduced it to 36 months. The Legislature reduced the maximum again in 2016 to 24 months.
As of 2023, DCF handled 2,900 cash assistance cases per month. In 2009, average monthly caseloads totaled around 12,600 cases, according to the audit.
The decrease could be attributed to eligibility changes under the HOPE Act and a general increase in wages and inflation, said Sam Dadds, a senior auditor with the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit, at the meeting with lawmakers Tuesday. Kansas’ standards for eligibility requirements and benefit amounts have not been changed since 1997. With that, comes the diminished purchasing power of cash assistance, which could be a deterrent for families considering applying, Dadds said.
“What this means is that it’s harder to qualify for TANF in 2023 because families are being measured against what was considered in-need in 1997,” Dadds said.
Since the inception of Kansas’ cash assistance program in 1996, the purchasing power of EBT has decreased by nearly 50%, he said.
Rep. Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson, said Kansas lacks a functional system.
“We do have a system, also, that has a very hard line once people hit a certain income level, as they’re working their way through poverty, where we then pull the rug right out from underneath them,” he said.
He called it “the cliff effect,” a term for when low-income individuals get a modest increase in income but end up with fewer resources because they no longer qualify for government aid.. Probst, Sen. Mary Ware, D-Wichita, and Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, among others, expressed an interest in combating the cliff effect through legislation.
Tyson, who voted for the HOPE Act in 2015 and further restrictions in 2016, was dismayed by data limitations and omissions within the audit. Some data was completely unavailable for the audit because of new staff at DCF and a lack of cohesion between old and new computer systems.
“I don’t even know what to say to that,” she said at the meeting.
Carla Whiteside-Hicks, the DCF’s director of economic services, said the agency is actively working to address inefficiencies throughout the agency and make it easier for families to meet the federal and state requirements needed to receive cash assistance. Whiteside-Hicks is scheduled to return to the post-audit committee at its next meeting to provide additional data and information.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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