HHS Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) Recipients File

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is designed to help needy families achieve self-sufficiency. States receive block grants to design and operate programs that accomplish one of the purposes of the TANF program. The four purposes of the TANF program are to: Provide assistance to needy families so that children can be cared for in their own homes; Reduce the dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation, work and marriage; Prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies; and Encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) files include national level data for adults and children who participate or receive benefits through states' TANF programs. These files include SSN, date of birth, sex, race, Hispanic origin, and basic geographic information (state, county, and zip code). No address data.

The project review timeframes above do not apply to applications that request access to confidential data assets commingled with data that are either not owned, or are only co-owned, by the statistical agency(s) or unit(s) and require approval from third parties not subject to this policy (e.g., state and local government agencies).

New projects requesting this data require HHS approval.