California Budget Project Mandatory Tanf Sanction Policy Reduces Flexibility In California 5 03 02

California Has Moderate Sanction Rate, Maintains Aid To Children California has an adult-only sanction policy and a statewide sanction process.1 When an adult is found to be non-compliant with work or other program requirements, the family's cash grant is reduced by the amount attributable to the adult, while cash assistance is continued to children in the family. [...] Over a third of California's 58 counties (22 counties) have sanction rates at or below 10 percent, and Glenn and Calaveras Counties have the highest sanction rates of 42 and 43 percent, respectively.3 Los Angeles County has a sanction rate of 16 percent, the same as the state as a whole. [...] Differences in sanction rates among counties may result from the reluc- tance or inclination of administrators and caseworkers to impose sanctions, competing demands on caseworkers' time, and differing rates of compliance by CalWORKs participants.4 HR 4090, as amended, would mean the loss of hundreds of dollars per month for families with an adult who did not comply with TANF work requirements. [...] However, among counties with sanction rates higher than the statewide rate of 16 percent, higher sanction rates are not related to higher participation rates.12 That is, counties with high sanction rates do not tend to have higher participation rates than counties with moderate sanction rates. [...] The Public Policy Institute of California has estimated that if California had lower benefit levels and a full-family sanction policy, the state's caseload would have dropped an additional 36 percentage points between 1996 and 2000.13 In sum, the benefit of full-family sanctions in terms of increased participation may be small, since evidence indicates that higher sanction rates may not increase p.