BALTIMORE — It wasn't even three weeks ago that a legislative audit sounded the alarm on Maryland's handling of hundreds-of-millions of dollars in the tax-payer funded Temporary Cash Assistance Program, also known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
Per the latest audit, Maryland lacked sufficient documentation for recipients who've been on TANF for more than five years.
The law requires those families to have a hardship exemption and independence plan in order to continue collecting benefits.
Auditors concluded Maryland failed to properly ensure longtime TANF recipients were granted such exemptions.
That same audit also determined that Maryland gave 1,858 people in jail a combination of SNAP and TANF benefits.
The Trump Administration has aimed to crack down on how States disburse that money to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse, or providing benefits to those who otherwise would be ineligible.
As part of that effort, the feds in June announced plans to expand oversight of the program including obtaining the personal identifying information of recipients.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown along with 23 other States are now suing, claiming that request is unlawful, despite the program being federally subsidized.
Nonetheless Brown and company remain concerned the TANF information would be used to further enforce immigration laws, although non-U.S. citizens don't legally qualify for such entitlement programs. It should be noted, however, that a separate audit in May suggested Maryland paid out Medicaid benefits to did not have "citizenship eligibility."
According to Brown, Maryland receives about $228 million per year in TANF funding supporting more than 38,000 participants.
“Families who rely on TANF to keep a roof over their children’s heads should not have to fear that their personal information will be shared across the federal government or used to target them,” says Brown.
