Article from Town Hall by Timothy Meads.

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports that welfare spending in the state has dropped by more than $55 million since 2006 as more and more families are able to find meaningful employment after various reforms at both the state and national level have encouraged citizens to find a job rather than stay on government assistance.

According to Maya T. Prabahu, the number of Georgia families on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program — aka TANF — has plummetted from the monthly average of 33,302 in 2006 to the monthly average of 10,159 households in 2018.

Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services said the numbers indicate that the program is working as it should.

“Many at our smallest level of income get $155 (a month),” Jon Anderson, the head of DFCS’ Office of Family Independence told the AJC. “Some people look at that and say, ‘I can make more working full time than TANF would bring into my household,’ and make the decision to go to work.”

Read the entire article at Town Hall.

Image Credit: By Jericho [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons