The Daily Signal cites TANF study by Butler
A 2014 study by Sandra Butler, a University of Maine social work professor, was cited in The Daily Signal article, “How Maine’s time limit on welfare pushed one woman to pull herself out of poverty.” Since Maine reinstated the 60-month lifetime limit for benefits, which took effect in 2012, the number of cases in the state declined 62 percent from 2011 to 2016, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Butler’s study, “TANF Time Limits, One Year Later: How Families are Faring,” found 36 percent of TANF households received exemptions. The study, which was conducted with Maine Equal Justice Partners, followed 13 families who left TANF after 60 months. According to the research, 31 percent of the 13 interviewed were employed or had a member of their household who was employed after losing their TANF benefits, an increase of 7 percentage points, but more than half of the families surveyed didn’t include an employed adult. Nearly one-third of the families in the study lost their houses after their TANF eligibility ended, according to the article.