Butler’s TANF study cited in Free Press roundup of state Legislature news
A study by Sandra Butler, a University of Maine social work professor, was cited in a Free Press article on news out of Augusta. Although the level of extreme poverty in Maine has spiked by 50 percent since the governor began cutting welfare programs in 2011, Republicans are hoping to prevent even more low-income people from receiving public assistance with a series of bills to be heard by the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee on April 10, according the article. A measure will be introduced that would make families who have exhausted the 60-month lifetime limit on receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits ineligible to receive emergency shelter and food from the general assistance program, the article states. In 2012, Butler surveyed more than 1,500 low-income families who lost TANF benefits due to the 60-month cap and found that 70 percent of respondents reported they had gone to a food bank, about a third lost utility service, and 20 percent reported being evicted from their homes, had to relocate, lived in overcrowded conditions or were forced to stay in a homeless shelter, the article states.