States therefore must use their new latitude to make sure they are moving recipients from welfare to work. Training and education are deemphasized and can only count for one year as a work-related activity. Also only 20 percent of the caseload can be in training or education. The emphasis is on work. States can exempt 20 percent of their caseload from work but not time limits.
Family Violence can be a state-approved exemption category if states choose.
Yet, if states are too liberal they fear that newcomers will flood in, rising their rolls. So far, states are tightening and rolls are declining. In addition, benefits continue to stagnate as most states have not raised benefits in recent years. Benefits have been essentially frozen in many states while rolls increased in the 1980s. Actually benefits have been falling since the mid-1970s.