The financial assistance programs provide income support to individuals and families to meet their basic needs while encouraging their maximum degree of independence. Services are available to help them seek and obtain employment. More permanent assistance is available to families in which there is no employable person. The program is referred to as Jobs First. Families in which there is no employable adult have no limit to the duration of the benefits.
Eligibility is based on income being lower than a set standard and assets being below limits.
Earned income of recipients of TFA that are working are not counted until they are equal to the federal poverty level. They are thus allowed to keep all earnings up to the federal poverty level as well as the cash assistance benefit. The amount of assistance varies depending on which of three regions of the state they live in. Adults in the family are subject to digital imaging of their fingerprints to prevent receipt of duplicate assistance. There is a family cap provision in which the increase in benefit for additional children conceived while the mother is on assistance is reduced by approximately one-half of what it otherwise would be.