Key Findings
• States have developed widely varying approaches to time limits. States have broad flexibility
in designing time-limit policies, in large part because the federal time limit does not apply to
state-funded benefits. Currently, 40 states have time limits that can result in the termination of families’
welfare benefits; 17 of those states have limits of fewer than 60 months. However, nearly half
the national welfare caseload is in states that either have no time limit (2 states) or a time limit that
reduces or modifies benefits when the limit is reached (8 states and the District of Columbia).
• All states allow exceptions to time limits, but the specific policies and their implementation
vary. All states allow exemptions (which stop the time-limit clock), extensions, or both. Exemptions
are most common for “child only” cases (which account for about one-third of all welfare
cases nationwide and are not subject to time limits in any state) and for recipients with medical
problems. In many states, recipients who comply with work requirements but are unable to find jobs
can receive extensions, although states define and assess compliance in different ways. As a result,
some states routinely grant extensions to recipients reaching time limits, while others close most of
these cases.
• Nationally, about 231,000 families have reached a time limit; at least 93,000 families have
had their welfare case closed due to a time limit, and another 38,000 have had their benefits
reduced. Most of the case closures have been in a few states with time limits of fewer than 60
months. As of December 2001, families had begun reaching the federal time limit in fewer than
half the states, and relatively few families had reached the 60-month limit in those states; most recipients
do not remain on welfare for 60 consecutive months.
• The circumstances of families who left welfare due to time limits are diverse and depend on
state policies. In some states, most recipients whose cases have been closed due to time limits
were already working while on welfare; in other states, time-limit leavers are more heterogeneous.
Most studies find that time-limit leavers are struggling financially, but they are not consistently
experiencing more or fewer hardships than families who left welfare for