Sanctions and material hardship under TANF

Relatively little is known about families who have been sanctioned since the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. We use panel data from the Women's Employment Survey to examine the predictors of sanctioning and consequences for material hardship among a sample of welfare recipients under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Approximately 12 percent reported being sanctioned by fall 1998. Statistically significant predictors include being African American and lacking a high school education. Controlling for a wide range of personal and demographic characteristics, we find that sanctions predict utility shutoffs, engaging in hardship‐mediating activities, and subjective perceptions of economic hardship.