Programs operated by state agencies or local jurisdictions that offer employment training and supportive services (such as child care, transportation costs, ancillary expenses and personal counseling) for people who are receiving public assistance through the TANF program in an effort to help them become self-supporting. Private organizations, often under contract with a public agency, may be involved in both the provision of training and on-the-job work experience (including volunteering in nonprofit agencies). Public assistance recipients are required to participate in designated program activities a minimum number of hours per week in order to receive their monthly income support payment and supplemental payments for support services.

A state program with matching federal block grant funds administered by the county or the state under state guidelines that provides time-limited cash assistance for needy families with (or expecting) children as well as job preparation, work opportunities and access to supportive services such as child care which enable parents receiving assistance to leave the program and become self-sufficient. TANF, which ends the federal entitlement known as AFDC, creates a five-year lifetime limit on cash assistance for most adult recipients; requires that recipients be working or participating in a work-related activity within two years and cooperate with comprehensive child support enforcement efforts including paternity establishment; and contains special live at home and stay in school provisions for teenage parents. States have wide latitude in structuring their TANF programs and may obtain waivers which exempt them from specific federal requirements. Recipients may receive monthly checks or be given electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards which allow them to access their cash benefits at automated teller machines (ATMs) or point of sale (POS) equipment that is located in grocery stores, banks and other commercial locations.

Programs that cover all or part of the cost of child care in public and licensed private child care centers or private family child care homes, usually for low-income families or families which include children with disabilities in situations where parents are working, in school or in a training program. Also included are programs that pay the costs of in-home or out-of-home child care when the parent is receiving diagnostic tests, undergoing medical treatment, is hospitalized or needs to be out of the house for other reasons; and those that provide financial assistance to families with young children to help cover some of the costs of a parent staying home to care for their child.

Individuals who are generally between the ages of 18 and 25 depending on the ages that specific programs use for qualification.

Individuals who are receiving cash grants and emergency assistance through the General Relief program, an income maintenance program that is funded entirely by the county for indigent people, usually adults who have no minor children, who are ineligible for any of the federally-funded cash grant programs.

Individuals who are receiving cash grants through the Supplemental Security Income program, a federal income maintenance program with supplemental state funds which is administered by the Social Security Administration for people who are age 65 and older, are blind or have a disability, and have little or no income and assets.

Individuals who are receiving cash grants through the TANF program, a state program with matching federal block grant funds administered by the county or the state under state guidelines that provides time-limited cash assistance for needy families with (or expecting) children as well as job preparation, work opportunities and access to supportive services such as child care which enable parents receiving assistance to leave the program and become self-sufficient.

Individuals or families whose annual income is between 150 and 200% of poverty level for their family size.

People whose annual income is within the federal poverty level guidelines which vary according to family size and are revised annually.