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Minnesota Family Investment Program Minnesota House Research Department Page 21 state welfare programs, such as the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), that are paid for in part with federal TANF funds. MFIP participants must work for at least the number of hours per week that are specified in the federal law. The federal minimum weekly work requirements are slightly different than the minimum weekly work requirements that are in the MFIP state law. The federal TANF law also specifies percentages of all families and of two-parent families on a state’s program who must meet the federal weekly work requirements. The federal work participation requirements are listed in the following tables. Federal Work Participation Requirements for All Families Federal Fiscal Year All participant families Required hours of work per week Percentage of MFIP families who must meet requirement If all children are over six If at least one child is under six 1998 20 20 30% 1999 25 20 35% 2000 30 20 40% 2001 30 20 45% 2002 + 30 20 50% The percentage of families who must meet the work requirement is also called the “participation rate.” Under the federal law, a state’s required participation rate is reduced by 1 percent for each 1 percent reduction in the number of cases on the state’s welfare program in the year compared to the average monthly number of TANF cases in federal fiscal year 2005.41 This “caseload reduction credit” can result in a state’s target work participation rates being lower than the percentages shown in the tables on this page and the following page.

41 The caseload reduction credit used to be calculated based on the number of AFDC cases in federal fiscal year 1995. However, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 changed the base year to 2005. Since many AFDC and MFIP cases were closed prior to 2005, this makes the required work participation rates (which remained the same) harder to achieve.