Preparing More Welfare Recipients for Work Act

This bill revises mandatory work requirements under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Specifically, for purposes of counting work activities toward the satisfaction of such requirements, the bill:

• eliminates the distinction between core work activities and other specified work activities related to training and education;
• in general, eliminates separate requirements for two-parent families and other families;
• allows partial credit with respect to families that participate in work activities for fewer hours than required;
• allows states to request approval for an alternative work-participation rate calculation;
• limits, after three months of participation, the extent to which job-search activities shall be counted as work activities;
• modifies requirements for counting secondary-school attendance as work participation;
• removes from the definition of "work activities" the provision of child-care services to an individual who is participating in a community service program; and
• increases, from 12 to 24 months, the maximum period for which vocational educational training counts a work activities.