Appeals and fair hearings
If your TANF application is denied, your benefit is reduced or sanctioned, or your case is terminated, you can challenge the decision. Every state TANF plan must provide a fair hearing — an independent review of the agency's decision — and the decision notice you receive must tell you how to request one. The hearing is the formal route; asking your caseworker to reconsider is useful, but it does not replace a timely hearing request if the caseworker does not change the decision.
Deadlines: the notice controls
Appeal deadlines vary by state and by decision type, and they are printed on the decision notice itself. That notice deadline is the one that matters — not a deadline quoted on this site or any other general guide, because a general figure would be wrong for many states. Read the notice the day it arrives, calendar the deadline immediately, and file the request in the way the notice specifies, keeping proof of filing. Missing the deadline can end the appeal even when the underlying decision was wrong.
Aid pending: can benefits continue during the appeal?
In some circumstances, benefits continue unchanged while an appeal is pending — known as aid pending — if the appeal is filed within the window the notice specifies. Aid pending does not apply to every decision type or every late appeal, and benefits paid during an appeal may have to be repaid if the agency's decision is upheld. Ask the agency, at the time you file, whether aid pending applies to your case and what repayment risk it carries, and get the answer in writing if you can. Do not assume benefits will continue simply because you appealed.
Preparing for the hearing
A fair hearing is decided on evidence, not on sympathy. Gather the decision notice, your application and any documents you submitted, pay records or employer letters for income disputes, attendance or activity records for work disputes, medical evidence for exemption disputes, and any letters from the agency showing what was asked and when. Write a short timeline: what happened, on what date, and what document proves it. If the agency's case rests on a document you never received — a notice sent to an old address, for example — say so plainly and show when you reported the new address.
Free help with an appeal
Legal aid organisations, law school clinics, and community legal services in many areas help with benefits appeals free of charge, and some will represent you at the hearing. Search for legal aid in your county or state, and contact them as soon as you receive the notice rather than the week of the hearing, because they need time to take the case. If you cannot find representation, you can still represent yourself: hearings are designed to be accessible without a lawyer, and a clear timeline with documents is often more effective than a long speech.
If the hearing does not go your way
A hearing decision can usually be reviewed further — through an administrative review or, in some states, a court appeal — within a further deadline stated in the hearing decision. Read that decision as carefully as the original notice. If the hearing upheld the agency on a factual point you can disprove with a document you did not have at the hearing, ask promptly whether that document can be considered on review. And if the decision turned on a rule you believe the agency applied incorrectly, that is exactly the point to put to a legal aid adviser.