Fix TANF benefit cap across all 38+ states#7433
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MaxGhenis wants to merge 5 commits intoPolicyEngine:mainfrom
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Fix TANF benefit cap across all 38+ states#7433MaxGhenis wants to merge 5 commits intoPolicyEngine:mainfrom
MaxGhenis wants to merge 5 commits intoPolicyEngine:mainfrom
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… above max payment All 38+ state TANF benefit formulas used `max_(payment - income, 0)` which protects against income exceeding payment, but not against negative income inflating benefits above the payment standard. Added `min_(benefit, payment_standard)` caps to all affected states. Also fixes NC TANF household size bare `.sum()` bug (from prior commit). Before: Total TANF in microsim = $17.9T (target $9B), max household = $12.9M After: Total TANF in microsim = $32.1B, max household = $25K (reasonable CalWORKs) Remaining gap ($32B vs $9B) is a takeup/calibration issue, not a formula bug. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…enefits above max payment
Give spm_unit_assets an `adds` attribute pointing to spm_unit_cash_assets, so that ~35 state TANF resource eligibility tests actually check imputed assets instead of always seeing $0 (bare input default). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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The adds attribute broke existing tests that set spm_unit_cash_assets for other purposes. Since SIPP-imputed assets aren't in the released dataset yet, this forward-looking change can be a separate PR when the data is ready. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Replacing with a clean PR that excludes unrelated CBO data files. |
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Summary
.sum()bug (summed across entire population instead of within SPM unit)min_(benefit, payment_standard)caps to 42 state TANF programs across both standard-named ({st}_tanf) and non-standard-named programs (AK ATAP, AR TEA, CT TFA, FL TCA, IA FIP, LA FITAP, MA TAFDC, MD TCA, MI FIP, MN MFIP, NE ADC, NH FANF, NJ WFNJ, NM Works, OH OWF, RI Works, UT FEP, VT Reach Up, WV Works, WY POWER)Impact
The remaining gap ($32B vs ~$9B target) is a takeup issue —
takes_up_tanf_if_eligiblecurrently defaults to True for all eligible SPM units. Companion PR PolicyEngine/policyengine-us-data#542 adds a 22% TANF takeup rate to the calibration pipeline, which would bring the total to ~$5-7B pre-calibration.Root cause
All state TANF formulas used
max_(payment_standard - countable_income, 0)which correctly prevents benefits when income exceeds the payment standard, but does NOT prevent benefits from exceeding the payment standard when countable income is negative (e.g., from deductions, labor supply responses, or data issues). The fix addsmin_(benefit, payment_standard)to cap the result.Additionally, NC's
nc_tanf_household_sizeused bare.sum()instead ofspm_unit.sum(), summing eligible members across the entire population (42,874) instead of within each SPM unit.Test plan
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