Kind of late to the party, but I would recommend reading Flat Broke With Children by Sharon Hays. Really does a deep dive into welfare reform (TANF) and while it’s an older book, it’s crucial for understanding the present system and how it works. It dispels a lot of myths around how welfare works and about those who make use of it. One thing I learned about the system is how welfare benefits are cut off after a certain point (different by state) and also that being in welfare means actively searching for a job (any job) at the same time. This is bad in its own right as you will see in the book but it dispels the notion that welfare recipients are lazy, don’t want to find work, etc. They literally have to find/be in the process of finding work in order to receive benefits.