Florida Becomes 1st State to Deliver New Blow to Welfare Cash

Florida is the first state to put item-level limits on Temporary Cash Assistance, the TANF-funded program loaded onto EBT cards. Recipients will no longer be able to spend that cash on tattoos, vapes, theme-park tickets, video games, and other goods officials call non-essential. The Trump administration is holding the plan up as a model.

TCA is separate from SNAP, though both balances can sit on the same card. HHS’s Administration for Children and Families told Gov. Ron DeSantis the updated TANF plan was complete and praised what it called “common-sense restrictions” on luxury and non-essential purchases.

“Taxpayer-funded assistance should help families put food on the table, keep the lights on, purchase clothing, provide for their children and overcome barriers on the path toward independence,” DeSantis said. “We will continue supporting Floridians who genuinely need assistance, while working to improve accountability and transparency so that these programs operate as intended.”

Florida already blocked EBT use for alcohol and at adult-entertainment venues, casinos, and commercial bingo halls. The new rules go further by targeting products at otherwise eligible stores.

The banned list includes tobacco, nicotine, and vaping products; drugs and intoxicants; pornography; video games, entertainment tickets, theme-park admission, and entertainment subscriptions; tattoos, spa services, tanning, and other luxury services; and psychic and fortune-telling services.

The cash rules also line up with Florida’s Healthy SNAP policy, launched in April, which already bars food benefits from covering soda, energy drinks, candy, and ultra-processed desserts.

ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams told Fox News the administration views TANF as short-term help, not an open tab. “When people come to us for those basic needs, we will give them short-term assistance for those needs, but not for superfluous purchases,” he said.

DeSantis has framed the change as an anti-waste measure, not a cut in benefit amounts. “That money should be going to things that are really essential and shouldn’t be diverted to things that are not essential,” he said. In Tampa he added that some card use is fraud: “They’re not really needy. They’re scam artists.”

Implementation is planned in phases, starting with SNAP-authorized retailers and later expanding transaction-level blocks. Critics say the limits will squeeze poor families and local merchants. The White House is still urging other states to copy Florida’s approach.