Florida is becoming the first state to impose sweeping new limits on how welfare cash can be spent, blocking recipients from using cash-assistance benefits loaded onto EBT cards for purchases like tattoos, theme park tickets, video games, vaping products and other items not generally considered “basic needs” under a plan the Trump administration is urging other states to emulate.
Floridas cash-assistance program, known as Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA), is funded through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. It is separate from SNAP, the food-assistance program, though families may receive both types of benefits through separate balances on the same EBT card.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) determined Floridas updated TANF plan to be complete Thursday in a letter sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis and obtained by Fox News Digital. The letter praised the Sunshine State governor for putting “common-sense restrictions” on what it calls inappropriate, luxury and non-essential purchases.
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“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 in announcing the policy. “We will continue supporting Floridians who genuinely need assistance, while working to improve accountability and transparency so that these programs operate as intended.”
Florida had already barred EBT cards from being used or accepted for and transactions at adult-entertainment establishments, casinos and commercial bingo locations several years ago, but the updated plan moves beyond those merchant and location-based restrictions by imposing item-level limits at otherwise eligible retailers, including on purchases for tattoos and other body piercings, entertainment services and products like theme park admission and video games, intoxicants like vapes and other nicotine products, and pornography products.
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The governor’s press release announcing the change also cites “Psychic and fortune-telling services” among those purchases that will be prohibited.
Floridas separate Healthy SNAP initiative, launched in April, barred recipients from using food benefits on soda, energy drinks, candy and ultra-processed prepared desserts. The new action from the Sunshine State, with backing from the Trump administration, applies those same food limits to Floridas cash-assistance program, which is funded through TANF, while adding restrictions on non-food purchases deemed non-essential.
ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Ad
