Life without "Welfare"

What Happens If You Have No Welfare and No Job?

A new report from The Atlantic  looks at the devastating lengths single moms go to when they have neither employment nor cash assistance.

Olga Khazan

Jun 13 2014, 8:00 AM ET

 

                                          

A few weeks ago I wrote about how the welfare reform of the 1990s led to many poor mothers being kicked off welfare rolls. While some poor adults could still receive help from food stamps and disability insurance, the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act" dramatically cut how much cash aid they could collect. The hope was that they would find work, but many didn’t.

Meanwhile, spending on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, the only cash assistance program that non-disabled, non-elderly, poor single mothers are eligible for, has dropped precipitously: It was lower in 2007 than it had been in 1970.

That left me wondering—what happened to the moms who had neither jobs nor cash assistance through TANF, which comes with strict time limits?

Read the entire report here.

Poverty and learning

Here's an informative slide from a recent, important report from Future of Children.

Reactions?

America Now

Ann Curry's Dateline report on Sunday evening brought many tears to my eyes. 

You need to see it here.  It is very important work and it is real.

This is what we see every day.  It is what we've seen every day for the past 16 years.

I confess:  these experiences completely define my life and worldview.

Request: resist any temptation to judge.  Decide to simply settle into the reality. 

Then, decide to do something about it.

Survival rate better snapshot on poverty

Last week a front page story published by The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that to survive in Philadelphia without public assistance a family of four would need to earn $59,501.  That earnings number is up from $53,611 that was reported to be the "survival" pay scale in 2008. 

The report and the study behind it substantiate what we see here at Central Dallas Ministries.  Simply because a family is earning wages that places them above the artificially low federal poverty line (about $22,000 a year for a family of 4) does not mean that they can survive and certainly not thrive.  People without skills to earn a living wage need guidance and partners who will help them craft a plan for life that includes enhanced skills development, counsel about public benefits and encouragement from a community that regards them as neighbors and real friends. 

Here's how the Philadelphia report begins: 

Study: To survive, family of four needs nearly $60,000
By Alfred Lubrano
Inquirer Staff Writer

To survive in Philadelphia without food stamps or other government assistance, a family of four needs to make nearly $60,000 a year - a hard-to-fathom "sticker-shock" number that shows how expensive life has become.

According to a study being released Thursday, two adults with one preschooler and one school-age child have to take in $59,501 a year to live on a bare-bones budget in the city. In 2008, the same family of four needed $53,611 to make it in Philadelphia.

That's the word from the Self-Sufficiency Standard for Pennsylvania, a highly respected University of Washington analysis that comes out every two years.

The problem is that nearly 62 percent of Philadelphia households take in less than $50,000 a year, according to census data analyzed by Dave Elesh, a sociologist at Temple University.

Life is pricier in the suburban counties, where the same-size family needs to take in even more money to survive without assistance. Salaries must range from $62,543 in Delaware County to $71,846 in Bucks County for a family to achieve self-sufficiency. A similar study for New Jersey in 2008 put the self-sufficiency incomes at $60,912 in Burlington County, $49,739 in Camden County, and $56,752 in Gloucester County.

A family of four is considered poor if it makes $22,050 a year - the federal poverty level.

That measure, which has been used for nearly 50 years, has long been criticized as failing to take a full measure of what it costs to live in America.

To read the full story click here.

Lifting families from poverty. . .

Consider:

The estimated "poverty line" (based on an antiquated index linked to the cost of food) for a family of four (4) is $21,946. 

By applying the benefits of three very equitable, simple and efficient public support programs, such a family can be lifted above that crushing line. 

Here's how.

One family member working at a minimum wage job earns $13,391, less payroll taxes--this assumes 2,000 hours of work per year. 

By enrolling in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), filing for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and including the child tax credit, this family rises to 105% ($23,043.30) of poverty and has a much better chance to move ahead. 

Finding ways to enroll more families in SNAP is essential to loosening poverty's grip on family life. 

The EITC rewards hard work and makes it possible for working families to advance. 

A challenge we continue to address is certification difficulties and outreach to inform all who are eligible for the benefits. 

Public programs and progressive public policy are essential if we are to achieve real, sustainable progress in overcoming poverty for 40 million Americans.