The Deserving Poor, the Family, and the U.S. Welfare System

Moffitt, Robert A.

doi:10.1007/s13524-015-0395-0

Cited by 185 publications

(153 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…This pattern is significantly different between income groups, and marginally significant within the near-poor group across time periods ( p =0.08). This weak evidence for the redistribution of enrollment from the poorest families toward those with slightly more resources is consistent with findings for other safety net programs (Moffitt 2015). …”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Child access to the nutritional safety net during and after the Great Recession: The case of WIC

Jackson

Mayne

2016

Social Science & Medicine

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Because children disproportionately live in poverty, they are especially vulnerable during economic crises, making the social safety net a key buffer against the effects of economic disadvantage on their development. The Great Recession of 2007–2009 had strong and lasting effects on American children and families, including striking negative effects on their health environments. Understanding access to the health safety net during this time of increased economic need, as well as the extent to which all children—regardless of age, income or race/ethnicity—share in the increased use of transfer programs, is therefore important in identifying the availability and accessibility of government assistance for those in need. Focusing on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program because of its strong effects on child development, we use longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine change and stability in children’s WIC enrollment before, during and after the recession. Specifically, we examine: 1) whether children’s WIC enrollment increased alongside changing family income, and 2) the extent to which changes in participation were shared by all subpopulations, regardless of age, income, and race/ethnicity. Analyses reveal that WIC participation among eligible children increased leading up to, during, and after the Great Recession, suggesting that the program was responsive to increasing economic need. Examining the distribution of WIC enrollment across demographic groups largely reveals a pattern of stable inequality in access and “take up.” Children born to poorer and less-educated mothers were more likely to be enrolled prior to the recession, and these differences remain mostly constant during and after the recession. Eligible Hispanic children had consistently higher enrollment, particularly among those in families with foreign-born mothers. The findings suggest that not all eligible children equally enroll in WIC, but that these differences have not been drastically exacerbated by macroeconomic instability.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Child access to the nutritional safety net during and after the Great Recession: The case of WIC

Jackson

Mayne

2016

Social Science & Medicine

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“…For example, among these families there is no significant difference between older and younger heads, but participation is increasing in education attainment, and is higher among married heads. The positive association between education and EITC/CTC use among the poor is consistent both with greater program knowledge and labor-force attachment (Chetty et al 2013; Moffitt 2015b). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Expenditures on means-tested transfer programs in the United States have risen dramatically in recent decades (Moffitt 2015b; Ziliak 2015a). However, this growth in program outlays is not universal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, inflation-adjusted spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and the Additional Child Tax Credit (CTC) grew by 290, 59, and over 2200 % from 2000–2012, respectively. 1 In contrast, real spending on cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program declined, reflecting the transformation of the safety net away from cash-based assistance to one more reliant on refundable tax credits and in-kind food assistance (Bitler and Hoynes 2010; Hardy 2016; Moffitt 2013, 2015b; Ziliak 2015a). This spending pattern predated the Great Recession, suggesting that factors beyond the business cycle are potentially driving transfer program participation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Changing Safety Net for Low-Income Parents and Their Children: Structural or Cyclical Changes in Income Support Policy?

2018

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Refundable tax credits and food assistance are the largest transfer programs available to able-bodied working poor and near-poor families in the United States, and simultaneous participation in these programs has more than doubled since the early 2000s. To understand this growth, we construct a series of two-year panels from the 1981–2013 waves of the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement to estimate the effect of state labor-market conditions, federal and state transfer program policy choices, and household demographics governing joint participation in food and refundable tax credit programs. Overall, changing policy drives much of the increase in the simultaneous, biennial use of food assistance and refundable tax credits. This stands in stark contrast from the factors accounting for the growth in food assistance alone, where cyclical and structural labor market factors account for at least one-half of the growth, and demographics play a more prominent role. Moreover, since 2000, the business cycle factors as the leading determinant in biennial participation decisions in food programs and refundable tax credits, suggesting a recent strengthening in the relationship between economic conditions and transfer programs.

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“…For example, in many countries the reward from even part time work helps keep families from being poor because of high in-work benefits and refundable tax credits (eg, in the United States and the United Kingdom). 31 …”

Section: Child Poverty Is Driven By Parents’ Labor Market Participatimentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing Child Poverty: How Does the United States Compare With Other Nations?

Smeeding

Thévenot

2016

Academic Pediatrics

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Poverty during childhood raises a number of policy challenges. The earliest years are critical in terms of future cognitive and emotional development and early health outcomes, and have long-lasting consequences on future health. In this article child poverty in the United States is compared with a set of other developed countries. To the surprise of few, results show that child poverty is high in the United States. But why is poverty so much higher in the United States than in other rich nations? Among child poverty drivers, household composition and parent’s labor market participation matter a great deal. But these are not insurmountable problems. Many of these disadvantages can be overcome by appropriate public policies. For example, single mothers have a very high probability of poverty in the United States, but this is not the case in other countries where the provision of work support increases mothers’ labor earnings and together with strong public cash support effectively reduces child poverty. In this article we focus on the role and design of public expenditure to understand the functioning of the different national systems and highlight ways for improvements to reduce child poverty in the United States. We compare relative child poverty in the United States with poverty in a set of selected countries. The takeaway is that the United States underinvests in its children and their families and in so doing this leads to high child poverty and poor health and educational outcomes. If a nation like the United States wants to decrease poverty and improve health and life chances for poor children, it must support parental employment and incomes, and invest in children’s futures as do other similar nations with less child poverty.

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The Deserving Poor, the Family, and the U.S. Welfare System

Cited by 185 publications

References 16 publications

Child access to the nutritional safety net during and after the Great Recession: The case of WIC

Child access to the nutritional safety net during and after the Great Recession: The case of WIC

The Changing Safety Net for Low-Income Parents and Their Children: Structural or Cyclical Changes in Income Support Policy?

Addressing Child Poverty: How Does the United States Compare With Other Nations?

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