The
economy is picking up in some parts of the country, but that hasn't
translated into any new serious efforts to help those suffering the most
hardship. In fact, for those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder,
life may be getting even harder. A
new report
from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) looks at cash
benefits provided under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) program, commonly known as "welfare." It finds that the value of
monthly cash benefits that make up the fragile safety net for the
poorest families with children has continued to decline steadily since
the program was "reformed" in 1996.
Back then, benefits weren't exactly generous, but they did manage to
keep a whole lot of kids out of really deep poverty. Today, those
benefits are almost nonexistent. The lucky few who are able to get cash
assistance aren't getting enough to pay rent or keep the lights on in
most states, and the value of the benefits has declined
precipitously since 1996—even more so since the recession started.
According to CBPP, there is not a state in the country whose welfare
benefits are enough to lift a poor single mother with two kids above 50
percent of the poverty line, or about $9700 a year. In many southern
states, TANF doesn't provide enough money to get a poor family much
above 10 percent of the poverty line. What's especially troubling about
these figures is that, as CBPP reports, TANF benefits are often the only
form of cash assistance poor families receive. They may be getting food
stamps, which definitely help their situations, but you can't buy
diapers or pay the rent with food stamps.
People like President Bill Clinton and then-Speaker of the House Newt
Gingrich claimed they'd be doing welfare recipients a favor in the
1990s when they reformed the welfare program to impose work requirements
and make it more difficult for people to get benefits. The idea was
that welfare recipients were just lazy and that their government checks
were keeping them from working, making them dependent on the government.
When the reform legislation passed, with Clinton's signature, some
people in the administration quit in protest, arguing that cutting off
cash assistance for poor families would push millions of children into
poverty. That didn't happen, at least not right away. But f
unding for the TANF
block
grant hasn't increased since 1996, meaning that in real terms, what the
country spends to help poor families in the program has fallen 30
percent overall since welfare was "reformed," and benefit levels have
fallen even more in some states that cut benefits after the financial
crisis started in 2007. Not surprisingly, since 1996, the number of families with children living in extreme poverty—that is, on $2 a day or less—has
gone up nearly 130 percent.
The US Census Bureau reports that the number of Americans suffering
significant hardships, such as having utilities cut off, getting
evicted, or suffering food shortages, has escalated sharply during the
recession. Between 2005 and 2011, nearly 7 million additional people
were unable to make a mortgage or rent payment, suggesting that as the
nation's last-ditch safety net for people in really dire straits, TANF,
is not working. Given that science is now showing just
how damaging the stress of poverty is to
children and their health and intellectual development, maybe it's
finally time for welfare reform to be reformed in a way that gives poor
kids a fair shot at a decent future.
Front page image:
Dorothea Lange/Library of Congress
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