Publications on Economic Well-Being

Each month, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) provides supplemental food packages to half a million women, children and seniors. This study looks at how CSFP operates, who participates, and how it fits into the overall food assistance landscape. It estimates that 2.9 million mothers, infants, and children meet eligibility requirements for CSFP but not for WIC. About 7.5 million seniors would be eligible if CSFP were available everywhere. In states where the program is widely available, more seniors participate in CSFP than in the Food Stamp Program. Use of volunteers, staff stability, and the small scale of operations contribute to CSFP’s simplicity and accessibility.

During the 1990s, the federal government promised low-income families that work would pay. Parents moved into jobs in response to new welfare rules requiring work, tax credits and other work supports that boosted take-home pay. Unfortunately, the record shows that low-income families have not progressed much. Many don't bring home enough to cover the everyday costs of living. This paper synthesizes the current status of low-income families along with the findings from a set of essays that address key shortcomings in the safety net. The paper summarizes ideas for policies that would make work pay in today's economy.

One-third of America's families with children are low income, meaning their incomes fall below twice the federal poverty level. Although four in five of these families work, many don't bring home enough to cover the everyday costs of living. In this essay, Acs and Turner outline their proposals to enhance low-income families' purchasing power and reduce unusually high housing costs through a package of reforms and policy initiatives that tackle both the income side and expenditure side of family budgets.

One-third of families with children, 13.7 million households, struggle to cover the everyday costs of living but don't always succeed. With so many families straining to make ends meet, a team of Urban Institute researchers, including labor economists, health researchers, housing experts, and children's policy analysts, have created a set of interconnected proposals designed "to make work pay in today's economy."

Kids' Share 2008, a second annual report, looks comprehensively at trends in federal spending and tax expenditures on children. This appendix details our data sources, the programs we include, and the methodology used to estimate the percentage of all expenditures that went to children.