Policy Briefs: NSAF

In 2002, 4.7 million children lived apart from their mother, up from 3.7 million in 1997. Despite their growing numbers, nonresident mothers and their children have remained largely under the radar. This brief provides a national portrait of nonresident mothers and their children, using data from the 2002 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF). It shows that nearly 40 percent of children living apart from their mother live apart from both of their parents. Most of these children do not receive child support and those living apart from both parents experience relatively high rates of poverty. Nonetheless, nonresident mothers are more economically insecure than their children who live elsewhere. Despite these high poverty rates, many of these children may benefit from increased child support enforcement.

The standard of living for children in kinship care improved significantly between 1997 and 2002, according to analyses of the National Survey of America's Families. The portion of children in kinship care living in poverty steadily declined. Similarly, findings reveal a downward trend in the portion of children in kinship care who did not have health insurance. Both of these trends were more pronounced for children in kinship arrangements that involved a child welfare agency than those that did not, though both groups' improvements were more dramatic than the gains made by children living with their parents.

Immigrants compose a large and growing share of U.S. workers, and of low-income working families. In 2001 immigrants were one fifth of all low-wage workers, and immigrant families were one-quarter of all low-income working families. Like other low-income families, immigrants face economic hardship and need work supports such as tax credits, food, housing assistance, health care, and child care. Immigrant families, however, are less likely to be eligible for or have access to needed benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and child care subsidies.

Encouraging and strengthening marriage continues to move up the U.S. social policy agenda. This analysis uses nationally representative data on cohabiting couples with children from the 2002 round of the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) to assess marriage penalties or bonuses facing these couples. It examines the consequences of current (2003) federal tax laws, and the incentives that will be in place in 2008 as the final marriage-related provisions of 2001's tax reform are phased in.

This policy brief examines low-income children's participation in food assistance programs and explores the potential to improve food security by extending this safety net to more children. The results show that the nutrition safety net plays an important role in low-income families' lives. Seven out of ten young children and almost eight out of ten school-age children in low-income families receive some nutrition assistance. Nonetheless, the safety net fails to reach three out of ten low-income children. Also, one in five poor children receive no nutrition assistance. The authors conclude that the food safety net has considerable room to expand.

Low-income parents use paid preparers more frequently than other parents. This high reliance may be a good thing. Among low-income parents who know about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) those who receive help are more likely to receive the EITC than their peers who prepare their returns independently. Although use of a paid preparer could obfuscate one's knowledge of important tax benefits if the paid preparer does not explain their calculations, this does not appear to be the case. We continue to note that significantly fewer Hispanic parents know about the EITC than other low-income parents.

In this brief we examine levels of receipt for government payments that children in kinship care are eligible to receive. We find that children's receipt of financial assistance is still low given their eligibility. Many, if not most, families that could be eligible for the most generous payment, a foster payment, do not receive it. Children whose living situations make them ineligible for foster care payments have surprisingly low levels of receipt for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) child-only benefits, often their only source for financial assistance.

This brief uses data from the 1997 and 2002 National Survey of America's Families to analyze racial and ethnic differences in children's living arrangements and the implications for federal and state marriage promotion policies. Black children are more likely than Hispanic or white children to live with a single parent and most black single parents have never been married. Most single parents of white children are divorced. Hispanic children are more likely than black or white children to live with unmarried cohabiting parents. Between 1997 and 2002, the share of children living with unmarried cohabiting parents rose among blacks, Hispanics, and whites, but the decline in the share of children living with single parents was significant among Hispanics only.

Many low-income adults have a health problem or impairment that limits their ability to participate in work. This brief examines the employment and program participation patterns of low-income adults with disabilities, and how well the current safety net meets their needs. Using data from the third round of the National Survey of America's families, the findings question current benefits and services, as many will likely lead to a lifetime of support rather than to a job. The employment rates of those with disabilities are much lower than among other low-income adults.

At least 10 percent of low-income American children have emotional and behavioral problems. States have adopted widely different ways of financing and delivering children's mental health services. This brief provides new information on SCHIP coverage of mental health services, and on the prevalence of mental health problems among children by income and health insurance coverage. Since Medicaid and SCHIP cover most low-income children and provide relatively generous coverage of mental health compared with private insurance, they provide important access to child mental health services. Medicaid and SCHIP agencies could better assess and coordinate mental health services for low-income children.