Government safety net programs aim to protect families during tough times—before they fall into poverty. But rising unemployment, foreclosures, and economic distress are putting pressure on a system already in need of updates and repairs.
Urban Institute experts, building on decades of welfare reform research, evaluated public safety nets and proposed new initiatives to bolster work supports and help families gain a stable financial footing. Read more.
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Understanding Poverty Who is poor? What are the consequences? What works to alleviate poverty?
Low-Income Working Families Project Focusing on economic security, the safety net, improving life chances for children, and racial and ethnic disparities
Opportunity and Ownership Project Policy research on assets, ownership, and the opportunity for low-income families to achieve financial security
The case for expanding the EITC for workers without qualifying children is compelling, as the current EITC provides little help to this group. We argue that the EITC for these workers should:
- provide these workers with a strong incentive to increase work effort;
- provide a significant subsidy to low-earning workers working near a full-time work level;
- begin phasing out only after an individual is working at a level at least equivalent to full-time minimum wage work;
- apply to both prime-age and younger workers; and
- be effectively coordinated with the Making Work Pay Credit.
Testimony from Mary Cunningham on H.R. 3073 for the United States House of Representatives, the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. H.R. 3073 would create a homelessness prevention program for low-income veterans.
This paper examines the characteristics and circumstances of families vulnerable to sharp income drops and those most likely to recover financially. More than 13 percent of nonelderly adults in families with children will see their incomes fall by half at some point over the course of a year, and about 40 percent fully recover within a year. Those who lose jobs or have an adult leave the family are more likely to have a substantial drop in income and are less likely to recover. This study uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, which collects data every four months and can provide information on short-term income loss.
Data from the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances show a disturbing reality. Even prior to the current recession, many families did not have enough assets to see them through a modest spell of unemployment or another financial emergency. In 2007, nearly one in three U.S. families were liquid asset poor. Low-income, young, and nonemployed families are more vulnerable to economic emergencies. For example, two-thirds (68 percent) of bottom income quintile families and 47 percent of second income quintile families are liquid asset poor, while such shortfalls affect only 1 percent of top income quintile families.
Between 2007 and 2008, real incomes fell and poverty rose in the United States, Institute Fellow Harry Holzer testified before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Even if the recession ends this year, rising unemployment will mean that real income keeps falling while poverty increases for a few more years — and almost certainly by much more than occurred between 2007 and 2008. It will likely take several years beyond 2010 before real income and poverty fully recover from the effects of the downturn.
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Government safety net programs aim to protect families during tough times—before they fall into poverty. But rising unemployment, foreclosures, and economic distress are putting pressure on a system already in need of updates and repairs.