New Safety Net for Low-Income Families
America’s low-income working families are struggling to get by, too often forced to make impossible choices among food, housing, health care, and child care. Government safety nets were reformed in the mid-1990s with the promise that work would pay. But that promise remains unfulfilled for many families. The New Safety Net essays explore the challenges these vulnerable households face and suggest ways to protect them and help them thrive—urgent goals with far-reaching benefits for children, families, and the nation's economic future.
Family Supports
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the nation's primary safety net program for families with children, is due for reauthorization this year. The Urban Institute held a roundtable of experts from federal and state governments, academia, and policy organizations to discuss the program's current status and effectiveness. Highlights and reflections from the roundtable are presented in the LIWF brief, "Next Steps for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families."
Work Supports
In 2006, New York became the first state to enact a new earned income tax credit for low-income parents who pay their child support in full. The credit is designed to keep parents from falling too deeply into poverty if they pay their child support in full and to encourage low-income noncustodial parents to work and pay their child support. During its first year, only 5,280 noncustodial parents received the tax credit, costing just over $2 million. The report, "Initial Results from the New York Noncustodial Parent EITC," identifies three reasons the take-up rate was so low and offers recommendations on how to increase participation in the future.
The report, "Employers’ Perspectives on San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Policy," draws on interviews and focus groups with employers in San Francisco to assess the impact of the city’s paid sick leave mandate, including employer responses to the law in their operations, staffing, employee benefit packages, and reporting requirements.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides essential help in purchasing food for many low-income Americans. The fact sheet, "Many Low-Income Working Families Turn to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Help," describes current trends in caseloads, participation of working families in the program, and the effect of SNAP on family incomes.
Advancement
"Green jobs" have garnered attention and support from many circles. This brief, "Low-Skill Workers' Access to Quality Green Jobs," discusses strategies for improving access to green jobs for low-skill individuals, particularly jobs that can improve workers' economic standing and better support families.
The creation of "green jobs," a key component of the federal recovery package, and employment opportunities of low-skilled workers in green-related industries were the subjects of a policy forum "A New Safety Net for Working Families: Green Jobs and Low-Wage Workers" in April 2009.
The paper, "Workforce Development as an Antipoverty Strategy: What Do We Know? What Should We Do?," looks at a basic paradox of workforce development policy: in an era in which skills are more important than ever as determinants of labor market earnings, fewer and fewer federal dollars are spent on workforce development. The paper presents trends in funding and considers possible reasons for funding declines.
The report, "The Integration of Immigrants and Their Families in Maryland: The Contributions of Immigrant Workers to the Economy," discusses the contribution of immigrants to Maryland's workforce. The report finds that the state's immigrant workers are diverse, highly educated and work in key skilled industries but many immigrants have low educational attainment and English proficiency and are employed in lower-skilled jobs.
Latest Research
