Poverty

When families are able to meet basic needs such as food, housing, and medical care, parents and other caregivers[2] experience less stress, which allows them to provide the critical support that children need to grow into healthy, productive adults. This is a key finding from our analysis of data from the RAPID-EC survey, which we conducted during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to assess the well-being of families with children under age 5. This finding is consistent with findings from a growing body of scientific research on the impact of adversity on children’s long-term outcomes

Today’s framework would represent one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in a generation.

Access to cash assistance programs like TANF can help survivors build the financial stability necessary to leave abusive relationships and rebuild their lives.

Debates in Puerto Rico about the impact of economic security programs — particularly the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP, or PAN for Programa de Asistencia Nutricional) — on participants’ employment status, family incomes, and the well-being of the overall population have been taking place since the 1974 introduction of NAP’s predecessor, the Food Stamp Program, but have heightened since the devastating 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria. This study analyzes NAP administrative data for 2017 through early 2019, during which supplemental federal funding to aid in recovery from the hurricanes

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities mourns the loss of Michelle Bazie, a dear and long-time colleague, friend, and fierce advocate for racial and economic justice. This week at CBPP, we focused on federal tax, health, and poverty and inequality. On federal tax, Chuck Marr and Stephanie Hingtgen explained that 5 million children in veteran and active-duty families will lose out if Child Tax Credit expansions end. Claire Zippel reported that 9 in 10 families with low incomes are using Child Tax Credits to pay for basic household needs and education. On health, Gideon Lukens analyzed

Some 91 percent of families with low incomes (less than $35,000) are using their monthly Child Tax Credit payments for the most basic household expenses — food, clothing, shelter, and utilities — or education. Families are making these investments nationwide: in every state and the District of Columbia, large majorities of low-income families are making such use of the credit, according to our new analysis of Census Bureau data covering the first three months of payments. Many of these households are receiving the full Child Tax Credit for the first time thanks to the American Rescue Plan’s

Some 5 million children with veteran or active-duty parents will lose out after this year unless Congress extends the American Rescue Plan's expansion of the Child Tax Credit.

Millions of people would gain health coverage — and millions more would gain financial assistance to make coverage more affordable — under the House’s Build Back Better legislation, a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis estimates. Overall, CBO estimates that under the House legislation, 7.6 million people would gain coverage subsidized through Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces, and nearly 4 million uninsured people would gain coverage. Of those gaining subsidized coverage, 4 million would enroll in Medicaid and another 3.6 million would enroll in the

The Center mourns the loss of Michelle Bazie, a dear and long-time colleague, friend, and fierce advocate for racial and economic justice.

This week at CBPP, we focused on housing, state budgets and taxes, poverty and inequality, and the economy. On housing, Sharon Parrott asserted that Congress should balance vouchers and development of less-expensive housing in recovery legislation. On state budgets and taxes, Samantha Waxman provided the latest on the record number of states and territories that have created or improved earned income tax credits (EITCs) this year. We also updated our backgrounder on state EITCs. On poverty and inequality, we updated our COVID-19 hardship tracker, which analyzes the recession’s effects on food

Note: this post is an update of this one, written before enactment of several recent EITC measures. A record number of states have provided much-needed support for families during the pandemic by enacting bills to create or improve state earned income tax credits (EITCs) this year. Twelve states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have enacted such measures this year. When fully phased in, these measures will enable over 1.2 million families struggling to afford the basics to newly qualify for state EITCs and will boost tax refunds for many others. These gains represent many years of

As policymakers continue to craft economic recovery legislation, press reports have suggested that critical investments in housing may be scaled back, and there are concerns that the final package may end up tilted heavily toward increasing housing supply. There’s a role for supply investments, but a strategy where that’s most or all of the housing investment will result in housing that is unaffordable to households with the greatest housing needs, jeopardizing the promise of making real progress against homelessness and housing instability. A significant investment in rental assistance as

As policymakers continue to craft economic recovery legislation, press reports have suggested that critical investments in housing may be scaled back, and there are concerns that the final package may end up tilted heavily toward increasing housing supply. There’s a role for supply investments, but a strategy where that’s most or all of the housing investment will result in housing that is unaffordable to households with the greatest housing needs, jeopardizing the promise of making real progress against homelessness and housing instability. A significant investment in rental assistance as

This week at CBPP, we focused on health, food assistance, housing, state budgets and taxes, poverty and inequality, and the economy. On health, Laura Harker emphasized how closing the Medicaid coverage gap is a crucial step for advancing health and economic justice, and we highlighted the findings in a blog. Jennifer Sullivan, Miriam Pearsall, and Anna Bailey highlighted why closing the coverage gap is key to improving behavioral health. Kyle Hayes explained how eliminating structural barriers can improve Latino people’s access to health coverage, in English and Spanish. On food assistance, we

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan adopted in March 2021 provides a historic opportunity for states to jumpstart transformative investments in a stronger and more equitable future.

Across the country, large numbers of families who need help to afford housing sit on long waiting lists for assistance. Among the 44 housing agencies for which we have data, nearly all have more than 1,000 families on their waiting lists and many have more than 10,000.

Leer en español The uninsured rate among Latino people is alarmingly high, CBPP analysis of 2019 American Community Survey data shows. In 2019, 38 percent of uninsured people under age 65 were Latino, nearly double the 20 percent Latino share of the non-elderly population. And between 2018 and 2019, the uninsured rate for non-elderly Latino people increased from 17.9 percent to 18.7 percent, the largest increase of any major racial or ethnic group and an erosion of earlier gains under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Policymakers should respond by expanding eligibility for Medicaid and ACA

Read in English La tasa de personas latinas sin seguro de salud es increíblemente alta según lo indica el análisis del CBPP de la Encuesta sobre la Comunidad Estadounidense de 2019 (en inglés American Community Survey o ACS). Para ese año, el 38 por ciento de las personas sin seguro de salud menores de 65 años eran latinas, casi el doble de la proporción del 20 por ciento de latinos de la población no adulta mayor (entiéndase, la población entre las edades de 0 y 64 años). Además, entre 2018 y 2019, la tasa de personas no adultas mayores sin seguro de salud subió de un 17.9 por ciento a un 18

Policymakers should permanently close the Medicaid coverage gap as part of economic recovery legislation, in order to make affordable health coverage accessible to over 2 million low-income people who now lack this access because their state has refused to expand Medicaid. People in rural communities, especially people of color, are among those who would most benefit, we explain in a new paper. That’s because closing the coverage gap would provide a pathway not just to affordable coverage, but to greater availability of services in rural areas in non-expansion states, where some health

More than 2 million adults, majorities of whom live in the South and are people of color, are uninsured and in the coverage gap, meaning they have incomes below the federal poverty line but no pathway to affordable coverage because their state is one of 12 that has refused to adopt the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.