Lecture 10: Means-tested cash programs Flashcards
(30 cards)
Political and social context
It is most useful to consider programs within a social context
- One might consider: How do beliefs about who a program supports influence support for or against it? How might historical events, changing norms or social change affect these opinions?
Means-tested cash assistance
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
General Assistance (GA)
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
Means-tested, near cash assistance
Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP)
How does TANF differ from these other means-tested benefits?
Who is eligible
Opinions about “deserving” vs “undeserving poor”, evolution over time
Changes in norms around women/work/childcare
Changes in the composition of poor women/children over time on the program
Political support for the program has been more volatile
- Poor mothers and children versus
- Poor elderly (SSI) or
- Working poor (EITC)
How benefits are set and programs are funded
History of Welfare
The Social Security Act, as part of the New Deal legislation created under President Roosevelt, established two types of cash benefits
- Social insurance
- Public assistance
Social insurance programs included
- A pension for retired workers (informally called Social Security)
- Unemployment Insurance (UI)
Public assistance programs for the poor included
- Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), Old Age Assistance (OAA), and Aid to the Blind (AB)
Evolution over time…
In 1956, Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled (APTD) was added
In 1962, ADC became Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
While, by 1974, Old Age Assistance (OAA), Aid to the Blind (AB) and Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled (APTD) were consolidated under SSI, Supplemental Security Income
AFDC came to be regarded as welfare
In 1996, with the introduction of welfare reform, Congress ended the federal entitlement to welfare by replacing AFDC with Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF)
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
PROWRA marked a major change in US social policy by repealing AFDC (a federal entitlement) and replacing it with TANF (a state block grant)
PROWRA “eliminated the 60-year old federal guarantee of ongoing cash assistance to all qualifying poor families and replaced it with time-limited benefits, for which recopients must work, provided through capped block grants to the states. It also transferred primary responsibility for the operation of welfare programs from the federal government to the states”
What is an entitlement?
Government program, good, service or benefit that provides individuals with personal financial benefits
- Special government-provided goods or services to which an indefinite number of potential beneficiaries have a legal right (enforceable in court, if necessary) whenever they meet eligibility conditions that are specified by the standing law that authorizes the program
AFDC: What did the program do?
Cash to families
- Modified state by state (eligibility levels; benefit levels)
Low levels of cash assistance
- Below poverty
An Entitlement
Automatic eligibility for Medicaid and other “in-kind” benefits
Modest Work Requirements
- Jobs mandated 20% of recipients in a state be mandated to work
Modest Work Supports
- Jobs program mandated higher “earnings disregards”; transitional child care and Medicaid; as well as job training, basic education and community work experience
Welfare Reform
Replaced AFDC with TANF
Primary goals of TANF
Provide assistance to needy families so that children
may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes
of relatives
End the dependence of needy parents on
government benefits by promoting job preparation,
work, and marriage
Prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock
pregnancies and establish annual numerical goals for
preventing and reducing the incidence of these
pregnancies
Encourage the formation and maintenance of two-
parent families
TANF Highlights
Eliminated entitlement to benefits
Work requirements (work activities)
Time limits
- 5-year maximum life time limit on benefit receipt
- States can exempt 20% of caseload
Funding in block grants to states ($16.5 billion/year)
- A pot of money vs. increased federal money to match need
States now design their own programs
Delinked “welfare” w/ food stamps and Medicaid
Increased funding for child care
Increased income eligibility for Medicaid and other
transitional benefits
Strengthened child support enforcement
Family caps and sanctions – allowed states to impose
Others not eligible for federal benefits: illegal immigrants; new legal immigrants (w/ < 5 yrs of residence); those convicted of certain drug felonies; minors living independently
Summary of Findings from Longitudinal Studies on Welfare Reform
(Slack et al.)
On average, household income, earnings, and wages
improved among former and current welfare recipients,
although such improvements appear to do little to lift families out of poverty. Strong labor markets are important for gains to be realized
Most former welfare recipient families continue to experience economic hardship and to rely on other types of public benefits (e.g., Food Stamps, SSI).
Health insurance coverage for respondents remained relatively stable over time
What is an entitlement?
Some examples of entitlement programs, at the federal level, in the United States, would include:
- Social Security
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Most Veterans’ Administration programs
- Federal employee and military retirement plans
- Unemployment compensation
- Food stamps
- Agricultural price support programs
What is a block grant?
A block grant confers monies to the state from the federal government
The state has discretion, under certain broadly stated federal goals, in the dissemination of these funds
How do benefits vary by groups served?
TANF
Strong behavioral components around marriage and family
formation
- Lifetime limits
- Work requirements
- State discretion around eligibility, benefit amount
Marked variation across states
- Benefits range from $215 for a family of three (AL) to $628 for a family of three (WI)
Benefits are not adjusted for cost of living so the value erodes over time
Residual “Welfare”
General Assistance (GA)
- a residual program with limited availability for groups who do not fit into either TANF or SSI
- poor, non-aged childless adults
- “non-deserving poor”
- meager benefits, scarce availability
General Assistance- State Programs
General assistance is not usually known by that name
- Maryland and Rhode Island call it “General Public Assistance”
- more common is the term “General Relief”, but very different names are used in some jurisdictions
- – New Jersey calls the program “State Aid”
- Indiana uses “Township Poor Relief”
- Tennessee has 3 equivalent terms: “Poor Relief”, “Emergency Relief”, and “Paupers Relief”
Main features of General Assistance
Eligibility requirements and payments levels for general assistance vary from state to state, and often within a state
Payments are usually at lower levels and of shorter duration than those provided by federally financed programs (ex. SSI)
General assistance is administered and financed by State and local governments under their own guidelines
Summary of General Assistance
For the most part, the federal government has left it up to
states to provide basic assistance to childless adults in need of assistance
States have never provided significant support for this group, this limited support has weakened significantly over time
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Means tested
Federally-administered income assistance program authorized by Title XVI of the Social Security Act
Established in 1972 (Public Law 92-603) with benefits first paid in 1974
SSI provides monthly cash payments in accordance with uniform, nationwide eligibility requirements to needy aged, blind, and disabled persons
SSI replaced the federal-state programs of Old Age Assistance and Aid to the Blind established by the original Social Security Act of 1935 as well as the program of Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled established by the Social Security Amendments of 1950.
Vision for SSI
A basic national income maintenance system for the aged, blind, and disabled which would differ from the state
programs it replaced in a number of ways.
- Administered by the SSA in
a manner as comparable as possible to the way in which benefits were administered under the Social Security Program.
Congress intended the new SSI program to be more than just a federal version of the former state adult assistance programs which it replaced
“The Committee bill would make a major departure from the
traditional concept of public assistance as it now applies to
the aged, the blind, and the disabled. Building on the present Social Security program, it would create a new federal program administered by the SSA, designed to provide a positive assurance that the nation’s aged, blind, and disabled people would no longer have to subsist on below poverty level
incomes”
Eligibility: who, how?
(For adults)
- Disability is defined as the inability to engage in substantial gainful
activity (SGA)
by reason of a medically determinable physical or
mental impairment expected to result in death or last at least 12 months
- the worker must be unable to do any kind of work that exists
in the national economy, taking into account age, education, and work experience
(Children under age 18)
Has an impairment that results in “marked and severe” functional limitations
(For adults aged 65 or older)
Can qualify for SSI benefits without being disabled
Most adult SSI recipients have other income
- Countable income is subtracted from the federal benefit rate to determine their SSI eligibility and payment amount
Federal benefit levels- 2011
Maximum federal SSI payment (adults)
- $674 monthly- individual
- $1,011 monthly- couple
Average monthly SSI payments
- $595.10 for children <18
- $515.10 for adults aged 18 to 64
- $404 for adults aged 65 or older
Adjusted annually to reflect cost of living
SSI recipients are automatically eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
