Exit Routes from Welfare: Examining Barriers to Employment, Demographic and Human Capital Factors

This paper investigates how barriers to employment, human capital, and demographic characteristics affect women’s exit routes off welfare. Specifically, I address two questions. First, what are the avenues through which women leave welfare? Second, are mental and physical health problems, domestic violence, and lack of access to transportation, characteristics that have been ignored in other studies of welfare dynamics, associated with different welfare exit routes? Using multinomial logistic regression and data from the Women’s Employment Survey, this project examines the specific exit route chosen in detail and goes beyond general dynamics associated with welfare exit in order to capture the full heterogeneity of outcomes now witnessed in the post-Welfare Reform world. Results indicate that women with physical limitations are less likely to leave welfare either through obtaining a new job or through a non-work exit. Finally, women with transportation problems or with post-traumatic stress disorder are less likely to leave welfare through combining work and welfare

Food Assistance May Help Families Prevent Emergency Department Visits for Child Asthma

Childhood asthma is the leading cause of emergency department visits for children under the age of 15 in the U.S. Food insecurity may increase a child’s risk for developing asthma. This research brief shows that higher SNAP benefits are associated with fewer asthma –related emergency department visits

Food Insecurity, Food Stamp Participation, and Poverty: The Paradox of Missouri

Date of publication unknownDate of publication unknownThe current economic recession has made it difficult for millions of American households to make ends meet and cover basic needs such as food. The largest federal program that supplements food consumption is the Food Stamp Program.1 While typically, you might expect that food insecurity is lower in states that have high rates of participation in the Food Stamp Program, in Missouri we see a very different pattern. At a time when national levels remained relatively constant, Missouri's food insecurity rate rose from 9.8 percent in 1996 to 12.9 percent in 2006. What is noteworthy is that this increase in state levels of food insecurity occurred during a time when participation in the Food Stamp Program in Missouri rose from 74 percent to 98 percent of those eligible. This report shows the intersection and interplay of three metrics commonly used for examining population well being: food insecurity, food stamp participation, and the poverty level.Includes bibliographical reference

Food Insufficiency, Food Stamp Participation, and Mental Health

Th is study examines the ways in which enrollment in the food stamp program affects the mental health status of enrollees. The results find that the negative mental health effects associated with food insufficiency are higher among food stamp participants than nonparticipants. It is estimated that 35.1 million people lived in food-insecure households (Nord, Andrews, and Carlson, 2006) in 2005. Th is means that at some point in the previous year, due to scarce household resources, these families were unable to acquire enough food or were uncertain of having enough food to meet their basic needs. Food insuffi ciency is defined as not having enough to eat periodically over the previous 12 months and is a more severe level of food insecurity. This study examines food insufficiency, rather than food insecurity, due to its relation to food expenditures, and nutritional intake (Basiotis, 1992; Cristofar and Basiotis, 1992).Includes bibliographical reference

Housing Insecurity During the Coronavirus Response

COVID-19 has created numerous challenges for Americans in their ability to meet their basic needs. One specific economic challenge is the ability to pay mortgage or rent

Food Insufficiency During the Coronavirus Response

The coronavirus pandemic has created widespread economic disruption, exacerbating American household food insufficiency

Assessing the Impact of a Modernized Application Process on Florida’s Food Stamp Caseload

In 2005, Florida implemented an internet-based service delivery system for eligibility determination in public assistance programs, including the Food Stamp, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Medicaid programs. At the same time, Florida switched from a caseworker model to a technology-driven model and decreased staffing levels of employees involved in social service delivery. We conduct an evaluative case study of the effects of these policy changes on the Food Stamp caseload. In particular, we consider the impact on applications and the flows onto and off of the program. To answer these questions, we use administrative data from the Florida Department of Children and Families for the period from 2003 to 2008 to understand the policy impacts on caseload dynamics. Results suggest that modernization may have resulted in decreases in application and inflows to the Food Stamp program but with important differences for specific demographic groups. Simulations suggest that the strongest negative effects of modernization were observed among the elderly and African Americans. High earners, while still negatively affected by the staffing reductions, were observed to have gained modestly from modernization

Does Food Stamp Receipt Mediate the Relationship Between Food Insufficiency and Mental Health?

Although the Food Stamp Program is the largest entitlement program remaining in the social safety net, comparatively little is known about the potential benefits that the program may confer on recipients. In this paper we examine an important dimension of well being, mental health, and the extent to which participation in the Food Stamp Program may attenuate the effect of food insufficiency on levels of emotional distress. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of families in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) we model emotional distress as a function of food insufficiency and other known risk factors for poor mental health. We allow participation in the Food Stamp Program to have a direct impact on mental health, and then test whether food stamp participation mediates the effect of food insufficiency on emotional distress. To conduct our tests we use a first-difference instrumental variables estimator to control for unobserved heterogeneity in emotional distress and possible measurement error in Food Stamp Program participation. We find that food insufficiency has a sizable deleterious effect on the level of emotional distress, as does participation in the Food Stamp Program. However, we also find that participation in the Food Stamp Program among food insufficient households nearly eliminates the deleterious effect of food insufficiency on emotional health, suggesting that the program is well targeted to those in need of food assistance and improved mental health. This research provides the first evidence that the Food Stamp Program has an important positive spill-over effect on mental health through its mediation of household food insufficiency

Food Insecurity among Military and Veteran Families

Food insecurity is a growing U.S. problem among military and veteran families. Data from 2020-21 suggest that between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3 military families experienced food insecurity in the last year: with disabled veterans experiencing even greater risks. This issue brief describes the policy revisions needed to programs such as SNAP, the Social Security Administration’s Disability Insurance Program, and the Veterans Affairs Disability Compensation Program to ensure our military members are food secure

SNAP Participation is Associated with Reduced Risk of Premature Mortality among U.S. Adults

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest federal food assistance program, with over 40 million Americans receiving its support. This research brief examines the effect of SNAP participation on the probability of premature mortality and finds that risk of premature mortality is lower among adult who receive SNAP