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The present study researched monthly income components in families from whom the child welfare system removed children to place them in out-of-home care. Using merged Washington State administrative data on 11,247 families who experienced child removal between July 2001 and June 2008, we examined wage and public assistance income. Inflation-adjusted average monthly cash income ranged from $736 to $1518 depending on how the income of a potential second parent was counted. In most configurations, average cash income fell below conservative measures of the applicable poverty line. These findings show that families involved in child welfare are on average very poor, more so than is commonly recognized, and provide new, finer-grained detail on the generally accepted relationship between poverty status and child welfare involvement.

The article focuses on the conditions underlying poverty in various countries. Most of the poor people in the world are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The income and welfare of poor in low income countries can be improved significantly with the optimal use of the production of capacity of the land to grow enough food for the increasing population. The improvement in population quality is the deciding factor of production in improving the welfare of poor people. Agriculture poor people respond well to better opportunities to improve the production.

The ecological public welfare positions policy, which involves low-income people in ecological conservation work, is an essential practical innovation for China to achieve mutual benefits in ecological protection and poverty alleviation. This study explored the effect of participation in ecological public welfare positions (PEPWP) on farmers' household income composition and clarified the internal mechanism by propensity score matching (PSM) and conditional process analysis, based on the field data from 508 formerly registered impoverished households in Jiangxi Province and Hubei Province, China. Results showed that (1) PEPWP was characterized by "self-selection", which significantly increased farmers' wage level, planting income in Jiangxi Province, and husbandry income in Hubei Province after the elimination of selectivity bias. However, the effect on other sub-incomes was insignificant. (2) There was a moderated mediating model between PEPWP and agricultural income, which demonstrated that farmer's development motivation (FDM) played a partially mediating effect between PEPWP and FDM, and the frequency of skill training (FST) moderated the first part path of this model. (3) EPWP policy steadily increased farmers' income at the vulnerable livelihood level and greatly improved the regional environment. At the same time, it also played an active role in stimulating FDM and rural governance. Conclusions indicated that it was significant to diversify the channels for promoting growth in rural incomes, and pay attention to skill training and the multi-functional role of ecological custodians, in order to activate FDM and assist farmers in eradicating poverty sustainably. [Display omitted] • Reveal the effect of ecological public welfare positions (EPWP) on farmers' income. • EPWP can increase household income accompanying with sub-income diversification. • The impact of EPWP on income is mediated by farmer's development motivation. • Frequency of skill training moderates the internal mechanism of EPWP on income. • The environmental-economic-social benefits of EPWP are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To determine enrollment rates and predictors of enrollment for newly eligible low-income adults in California following the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) Medicaid expansion. Methods. We used data from the 2014 to 2015 California Health Interview Survey to examine post-ACA Medicaid enrollment rates and multivariable logistic regression to assess the association of demographic factors, income, and health with enrollment. Results.Wefound a 78.5% enrollment rate for the newly eligible Medicaid population, translating to 3.8 million adults enrolled and 1.1 million adults who were eligible but did not enroll. Significant predictors of enrollment were participating in a public welfare program (odds ratio [OR] = 6.59; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.09, 14.04), having heart disease (OR = 4.03; 95% CI = 1.34, 12.15), being in the top quartile of income (OR = 3.59; 95% CI = 1.64, 7.85), enrolling in 2015 (OR = 3.28; 95% CI = 1.94, 5.56), being unemployed (OR = 2.10; 95% CI = 1.15, 3.82), and being female (OR = 1.71; 95% CI = 1.03, 2.85).Wedid not find significant disparities across race/ethnicity, education level, or geography. Conclusions. Repeal of Medicaid expansion would have a substantial effect on health insurance coverage among California's low-income adults, many of whom report chronic health conditions and no alternative sources of affordable coverage. Future research should examine the mechanisms explaining the higher enrollment rates among California's Medicaid expansion population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty analytical approaches have recently considered households' deprivation in several welfare attributes in what has been tagged multidimensional poverty. This approach has been well embraced due to acceptability of human development indices as a parameter for comparing welfare across different segments of the population. In this study, non-monetary indicators of welfare were aggregated into composite welfare indicator for pro-poor growth assessment. The 1999, 2003 and 2008 Demographic and Health Survey data were analyzed using the poverty equivalent growth rate (PEGR) and growth incidence curves (GICs). Results show that although sometimes pro-poor, non-income growth rates in many of the zones and states were negative between 1999 and 2003. In the 2003-2008 period, some more positive values were obtained. Specifically, between 1999 and 2003, there was pro-poor growth in non-income poverty in the north-western zone with urban areas benefiting more than rural areas. In the North East zone, there was pro-poor growth between 1999 and 2003, while none was pro-poor between 2003 and 2008. In the North Central zone, all the sectoral results for between 1999 and 2003 had negative growth rates. In South West zone, the growth rates for all the analyses are with negative growth rates between 1999 and 2003. In the South South zone, all the sectoral results had negative growth rates and pro-poor. In South East zone, between 1999 and 2003, all the sectoral results are with positive growth rates and pro-poor. In the combined households (Nigeria) analysis, that all the results had negative growth rates. There is therefore the need for ensuring proper monitoring of non-income poverty across different zones and states in order to ensure adequacy of different mechanisms for tackling it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reprint of the article "The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty," which appeared in the May 2, 1966 issue of "The Nation" is presented. It proposes a strategy that enables a convergence of civil rights organizations, militant anti-poverty groups and the poor. It notes that the abysmal state of welfare practices can be attributed to the distribution of public assistance via local and state responsibility. To eliminate poverty, it points out a need to ensure adequate levels of income and to guarantee the right to income.

Over the years, there has been a spirited debate over the impact of the welfare expansion associated with the War on Poverty. Many analysts have maintained that public assistance expansion during this period decreased poverty by raising the incomes of the poor (an income enhancement effect), while others have contended that welfare expansion increased poverty by discouraging the poor from working (a work disincentive effect). There has been considerable empirical research about the historical effect of welfare on poverty, nearly all of which relies on the poverty rate (i.e., the percentage of persons with income less than the “poverty threshold”) as an indicator of the extent of poverty. However, this work has not employed designs that allow researchers to sort out distinct income enhancement and work disincentive effects. We develop a model of poverty rates in the American states that permits estimation of these distinct effects—based on state-level time-series data observed annually for the years 1960–90—and we find that welfare had both effects during our period of analysis. We also calculate the net impact of increases in welfare benefits on the poverty rate—taking into account both work disincentive and income enhancement effects. Our results indicate that this net impact is dependent on three variables: the initial level of cash benefits, wage levels for unskilled workers, and the share of the benefit increase provided through cash rather than in-kind assistance. Because of historical trends in these variables, since the 1970s welfare spending has become increasingly less effective in reducing the poverty rate. However, the significance of this result for policymakers must be tempered by evidence that flaws in the poverty rate as an indicator of poverty make it so that any finding about the net effect of an increase in welfare benefits on the poverty rate underestimates welfare's ability to lessen the true extent of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the reasons for the nonparticipation of beneficiaries in government welfare programs in the U.S. The issue has been discussed very rarely by legal scholars, which is inconsistent with their enormous interest in redistribution. The lack of attention is even stranger when one considers the fact that welfare benefits are among the most direct ways of redistribution. Nonparticipation in welfare programs is very common in the country, even if the program is in well-known. Low participation rates among low-income individuals is very hard to understand considering the fact that for such individuals the value of a given benefit is relatively high. According to Nobel laureate Gary Becker eligible individuals do not participate in welfare programs since they feel that receiving welfare benefits would result in lowering of their utility through the development of dependency and other such habits. However, the view of Becker does not explain all the causes of nonparticipation.

We evaluate consumption and income measures of the material well-being of the poor. We begin with conceptual and pragmatic reasons that favor income or consumption. Then, we empirically examine the quality of standard data by studying measurement error and under-reporting, and by comparing microdata from standard surveys to administrative microdata and aggregates. We also compare low reports of income and consumption to other measures of hardship and well-being. The closer link between consumption and well-being and its better measurement favors the use of consumption when setting benefits and evaluating transfer programs. However, income retains its convenience for determining program eligibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of food assistance programs (food stamps) in a period of rising income inequality in the United States is analyzed using 1978-92 PSID data. We assess to what extent food assistance can be viewed as an effective insurance to permanent shocks to income. The results show that the program has a substantial consumption-smoothing effect in the low income population: The response of food consumption to a permanent income shock is a third lower after accounting for the monetary value of food stamps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many observers of welfare reform have argued that self-sufficiency on the part of welfare recipients is desirable. This would require, at least, that recipients' economic well-being not fall as a result of welfare reform. That question is addressed here by analyzing the impact of early state-level welfare waivers on the growth of earnings and income received by welfare recipients. Analysis of data from the Current Population Survey found that among welfare recipients (1) early work-related welfare reforms generally did not improve the growth in family earnings, and (2) waivers often had a small but negative effect on the growth of family income. Waivers were less detrimental for rural than for urban recipients. Since research has shown that rural employment and earnings generally lag behind urban areas, this is an interesting finding. It suggests that even though rural residents face greater barriers to employment, welfare reform has a smaller marginal effect on rural recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Poverty is now commonly recognised as a multi-dimensional concept, but there is less agreement about whether such recognition matters for poverty reduction policies in practice. This article argues that it does matter, as income is an input measure rather than a welfare outcome, the correlation between income and other aspects of poverty is imperfect and as there are strong complementarties between investment in human development and attaining sustained growth. Poverty measures should clearly be those that focus on the welfare of the poor, but it is often forgotten that many social indicators have a distributional component, just as does income per capita, so that increases do not necessarily correspond to improvements in the well-being of the poor. The record with respect to poverty reduction is uneven and certainly leaves no room for complacency. Although growth is rightly considered a part of any poverty reduction strategy, the agenda should focus more strongly on poverty reduction with growth (and so the distribution of the benefits of growth). Aid can play a role in this process, but only if the donor-based biases which distort aid from its poverty-reducing objective are confronted. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores why many low-income households do not participate in the Food Stamp Program. By analyzing detailed income and asset data from a sample of low-income households, the authors find that many households that appear to be eligible for food stamps in fact are not eligible. By conducting an experiment designed to investigate the role of information on participation in the Food Stamp Program, the authors observe that ignorance about the program contributes to nonparticipation. However, there is evidence that knowledge about the program is endogenous--households generally avail themselves of information about the program when the anticipated benefits of doing so are large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report employs a database developed by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan, known as the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, in an effort to analyze the decline in family incomes in the U.S. during the 1980s. The people in this panel study were drawn from two groups, one that was meant to be reflective of the population as a whole and another that oversampled the poor people population. This analysis is limited to prime-age adults, people who begin each decade between the ages of 22 and 48 and who end each decade between the ages of 32 and 58. These are the years in which people are responsible for their own well-being and in which they are most economically active. This study shows that, during a period of their lives when they are most likely to be improving their living standards, the percentage of prime-age adults losing ground increased dramatically. This is consistent with the increased inequality found in Census Bureau's Current Population Survey-based studies and with the popular perception that the 1980s were a time of great insecurity. This study also found that the pattern of family income growth was very different in the 1980s than was the experience in the 1970s.

The last fifteen yeas have seen rapid changes in the financial circumstances of households with children. They are increasingly found among those on the lowest incomes and are over-represented among households dependent on income support for their survival. At the same time, changes in the social security system have left claimant families with greater financial responsibility and reduced access to additional sources of financial support from the state. The article reviews these changes in the economic welfare of households with children, paying particular attention to the circumstances of low-income families. It looks in turn at trends in household income, at changes in the social security system and at the patterns of debt and unmet needs reported by parents caring for children on low incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article presents the author's comments on domestic violence in Ohio. The Ohio Empowerment Coalition is a statewide coalition of low-income groups and individuals who have come together on one platform to facilitate changes in Ohio's public policies affecting low-income people, especially families in Ohio. Women who have bore the brunt of domestic violence receive help from Ohio Works First, Ohio's public assistance program for low-income families. But the cash-assistance is too meagerly to suffice to the needs of a family for a sustainable period. Besides there is also a three-year time limit in Ohio to receive these monthly cash benefit checks. For theses reasons the Ohio Empowerment Coalition has decided to help the victims of domestic violence. Investigation by the Coalition has revealed that many counties in Ohio have made no special effort to assist the victims of domestic violence. It was found that even though over forty states in the U.S. have already adopted the Family Violence Option policy , Ohio has not taken any such initiative.

It has been authors' interested observation that most comments in opposition to the private practice of social work seem to stem from the academicians rather than from field practitioners and almost without fail the tone is that "only the poor have problems." Also, the present emphasis on general education in social work stresses that such training prepares a social worker to function in any setting. This article presents comments of authors to an article by social scientist Sherman Merle concerning private practice of social work, published previously in the journal. In reading and rereading Merle's article, authors have become increasingly convinced that the term "private" is open to misinterpretation. Perhaps there is a need for a word that does differentiate social work as practiced in an agency from that as carried on outside such settings. There are volumes that could be written in reply to the argument that the private practitioner "serves the economically advantaged client." This is true-in part. The need is there, and the bulk of private practice is not with clients from the upper end of the social economic scale, but from the middle-income group.

This article discusses the book Programs in Aid of the Poor. This is revised and updated edition, and critiques poverty measures; describes the poor in the United States; characterizes and evaluates antipoverty programs; and recommends both improvements and substitutes. The book also reviews and appraises income maintenance programs; efforts to avert the spread of poverty to new generations; and programs to aid the working poor. It discusses the evolving welfare system, including recent steps taken to "end welfare as we know it." Further the book outlines the components of a comprehensive antipoverty program that would be cost-effective.