American Non-Governmental Social Research Links (II)

A Comparison of Canadian and American Welfare Reforms and
their Effects on Poverty After 1990 (PDF - 10.7MB, 9 pages)
http://economics.uwo.ca/undergraduate/undergraduatereview/undergraduatereview03/4_Karsh.pdf
March 2009
By Fern Karsh
Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario
---
By Gilles:
This undergrad paper that I found in a Google search result is a large download, but welfare historians will find it an interesting read. It offers a brief history of the funding mechanism for federal contributions to provincial-territorial welfare programs from the (1966) Canada Assistance Plan to the 1990 "cap on CAP" to the 2006 Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST). It also contains a section on welfare reforms in Ontario starting in the mid-1990s with the Mike Harris Tories. There's a section on welfare reform in the U.S during the same period, and a conclusion that the U.S. had "greater success (than Canada) in reducing welfare rolls, unemployment and poverty."

Not so fast.
You can't compare American and Canadian welfare systems, nor the relative success of welfare reforms in both countries, without the necessary context. Tempting as it may be to assume that Temporary Assistance to Needy Families in the U.S. and the Canada Social Transfer are pretty much the same thing - a mechanism to stream federal funding to the lower order of government - it would be incorrect to do so, for as host of reasons. Below, I'll adress only the caseload composition of both TANF and Canadian welfare programs.

Unlike the Canadian welfare system, state welfare programs under the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)* initiative normally grant welfare ONLY to households with children, often headed by single mothers. They exclude all non-disabled single people and childless couples, who must apply instead to the national Food Stamp program and to residual aid programs where they live (if there are any such programs, which is not always the case). In Canada, singles and childless couples make up close to 60% of the total welfare caseload.

Moreover, state welfare programs receiving TANF funding exclude households headed by someone with a disability. In the U.S., people with disabilities must apply for assistance from the federal Social Security Disability program [ http://www.ssa.gov/disability/ ]. In Canada, we have the contribution-based Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefit [ http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/oas-cpp/cpp_disability/index.shtml ], but provincial-territorial welfare programs also provide needs-tested assistance to people with disabilities - who currently make up about 35-40% of the national welfare caseload.
---
* TANF is the federal transfer for state welfare programs, the U.S. equivalent to the Canada Social Transfer, which replaced the CHST in 2004. However, there are important differences between the two funding mechanisms in addition to the target population as noted above. For one thing, the federal government in the U.S. imposes a number of conditions on state welfare programs under TANF (e.g., targets for work participation and child poverty), while the Harper Government™ imposes only a non-residency rule on provincial welfare programs (i.e., eligibility for provincial welfare cannot be based on residency in a particular province). Also, welfare programs under TANF are only *one* of several programs in the U.S. that must be taken into account when comparing U.S. "welfare" with the Canadian system.

In Canada, welfare covers food, shelter, clothing an personal and household needs; in addition to health care coverage, which is universal in Canada, each Canadian jurisdiction offers a range of assistance for special medical needs under its welfare program. In order to compare Canadian and American welfare, the following American programs *must* be included:
* TANF welfare
* Medicaid
* SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps)
* Housing vouchers
* Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
* School lunch and breakfast programs
* Earned Income Tax Credit
NOTE: In the U.S. when a person or family times out of TANF welfare (between two and five years, depending on the state), they can still apply for some aid from the above programs and other state programs of last resort. If "timing out" were possible in Canada, individuals and families would have no other recourse. But there's no time limit on welfare in Canada ---- you can receive continue to receive welfare as long as you can prove financial need and you meet other eligibility requirements. The Government of British Columbia actually imposed a time limit in 2002 that was similar to what many U.S. states had adopted - two years eligibility for welfare out of five. For more info about this draconian Canadian (BC) welfare time limit policy and how it bombed, see: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bc_welfare_time_limits.htm
---

The Bottom Line:
Canadian and American welfare systems are like apples and oranges.
They shouldn't be compared without situating each system in its appropriate context.

The Anti-Entitlement Strategy
By Thomas B. Edsall
http://goo.gl/meJur
December 25, 2011
[Republican leadership candidate] Mitt Romney wants to stigmatize most “safety net” spending – the array of social insurance programs from Medicare to food stamps to unemployment compensation to free school lunches — as a form of welfare that is “cultivating government dependence.” (...) Romney and his aides have designed his rhetoric to define pretty much all spending on entitlements, including provisions for the injured, unemployed, sick, disabled or elderly as benefits to the poor who, Romney implies, are undeserving. And it doesn’t matter whether the money to pay for these programs comes from employer and employee contributions and not just tax revenue — they are all under suspicion. In an op-ed published Dec. 19 in USA Today [ http://goo.gl/p1aA7 ], Romney described the 2012 election as a battle between the partisans of entitlement and the partisans of opportunity.
Polls conducted since 1972 by the General Social Survey show that by margins of two to one, voters consistently say too little is spent on the poor, on education, on health care, on drug treatment — the list is long. This internal conflict on the part of voters – opposed to welfare but supportive of programs for the poor — demonstrates how important it is for each side to frame the debate in terms favorable to its own cause — just what Romney is trying to do with his use of the catch phrase “entitlement society.” We are headed toward an ideological confrontation over the next 11 months of an intensity rarely seen in American political history.
[Author Thomas B. Edsall is a professor of journalism at Columbia University.]
Source:
Campaign Stops Blog
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/
[ New York Times Opinion page
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html ]

News Release
Joblessness leads to more hungry and homeless families in the U.S. cities (PDF - 192K, 3 pages)
http://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/20111215-release-hhr-en.pdf
December 15, 2011
Washington, D.C. – In the midst of a struggling economy and continuing high levels of unemployment, U.S. cities are feeling the pressure from increased numbers of hungry and homeless families according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) report on the status of Hunger and Homelessness in 29 cities in America (below) that was released today by the U.S. Conference of Mayors on a news conference call.

Source:
U.S. Conference of Mayors
http://www.usmayors.org/
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are 1,139 such cities in the country today, each represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the Mayor.

Census data : Half of U.S. poor or low income
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57343397/census-data-half-of-u.s-poor-or-low-income/
December 15, 2011
WASHINGTON - Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data* depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.
(...) Mayors in 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it. Many middle-class Americans are dropping below the low-income threshold — roughly $45,000 for a family of four — because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a spouse losing a job. Housing and child-care costs are consuming up to half of a family's income. (...) A survey of 29 cities conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors being released Thursday points to a gloomy outlook for those on the lower end of the income scale.

---------------------------
* "Latest Census data" refers to the release of the following report by the Census Bureau:
Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010 (September 13, 2011)
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us.htm#income_poverty_and_health_insurance_coverage
NOTE : This link will take you to a section of the U.S. Government Links page of this website, where you'll find a link to the report itself, along with a collection of ~50 links to related fact sheets, NGO analysis of the report, media coverage, historical tables and much more
---------------------------

America’s Exploding Pipe Dream
By Charles M. Blow
October 28, 2011
We are slowly — and painfully — being forced to realize that we are no longer the America of our imaginations. Our greatness was not enshrined. Being a world leader is less about destiny than focused determination, and it is there that we have faltered. (...) We have not taken care of the least among us. We have allowed a revolting level of income inequality to develop. We have watched as millions of our fellow countrymen have fallen into poverty. And we have done a poor job of educating our children and now threaten to leave them a country that is a shell of its former self. We should be ashamed. Poor policies and poor choices have led to exceedingly poor outcomes. Our societal chickens have come home to roost. This was underscored in a report released on Thursday by the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation of Germany entitled Social Justice in the OECD — How Do the Member States Compare?” [See the link to this report below] It analyzed some metrics of basic fairness and equality among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and ranked America among the ones at the bottom.

Social Justice in the OECD — How Do the Member States Compare?
Sustainable Governance Indicators 2011 (PDF - 3.1MB, 56 pages)
Excerpt from "Key Findings" (page 6):
A cross-national comparison of social justice in the OECD shows considerable variation in the extent to which this principle is developed in these market-based democracies. According to the methodology applied in this study, Iceland and Norway are the most socially just countries. Turkey, which ranks among the bottom five in each of the six targeted dimensions, is the OECD’s least socially just country.
(...) Canada is the top performer among the non-European OECD states. Its high ranking can be attributed to strong results in the areas of education, labor market justice and social cohesion.

In this report, "social justice" includes:
* Poverty prevention
* Access to education
* Labor market inclusion
* Social cohesion and non-discrimination
* Health
* Intergenerational justice

Source:
Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation (Germany)
The Bertelsmann Stiftung is dedicated to serving the common good. Our work is based on the conviction that competition and civic engagement are essential for social progress.

Spotlight on the States
50-State Resource Map Compiles Data,
Research, News and Policy Information

State and local governments, community-based organizations and other non-profits play a significant role in implementing policies and programs to reduce poverty and promote opportunity. Click the link above, then hover your mouse over a state to get a snapshot of poverty statistics in the state, then click or use the drop-down menu to access information and resources, news articles, and links to learn more about state efforts to reduce poverty.
- includes:
State poverty data and statistics: A compilation of data, including poverty, unemployment and asset poverty rates, and information on housing. Each data point links to
its source.
State policies: A listing of key state tax, asset-building and work support policies that help support low-income families; includes links to state or national organizations that track the issue.
Research: A compilation of relevant state research reports on issues related to poverty and opportunity.
News: A news feed of articles about poverty in a given state.

At a time when federal, state and local governments are seeking to reduce deficits by cutting programs for the needy, this resource provides vital up-to-date information for advocates, researchers, policymakers and foundations working to reduce poverty and promote opportunity.

Source:
Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity:
The Source for News, Ideas and Action
Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity: The Source for News, Ideas and Action is a non-partisan initiative that brings together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to find genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans. Through the ongoing exchange of ideas, research and data, Spotlight seeks to inform the policy debate about reducing poverty and increasing opportunity in the United States.

Oligarchy, American Style
By Paul Krugman
November 3, 2011
Inequality is back in the news, largely thanks to Occupy Wall Street, but with an assist from the Congressional Budget Office. And you know what that means: It’s time to roll out the obfuscators! Anyone who has tracked this issue over time knows what I mean. Whenever growing income disparities threaten to come into focus, a reliable set of defenders tries to bring back the blur. Think tanks put out reports claiming that inequality isn’t really rising, or that it doesn’t matter. Pundits try to put a more benign face on the phenomenon, claiming that it’s not really the wealthy few versus the rest, it’s the educated versus the less educated. (...) Some pundits are still trying to dismiss concerns about rising inequality as somehow foolish. But the truth is that the whole nature of our society is at stake.

Falling Crime, Teeming Prisons
October 29, 2011
Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, has a smart proposal to create a bipartisan commission to review the nation’s troubled criminal justice system and offer recommendations for reform. The National Criminal Justice Commission Act would be a valuable first step toward reducing crime as well as punishment. (...) The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population, yet 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. In the past generation, the imprisonment rate per capita in this country has multiplied by five. There are 2.3 million Americans in prisons and jails. Spending on prisons has reached $77 billion a year. (...) There are, however, ways to end this cycle of incarceration. This could be done by reducing sentences for nonviolent offenses, ending mandatory minimum sentences and cleaning up drug markets nationally.
Source:
New York Times

Bill C-10 will create the prisoners to fill Conservative prisons
October 25, 2011
Bill C-10 is a massive piece of legislation of roughly 100 pages that rolls nine laws from organized and drug crime, to pardons, to child sex offenders, to migrants entering Canada and young offenders into a single omnibus law.
Source:
rabble.ca

Smaller Shelters and Persuasion Coax Homeless Off Bronx Streets
October 17, 2011
By Mosi Secret
Not far from the Major Deegan Expressway in the South Bronx is an abandoned subway platform where someone placed a plastic chair, a flimsy mattress and a nightstand. Nearby, in an old construction site, a truck trailer is lined with enough discarded furniture that it looks like a makeshift bedroom. But the homeless people who lived in these hovels are gone. Infusions of government money have revitalized many poorer neighborhoods in the Bronx, but the problem of people living on the streets has persisted. Now, though, a new strategy is showing surprising results: the number of single, homeless people in the borough has dropped roughly 80 percent since 2005, according to a recent estimate by the city.
Source:
New York Times

BronxWorks - Lifting Lives, Building Futures
BronxWorks has played the leading role in reducing street homelessness in the Bronx by 80%. BronxWorks helps individuals and families improve their economic and social well-being. From toddlers to seniors, we feed, shelter, teach, and support our neighbors to build a stronger community.

New York City Coalition for the Homeless
Coalition for the Homeless is the nation's oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping homeless men, women, and children. We are dedicated to the principle that affordable housing, sufficient food, and the chance to work for a living wage are fundamental rights in a civilized society.

Occupy Wall Street
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations in New York City[ based in Zuccotti Park, formerly "Liberty Plaza Park". The protest was originally called for by the Canadian activist group Adbusters. The action has been compared to the Arab Spring movement (particularly the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo, which initiated the 2011 Egyptian revolution) and the Spanish Indignants.
The participants of the event, who have called themselves the "99 percenters", are mainly protesting against social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government, among other concerns. By October 9, similar demonstrations had been held or were ongoing in 70 major cities and more than 600 communities.

We are the 99 percent
We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.

Occupy Wall St.
OccupyWallSt.org is the unofficial de facto online resource for the ongoing protests happening on Wall Street. We are an affinity group committed to doing technical support work for resistance movements.

OCCUPY TOGETHER is an unofficial hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St.

The Occupy Protests - a Toronto Star special feature with news about the Canadian, U.S. and international Occupy movements

Occupy Canada Facebook page - In solidarity with #OccupyWallStreet, @OccupyToronto, and the countless other @Occupy movements across the world.

Punishing Poverty
Editorial
October 31, 2011
Being poor and needing public assistance is not a crime. Yet some states and cities, including New York City, are gratuitously inflicting punitive measures on people who seek government help. Gov. Rick Scott of Florida signed a new law in May that requires all applicants for the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to submit a urine sample and pass a drug test. Last week, a federal judge in Orlando temporarily enjoined enforcement of that intrusive policy on grounds it violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches.
Source:
New York Times

States Adding Drug Test as Hurdle for Welfare
By A. G. Sulzberger
October 10, 2011
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As more Americans turn to government programs for refuge from a merciless economy, a growing number are encountering a new price of admission to the social safety net: a urine sample. Policy makers in three dozen states this year proposed drug testing for people receiving benefits like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing. Such laws, which proponents say ensure that tax dollars are not being misused and critics say reinforce stereotypes about the poor, have passed in states including Arizona, Indiana and Missouri.
Source:
New York Times

Drug testing coming to Canadian welfare programs?
Déja vu, all over again.
Does anyone from Ontario still remember ten years ago, when the Harris Tories held a province-wide consultation regarding mandatory drug testing for welfare applicants? In January 2001, Ontario Minister of Community and Social Services John Baird (why does that name ring a bell?) stated: "Our government believes we must provide drug treatment, and it must be mandatory". The consultation wasn't about whether or not drug testing would happen - it had been part of the Tory platform in the 1999 election campaign. Baird moved on to another portfolio, the drug testing trial balloon didn't go any further and the Liberals won the 2003 provincial election.

Below, you can read a few of the submissions that the Ontario Government received in the course of the 2001 consultation.

Consultation on Mandatory
Drug Treatment for Welfare Recipients (PDF - 40K, 5 pages)
February 6, 2001
Brief Submitted (to the Ontario Government)
by The Medical Reform Group of Ontario
Background
During the 1999 election campaign, the Progressive Conservative Party's "Blueprint" document outlined a plan to test all welfare recipients in Ontario for drug use, based on an argument that drug use among welfare recipients constitutes a barrier to obtaining and maintaining employment. On November 14th 2000, John Baird, Minister of Community and Social Services, announced that the government of Ontario was seeking consultations regarding its plan to mandate drug testing of welfare
recipients. The Medical Reform Group of Ontario is responding to the invitation for consultations.

In addition to being in contravention to the Ontario Human Rights Code which considers addiction as a disability, mandatory testing and treatment of welfare recipients violates their constitutional rights, encourages base stereotypes, is of unproven efficacy, is unlikely to be more effective than voluntary testing, may be harmful, and will likely be a wasteful expenditure of public moneys.

Source:
The Medical Reform Group of Ontario
The Medical Reform Group of Ontario is a group of 200 practising physicians and medical students.

Science misapplied: mandatory addiction screening
and treatment for welfare recipients in Ontario (PDF - 167K, 2 pages)
August 2001
The Ontario government plans to refer welfare recipients for a compulsory “professional, comprehensive assess ment” and to demand that some recipients attend outpatient programs for mandatory treatment as a condition of receiving benefits. Both diagnosis and treatment will require the involvement of physicians and both could occur under duress and coercion. Physicians, guided by professional ethics, will need to determine whether their allegiance is to the state or to the individual patient. The Board of Trustees of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has publicly opposed mandatory drug testing and treatment. Medical associations and professional regulatory bodies should follow its example and take a public stand against the Ontario government’s plan to force welfare recipients to undergo screening, assessment and treatment for addiction.
Source:
Canadian Medical Association

Mandatory Drug Testing and Treatment of Welfare Recipients Position Statement
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) does not support mandatory drug testing and treatment for people on welfare. Research has shown that drug testing has limited utility in confirming substance use problems and treatment needs. Such an approach would also serve to perpetuate the stigma associated with poverty and addiction and may lead to detrimental individual and social consequences. CAMH is also concerned about the ethical and legal implications of that infringement on the human rights of its patients and clients who are on welfare.
Source:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Community health centers hit hard by Washington deficit cuts
October 6, 2011
The applications poured in, spurred by millions of dollars in new funding included in the health law to expand primary care to the poor. A record 810 groups sought federal grants to staff and equip hundreds of new and existing community health centers. But in August, most were rejected, leaving advocates frustrated that they would not be able to serve the growing numbers of uninsured and poor people or be ready for an influx of patients under the health law.
Source:
Washington Post

Sesame Street’s newest Muppet is poor and hungry
New Sesame Street muppet Lily will be introduced in a one-hour primetime special on Oct. 9.
Iconic children's show Sesame Street has introduced a new character so young people can learn about the issues of poverty and hunger.
October 4, 2011
At a time when the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates nearly one in four American children – an estimated 17 million – may be going hungry, Sesame Street is introducing Lily, a new character who will highlight their plight.
Source:
Toronto.com

The 10 best things government has done for us
By Rex Nutting
September 27, 2011
WASHINGTON— “The government is the problem,” they say. “The government can’t create jobs.” Or: “The government should just get out of the way.” How many times over the past three — or 30 — years have you heard conservatives (and even a few liberals) say that there’s no role for government in fixing our economy? They’re wrong, but this constant refrain is having an impact on our political system; it’s narrowing our options as we struggle with excessive unemployment, burdensome debt and wasted lives.
[ 752 Comments ]

96 more everyday reasons to feel good about taxes
- reasons like : governors-general - access to information - adoption records - critical infrastructure protection - airbag safety - fisheries - elections - pensions - money-minting - aviation museums - polar ice-watching - police college - social assistance - unemployment insurance - autopsies - ferries - bingo permits...

Canada's Quiet Bargain:
The benefits of public spending (PDF - 1.3MB, 40 pages)
April 2009
By Hugh Mackenzie and Richard Shillington
This study adds a dimension that has been missing to the public debate over taxes and public spending in Canada. It weighs the benefits of public services provided by federal, provincial, and municipal governments against the benefits of recent tax cuts.

Source:
Canadians for Tax Fairness
Canadians for Tax Fairness promotes a progressive tax system, based on ability to pay, to fund the public services and programs required to meet our social, economic and environmental needs.

SPENT (online "game") : Could YOU make it through the month on $1,000? - September 23
(MarketWatch - Wall Street Journal)

NOTE : Although this article and "game" are from the Wall Street Journal - which in itself is as shocking as the Conference Board of Canada decrying worsening income inequality in Canada - the concept is simple yet effective, and it applies to the U.S. as well as Canada and other countries.

Poverty isn’t just a game
Online game shows how tough it is without good options
September 23, 2011
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — You’ve lost your job. You’ve lost your house. You’re down to your last $1,000. Can you make it through the month?
Jenny Nicholson is tired of hearing how the poor are poor because they make poor choices. Let’s see what kind of choices you make when it’s your turn to be flattened by the economy. That’s the idea behind Spent, an online game Nicholson created to challenge popular misconceptions about poverty. [Play it by clicking the link below.] So far, it’s been played more than a million times by people in 196 countries. And Nicholson is challenging every member of Congress to play it, too.
Source:
MarketWatch
[ Wall Street Journal ]

SPENT - an interactive game that takes challenges participants to survive a typical month on $1,000 --- it's all about the choices you must make every day when you're living on the margin. The game took me about 10 minutes to finish, and I made it to day 30 before I ran out of money. I was reminded of an observation made by a presenter at a poverty conference a few years ago : "The money usually runs out before the month does."

Welfare reform law faces revision at 15
Safety net again under scrutiny on Hill
By Cheryl Wetzstein
August 21, 2011
Don’t expect much hoopla or cake-cutting as the landmark welfare reform law passed by President Clinton and congressional Republicans in the mid-1990s celebrates its 15th anniversary Monday. Even though the widely touted overhaul of the national safety net for the poor and unemployed has touched the lives of virtually every American family, the Obama administration and Congress are debating new changes to the system, and a temporary extension of the main welfare programs is likely again with another funding deadline looming Sept. 30. But another round of welfare reform is not being ignored on Capitol Hill. Both the House and Senate have had committee hearings, and in March, a group of House Republicans introduced a bill to begin “managing” welfare by requiring a public accounting of the costs of 70-plus federal anti-poverty programs
Source:
Washington Times

Economy still straining Social Security disability program
By Stephen Ohlemacher
August 21, 2011
Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding Social Security’s disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency. Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs — in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs — and can’t find new ones. The stampede for benefits is adding to a growing backlog of applicants — many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved — and worsening the financial problems of a program that’s been running in the red for years.
Source:
Washington Post

Alarmist Stories Misportray Social Security Disability Insurance
August 23, 2011
Social Security’s disability-insurance program is forecast to run short of money in 2018, more than six years from now, and policymakers can plug the hole for several decades by reallocating some taxes from the related old-age program as they have done in the past. But that’s not the impression you’d get from some alarmist reports. “Social Security disability on verge of insolvency” blares a Fox News story, a theme echoed by other outlets [Washington Post ] - [ Washington Times ].
Here are the facts...
Source:
Off the Charts Blog - Policy insights beyond the numbers
[ Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ]
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy organization working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.

An Unfair Burden [on the Poor]
Editorial
June 24, 2011
For all of the economic hardship of the last several years, there was reason to hope that the nation could avoid a crushing increase in the number of Americans living in poverty. That hope is fading fast. In 2008, amid a deepening recession, a Census Bureau measure showed that the number of poor Americans rose by 1.7 million to nearly 47.5 million. In 2009, thanks in large part to the Obama stimulus, the rise in poverty was halted — a significant accomplishment at a time of worsening unemployment. When data for 2010 are released in the fall, poverty is expected to have stayed in check because the stimulus, including aid to states and bolstered unemployment benefits, was still in effect last year. This year and next are a different story. The stimulus is waning and Republicans are targeting poverty-fighting programs for deep cuts. Obama officials have said that low-income programs will not be automatically cut to fit a preconceived target from the debt-limit talks, but there is no guarantee they will stick to that position.

How to Cut Child Poverty in Half
By Nancy Folbre
June 13, 2011
Cutting child poverty in half sounds like a magician’s trick, or some miracle of rapid economic growth. But Britain has used standard policy tools to reduce its child-poverty rate by more than half since 1994 and has effectively defended this progress against the pressures of the Great Recession. By contrast, the child poverty rate has trended upward in the United States since 2000, and children have proved economically vulnerable to increased unemployment. Most other rich countries rate higher on indicators of child well-being than either Britain or the United States. But we have more in common with Britain than most other countries, and rightfully pay closer attention to it.
[Nancy Folbre is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.]

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
May 2011 issue of Vanity Fair
Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
Source:
Vanity Fair - May 2011 issue
[ Vanity Fair - home page ]

The United States of Inequality
Trying to understand income inequality, the most profound change in American society in your lifetime.
By Timothy Noah
September 14, 2010
In the late 1970s, a half-century trend toward growing income equality reversed itself. Ever since, U.S. incomes have grown more unequal. Middle-class incomes stagnated while the top 1 percent's share of national income climbed to 24 percent. Middle-income workers no longer benefit from productivity increases, and upward mobility, long the saving grace of the American economy, has faltered. Why is this happening? In the following 10-part series, Slate's Timothy Noah weighs eight possible causes of what Princeton economist Paul Krugman has labeled the Great Divergence. This 30-year trend "may represent the most significant change in American society in your lifetime," Noah writes, "and it's not a change for the better."
[ NOTE : this series ran in Slate Magazine from September 3 to September 15, 2010. Click the link above to access each of the ten parts below. The series is also available as a single PDF file, which I don't recommend because the text contains many useful links to related resources that aren't clickable in the PDF version. Gilles]
Part 1 : Introducing the Great Divergence: Trying to understand income inequality.
Part 2 : The Usual Suspects Are Innocent: Neither race nor gender nor the breakdown of the American family created the Great Divergence.
Part 3 : Did Immigration Create the Great Divergence? Why we can't blame income inequality on the post-1965 immigration surge.
Part 4 : Did Computers Create Inequality? No. The tech boom's impact was no greater than that of previous technological upheavals during the 20th century.
Part 5 : Can We Blame Income Inequality on Republicans? Yes, but for the very richest beneficiaries the trend has been bipartisan.
Part 6 : The Great Divergence and the Death of Organized Labor: How has the decline of the union contributed to income inequality?
Part 7 : The Great Divergence and International Trade: Trade didn't create inequality, and then it did.
Part 8 : The Stinking Rich and the Great Divergence: Executive compensation took off in the 1980s and 1990s. Is it to blame?
Part 9 : How the Decline in K-12 Education Enriches College Graduates: When the workforce needed to be smarter, Americans got dumber.
Part 10 : Why we can't ignore growing income inequality: It undermines the ideal of e pluribus unum
Source:
Slate Magazine

Poverty and Recovery
Editorial
January 18, 2011
In 2008, the first year of the Great Recession, the number of Americans living in poverty rose by 1.7 million to nearly 47.5 million. While hugely painful, that rise wasn’t surprising given the unraveling economy. What is surprising is that recent census data show that those poverty numbers held steady in 2009, even though job loss worsened significantly that year. (...) Clearly, the sheer scale of poverty — 15.7 percent of the country’s population — is unacceptable. But to keep millions more Americans from falling into poverty during a deep recession is a genuine accomplishment that holds a vital lesson: the safety net, fortified by stimulus, staved off an even more damaging crisis.

President Obama must explain to the American people that the country needs to continue relief and recovery efforts, especially programs to create jobs. Without that, tens of millions of Americans stuck in poverty will have little hope of climbing out — and many more could join their ranks.

Who is poor? Many of America's neediest may look a lot like you
January 7, 2011
Americans fuss and fight over many aspects of public policy, from climate change to health care reform. But here’s something about which there’s not much argument: If you fall below the federal threshold for “poverty,” you are poor. You aren’t just needy or disadvantaged. At best, you hover somewhere between broke and destitute. (...) In addition to the numbers from the 2010 census, the Census Bureau has begun to publish reams of research that challenges its own methods. Determining the poverty threshold is one such topic. (...) Most striking is that people living in official poverty “have characteristics more similar to the total population.” People end up poor, it seems, even when they are trying their hardest not to. They can be pushed into poverty by paying to get to and from work, finding child care, keeping up with child support obligations, medical expenses and caring for children who are not their own. Who’s poor? More often than you’d think, people just like you.
Source:
STLtoday.com - the #1 St. Louis website

Gates Foundation pledges $500 million to help the poor save money
Co-chair Melinda Gates and others at a Seattle forum look into cellphone
banking in the developing world and other ways to help some of the world's
poorest families begin much-needed savings accounts.
November 17, 2010
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $500 million Tuesday to help create new banking systems that will reach into the world's most impoverished corners and allow families earning $2 a day or less to begin saving money. After years of promoting microcredit borrowing to help impoverished farmers and bottom-of-the-rung entrepreneurs expand their business opportunities, foundation leaders said it was increasingly apparent that saving, not just credit, is crucial to helping poor families weather crises, pay for schooling and make small investments to expand their incomes.
Source:
Los Angeles Times

U.S. Department of Agriculture Report Outlines Food Access in America
Study Underscores the Important Role of Federal Nutrition Assistance Programs
News Release
November 15, 2010
USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon emphasized the results of an annual report released today by USDA's Economic Research Service that demonstrate that federal nutrition assistance food programs are providing a valuable safety net to the most vulnerable Americans. The report "Food Security in the United States 2009" found that 17.4 million households in America had difficulty providing enough food due to a lack of resources, about the same as in 2008.

Household Food Security in the United States, 2009
By Mark Nord, Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Margaret Andrews, and Steven Carlson
November 2010
Report Summary - HTML
Complete report (PDF (685K, 68 pages)

Record Number of U.S. Households Face Hunger
By Pam Fessler
November 15, 2010
The number of Americans who struggled to get enough food last year remained at a record high, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More than 50 million Americans lived in households that had a hard time getting enough to eat at least at some point during 2009. That includes 17 million children, and at least a half-million of those children faced the direst conditions. They had inadequate diets, or even missed meals, because their families didn't have enough money for food.
Source:
NPR (National Public Radio)

The 'Culture of Poverty' moves to the suburbs,
reviving old problems and generating new complications

For much of America's history, urban areas contained the lion's share of the country's poor, an image reinforced by popular media depictions in film, television, and evening news reports. Recent news reports from the New York Times and The Economist would seem to indicate that suburban areas have larger numbers of poor people, and many are finding it hard to locate adequate social services, food banks, and other resources. This news drew on two new reports from the Brookings Institution, which found that the number of poor people in the suburbs has increased 37.4% over the past decade. Also, these findings come on the heels of a renewed discussion regarding the so-called "culture of poverty". When it was on the front page of policy discussions forty years ago, many politicians (including the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan) argued that there was in fact a unique set of cultural values and practices held by the poor that made it difficult, if not impossible, to make the transition out of poverty. As policy-makers continue to confront the shifting geography of poverty, all of these issues will require sustained conversation and significant soul-searching. [KMG]

The first link will take users to a news article from [the latest issue of] The Economist which reports on growing suburban poverty trends, with particular attention to the city of Freeport on Long Island. The second link leads to a related piece from National Public Radio which talks about the performance of low-income students in schools with greater economic diversity. The third link leads to a timely story from this Monday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram which talks about a study that shows that less affluent areas (and as a result, school districts) often have the least-qualified teachers. Moving on, visitors will find a thoughtful piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic where he ruminates on his own experiences with the culture of poverty and related matters. The fifth link leads to an excellent discussion on the culture of poverty with Patricia Cohen of the New York Times and Professor Sudhir Venkatesh of Columbia University. The final link leads to the two aforementioned reports from the Brookings Institution, and visitors with an interest in this type of social transformation will want to give both of them a closer look.
Source:
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2010.
http://scout.wisc.edu/

TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)
TANF is due for reauthorization by the end of 2010. Urban Institute experts examine the effectiveness of TANF and provide evidence for future policy decisions.

Definition of TANF:
A federal block grant to states, territories and tribes to cover benefits, administration and services targeted to needy families with children. TANF emphasizes self sufficiency through work participation requirements, benefit time limits, and initiatives to encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.

Source:
The Urban Institute
The Urban Institute gathers data, conducts research, evaluates programs, offers technical assistance overseas, and educates Americans on social and economic issues — to foster sound public policy and effective government.

The Canadian equivalent to TANF is the Canada Social Transfer.
Not really, though, because state welfare programs under TANF are quite different from those in Canada in terms of benefit levels, clientele, terms and conditions of welfare (max. 5 yrs in a lifetime) and much more. Read the blurb that I wrote to accompany the link to Eighth Annual Report on TANF to Congress (June 2009) for just a few reasons why the American welfare system shouldn't be compared with Canadian welfare programs.

Welfare Leavers in Colorado (PDF - 726K 87 pages)
Prepared by Sam Elkin et al
For the Colorado Department of Human Services
July 31, 2009

Selected key findings
The good news:
Only about one in ten individuals who stopped receiving cash assistance through Colorado Works returned to welfare.
The bad news:
Fifty-nine percent of leavers were receiving food stamps; about one-third were receiving some form of housing assistance; almost half of childless leavers had no public health insurance coverage (although 3/4 of parents had coverage for their kids)
Related link:
Colorado Department of Human Services
Source:
The Lewin Group
The Lewin Group is an Ingenix company. Ingenix, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, was founded in 1996 to develop, acquire and integrate the world's best-in-class health care information technology capabilities. The Lewin Group operates with editorial independence and provides its clients with the very best expert and impartial health care and human services policy research and consulting services.

Welfare Time Limits: An Update on
State Policies, Implementation, and Effects on Families (PDF - 1.3MB, 231 pages)
Prepared by Mary Farrell et al
For the U.S. Govt. Administration for Children and Families
April 2008
One of the most controversial features of the 1990s welfare reforms was the imposition of time limits on benefit receipt. The law prohibits states from using federal TANF funds to assist most families for more than 60 months. Under contract to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Lewin and MDRC conducted a comprehensive review of what has been learned about time limits. The review, which updates a 2002 study, includes analysis of administrative data reported by states to ACF, visits to several states, and a literature review. Key findings include the following: time-limit policies vary dramatically from state to state; nationally, at least a quarter million TANF cases have been closed due to reaching a time limit since 1996, although about one-third of these closures have occurred in New York, which continues to provide assistance through a state and locally funded program; and many of the families whose TANF cases were closed due to time limits are struggling financially and report being worse off than they were while on welfare.
Related link:
Administration for Children and Families
[ U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services ]

Going Dutch
How I learned to Love the European Welfare State
[taxation and social benefits in Holland]
By Russell Shorto
April 29, 2009
[An American expatriate's thoughts on Holland's 52% income tax rate and its health and social benefits]
"(...) Maybe we Americans have set up a false dichotomy. Over the course of the 20th century, American politics became entrenched in two positions, which remain fixed in many minds: the old left-wing idea of vast and direct government control of social welfare, and the right-wing determination to dismantle any advances toward it, privatize the system and leave people to their own devices. In Europe, meanwhile, the postwar cradle-to-grave idea of a welfare state gave way in the past few decades to some quite sophisticated mixing of public and private. And whether in health care, housing or the pension system (there actually is still a thriving pension system in the Netherlands, which covers about 80 percent of workers), the Dutch have proved to be particularly skilled at finding mixes that work."

Making Work Pay : How to Design and Implement Financial Work Supports
to Improve Family and Child Well-Being and Reduce Poverty (Overview)
2002 How-To Guide Series
"When Congress reauthorizes the nation’s welfare policy in 2003, it is likely to require even more recipients to work and require them to work more hours per week. The use of the policies described in this guide can help states meet the new goals as well as reduce poverty and benefit children. Although most states are suffering severe budget shortfalls as this guide is published, Making Work Pay discusses ways to make earning supplements more efficient and less costly."
Full report (PDF file - 320K, 77 pages)

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers:An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload
November 2002
Summary
Full Report (PDF file - 210K, 68 pages)

NOTE: In Canada, only British Columbia has a time limit on welfare entitlement.
And it's toothless.

See the official blurb:
Time Limits : BC Employment and Assistance - brochure (eff. April 2002)
British Columbia's welfare time limits policy
Source : BC Ministry of Human Resources

Read about the context, history and ignominious end of this reprehensible experiment:

Go to the BC Welfare Time Limits Links page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bc_welfare_time_limits.htm

National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies : Moving People from Welfare to Work
Lessons from the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS)
July 2002
"(...)The NEWWS programs generally did not increase income or reduce poverty. Indeed, some of the more disadvantaged program enrollees were made worse off financially."

Welfare Time Limits : State Policies, Implementation, and Effects on Families
July 2002
"[...]Time limits became a highly contentious issue in the debate about the 1996 federal welfare reform law, which imposed a 60-month lifetime cap on federal cash assistance but gave states broad flexibility to design time-limit policies. (...) Drawing from a survey of all 50 state welfare agencies, Welfare Time Limits shows that, to date, relatively few families have reached the federal time limit. A larger number of families have reached state time limits of fewer than 60 months, but many of the families who encountered these shorter limits were granted extensions. The report documents wide variations in states' implementation of the time limit and underscores how the strong economy of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which created job opportunities and filled state coffers, helped avert the limit's potential adverse fallout.]"
Overview
Executive Summary
Full Report (PDF file - 1769K, 205pages)

What Works in Welfare Reform: Evidence and Lessons to Guide TANF Reauthorization (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)
June 14, 2002
"...brings together findings from 17 recent MDRC evaluations of welfare reform programs covering nearly a dozen years of field studies in a one-stop guide to the issues at the heart of the reauthorization debate. This guide explains how the three key welfare policy approaches - employment mandates, work incentives, and time limits - have affected poor families and government budgets. Readers will find evidence and analysis that raise implications for America's next welfare reform agenda."

How Welfare and Work Policies for Parents Affect Adolescents : A Synthesis of Research
May 2002
Overview
Full Report (PDF file - 1878K, 145 pages)

Mathematica
For more than 35 years, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., has been known for its high-quality, objective research to support decisions about our nation's most pressing social policy problems. The firm has conducted some of the most important studies of health care, welfare, education, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs in the United States. This research, which crisscrosses the human life span from children's health and welfare to long-term care for elderly people, provides a sound foundation for decisions that affect the well-being of Americans.
- incl. links to : Education - Labor - Health - Disability - Welfare - Nutrition - Early Childhood - Surveys

News from Mathematica:
A Semimonthly Update on New Publications, Presentations, and Other Developments
October 10, 2006
In This Issue:
(click the link above to access the articles below)
* TANF at 10: A Look at Policies in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania
* Medicare Advantage: Changes in the Market in 2006
* Two New Briefs Released on Special Care for Special Kids:
—Profile of Those Enrolled in Commercial Plans
—Prescription Drug Costs for Children in These Plans
*Beyond Test Scores: New Brief Looks at Student Competencies
* Career Opportunities at Mathematica
Source:
Mathematica

News From Mathematica
A Semi-monthly Update on New Publications, Presentations, and Other Developments
- June 28, 2006
In this Issue: Welfare-to-Work Resources
In light of changes being made at the federal level to welfare-to-work requirements, this issue reviews recent publications by Mathematica staff that can inform related discussions.
- incl. Employment-Related Issues - Hard to Employ - Strengthening Families - Fatherhood - Child Care - Housing, Sanctions, and Other Topics

Related links:

SiCKO - the official movie website

MichaelMoore.com - includes "SiCKO Factual Backup"

SiCKO - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Motherjones.com - News and Resources for the Skeptical Citizen
- Mother Jones 400 (March 5, 2001) --- Using data from the Federal Election Commission which was compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), Mother Jones has put together an eye-opening Website which reveals the nation's top 400 financial political contributors and what they may be expecting for their contributions.
Source : Excerpt from a review by The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2002

Mystifying Data: Can America's Promise Get Away with It?
July 1999
From Energize, Inc. - "especially for leaders of volunteers"

Moving Ideas (U.S.)
News and Resources from the Policy Action Network (formerly the Electronic Policy Network)
"The Policy Action Network is dedicated to explaining and popularizing complex policy ideas to a broader audience. Our goal is to improve collaboration and dialogue between policy and grassroots organizations, and to promote their work to journalists and legislators. (...) Moving Ideas posts the best ideas and resources from leading progressive research and advocacy institutions, as well as promotes high-quality websites and publishes original content. We hope to strengthen democratic participation by providing a more inclusive and intelligible debate about the issues that shape our world."
Link Library - large collection of annotated links under the following categories : Alternative News Sources - Building Democracy - Criminal Justice - The Economy - Education - Energy and the Environment - Families, Children, and Youth - Foreign Policy and Defense - Gay Issues - Gender - Globalization, Immigration, and Trade - Health Care Policy - International Policy Resources - Media Old & New - Poverty, Income, and Wealth - Public Policy Programs & Political Science Departments - Race - Rights and Liberties - Science and Culture - Social Security and Aging - Welfare & Families - Working America - Urban Issues/Livable Cities.

Sample content:

Welfare Wars: In Brief
"Those who support the welfare reform law have pointed to the more than 50 percent reduction in the welfare rolls -- from 12.2 million in 1996 to 5.5 million in March 2001. But many of the families leaving welfare aren't leaving poverty. In 1999, 41 percent of former welfare recipients were poor, and 64 percent of parents who had left welfare for work found themselves struggling to support their families on a median hourly wage of $7.15."
Source : Shaping the Debate

From MyWay (U.S. News portal):

[U.S.] Welfare State Growing Despite Overhauls
February 26, 2007
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
WASHINGTON (AP) - The welfare state is bigger than ever despite a decade of policies designed to wean poor people from public aid. The number of families receiving cash benefits from welfare has plummeted since the government imposed time limits on the payments a decade ago. But other programs for the poor, including Medicaid, food stamps and disability benefits, are bursting with new enrollees. (...) Critics of the welfare overhaul say the numbers offer fresh evidence that few former recipients have become self-sufficient, even though millions have moved from welfare to work. They say the vast majority have been forced into low-paying jobs without benefits and few opportunities to advance. (...) In 2005, about 5.1 million people received monthly welfare payments from TANF and similar state programs, a 60 percent drop from a decade before. But other government programs grew, offsetting the declines. About 44 million people - nearly one in six in the country - relied on government services for the poor in 2003, according to the most recent statistics compiled by the Census Bureau. That compares with about 39 million in 1996. Also, the number of people getting government aid continues to increase, according to more recent enrollment figures from individual programs. Medicaid rolls alone topped 45 million people in 2005, pushed up in part by rising health care costs and fewer employers offering benefits. Nearly 26 million people a month received food stamps that year. Cash welfare recipients, by comparison, peaked at 14.2 million people in 1994.

Related links:

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program - Fact Sheet - brief summary of TANF
TANF Seventh Annual Report to Congress (December 2006) - data about welfare caseloads, family employment and earnings, marriage and two-parent families, out-of-wedlock births, and State policy choices
TANF statute:
H.R. 3734 - Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
TANF final regulations:
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF); Final Rule
Policy Q's and A's
Policy documents - incl. policy announcements, program instructions and information memoranda
Medicaid
Food stamp program
Supplemental Security Income

----

First Nationwide Estimate of Homeless Population in a Decade Announced:
Approximately 744,313 people homeless on a single night.
News Release
January 11, 2007
Washington—There were 744,313 people homeless in January 2005 according to Homelessness Counts, the first national assessment of the number of homeless people in over a decade. The report was released today by the Homelessness Research Institute of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. This estimate, a compilation of point-in-time counts collected by local Continuums of Care, provides data on every state and community in the country.

Complete report:

Homelessness Counts (PDF | 1.51 MB | 48 pages)
Homelessness Counts-Appendix B Methodology Supplement (PDF | 84 KB | 2 pages)
Homelessness Counts-Appendix B Supplement 1 (PDF | 93 KB | 48 pages)
Homelessness Counts-Appendix B Supplement 2 (PDF | 79 KB | 20 pages)

Related links:

Canada:
U.S. Tops in the World in Incarceration Rate: Conservatives Hoping to Catch Up
By Brian Gordon
February 4, 2008
The United States has more people in prison, per capita, than any other country in the world. More than China, more than Iran, more than oppressive dictatorships the world over. And this is the model that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives want to follow by implementing 'tougher' drug laws.
Source:
Green Party of Canada

Adult and youth correctional services in Canada : Key indicators, 2005/2006
November 21, 2007
Canada's incarceration rate tends to be higher than most western European countries, yet far lower than that of the United States. For instance, Sweden posted an incarceration rate of 82 and France a rate of 85 per 100,000 population in 2005/2006. By comparison, the incarceration rate in Canada 110 prisoners per 100,000 population, England and Wales was 148, and in the United States the adult rate stood at 738 (the United States excludes youth from its rate).
Source:
Crime and Justice Statistics
[ Statistics Canada ]

International:
World Prison Population List (Seventh Edition) (PDF file - 80K, 6 pages)
January 2007
Source:
King's College, London

Pew Center on the States: Special Report on Medicaid 2006
Bridging the Gap Between Care and Cost (U.S.)
January 2006
This special report on Medicaid, by the Pew Center on the States, seeks to analyze the real-world experiences of states, highlight examples of what works and what doesn't, and inform a crucial policy debate that will affect the lives of millions of Americans.
- incl. links to the Complete report (PDF file - 292K, 24 pages) and to a table of contents (copied below) with links to the individual chapters in HTML.
Table of contents:
Overview
* The Great Debate Medicaid in the eye of the storm
* The Challenge of Change Balancing cost controls with the health of millions
The States at Work
* Long-term care Medicaid's Third Rail
* Prescription drugs The Rx Factor: Controlling prescription drug costs
* Technology The Great eHealth Hope: How technology can help
* Cost sharing Something of Value: Experiments in cost sharing
* Management Tools to Live By: Managing for better performance
* Private insurance Trading Places: Tapping into private insurance
* Reform The Radical Reformers: A new approach
* About the Report
* Related Resources - Links to over 800 reports from the 50 states pertaining to Medicaid and related health issues. These reports were published in 2004 and 2005 and come from many different sources, including auditors, legislatures, a wide variety of state agencies and research organizations. Resources can be browsed by state or topic.

News Release:

Pew Center on the States Examines State Innovation in Medicaid Policy
January 1, 2006
(Philadelphia, PA) - All 50 states are experimenting with new ways to try to rein in Medicaid costs. While these approaches may save money, they could limit the program's capacity to provide vital health care to the nearly 60 million Americans who depend on it. Which reforms have been most effective? What may be the unintended consequences of reforms to Medicaid? The Pew Center on the States, a division of The Pew Charitable Trusts, today issued its first state policy report, Special Report on Medicaid: Bridging the Gap Between Care and Cost, which analyzes how state Medicaid programs are wrestling with rising costs and highlights examples of which innovations are working, which are not, and why.

PBS

Waging a Living, a documentary film about low-wage earners (the "working poor") in the U.S. by Robert Weisberg
(Check your local PBS listings)
"The term "working poor" should be an oxymoron. If you work full time, you should not be poor, but more than 30 million Americans - one in four workers - are stuck in jobs that do not pay the basics for a decent life. Waging a Living chronicles the day-to-day battles of four low-wage earners fighting to lift their families out of poverty."

TIP: check out the Resources link --- incl. What is a living wage? - Online discussion area - Download a podcast interview with Barbara Ehrenreich - Get updates on the people in the film - Listen to the filmmaker interview podcast.

Source:
P.O.V. (a cinema term for "point of view") --- television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films"
[ PBS ]

Is Wal-Mart Good for America?
"They're rolling back prices, rolling back the competition, and rolling jobs overseas..."
November 16, 2004
- incl. links to : introduction + secrets of wal-mart's success + transforming america + china connection + interviews - producer's notebook + american radio work's companion reports + join the discussion + correspondent's chat
teacher's guide + press reaction + tapes & transcripts + credits

Wal-Mart at a Glance
- stats and facts that capture Wal-Mart's size and scale:
* 100 million: The number of people who shop at Wal-Mart's 3400 American stores every week.
* 1.2 million: The number of Wal-Mart associates in the U.S. Any full- or part-time Wal-Mart employee, up to and including the CEO, is considered an "associate," in Wal-Mart parlance. Internationally, Wal-Mart employs an additional 330,000 associates.
*1979: The year Wal-Mart's sales first top $1 billion.
* $256 billion : Wal-Mart's sales in 2003. In the words of Wal-Mart CFO Tom Schoewe, Wal-Mart's sales are equal to "one IBM, one Hewlett Packard, one Dell computer, one Microsoft and one Cisco System -- and oh, by the way, after that we got $2 billion left over."
* 8 percent: The amount of total U.S. retail sales, excluding automobiles, accounted for by Wal-Mart.
* $9.98: The average full-time hourly wage for a Wal-Mart employee. The average full-time hourly wage in metro areas (defined as areas with a population of 50,000 or more) is $10.38. In some urban areas it is higher: $11.03 in Chicago, $11.08 in San Francisco, and $11.20 in Austin.

Watch Online - link directly to streaming video of the entire show (broken up into smaller segments for faster downloading)
NOTE: if you can't see any video, it may be because you're behind a corporate firewall, e.g., if your Internet connection is from a government or university computer network, for security reasons.
You should have no problem viewing the videos from home, even with a dialup connection.

Source:
Frontline

Related Wal-Mart Links - - Go to the Banks and Business Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bookmrk3.htm

Population Reference Bureau (U.S. - world)
Providing timely and objective population information
The Population Reference Bureau is the leader in providing timely and objective information on US and international population trends and their implications.
PRB Web Sites
PRB has five Web sites that provide the latest and most accurate data on a range of topics within the field of population, health, and nutrition.
The main PRB Web siteis your first stop for population information.
MEASURE Communication promotes wider dissemination and increased use of information on population, health, and nutrition for planning and decisionmaking in developing countries.
PopNet is a comprehensive directory of population-related Web sites-by topic or keyword, by organization, or through a world regions map. All 200 countries in the World Population Data Sheet are indexed.
AmeriStat includes a series of charts, graphs, and brief narratives describing demographic trends in five subject areas including marriage and family, education, and poverty and income.
Popplanet.org will provide data, information, and analysis on the critical relationships between population, health, and the environment.

Poverty in America: Beyond Welfare Reform (PDF file - 992K, 39 pages)
June 2002
"Are America's poor better or worse off than in the past? Do persistent stereotypes and negative images of poor people match the current reality? Has welfare reform led America's poor to adopt a new or different set of values and standards of behavior?"

Government Spending in an Older America (PDF file - 455K, 19 pages)
May 2002
"The population of the U.S. is getting older, and older people receive more in public benefits than they pay each year in taxes. How should our public finance system be changed in order to deal with this new demographic situation?"

Patterns of Poverty in America
June 2002
"New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that 12.4 percent of the U.S. population — about 34 million people — were below the poverty level in 1999.* The data, which include the first information available from the 2000 Census long form, show wide disparities in poverty levels among states and local areas."
- incl. a U.S. map showing the percent of persons in poverty by County in 1999 plus links to State, County and City data (in Excel Spread Sheet and Text formats)

Poverty Action Lab (MIT)
http://www.povertyactionlab.org/

Many laboratories focus their attention on topics like Alzheimer's research, but this laboratory at MIT focuses on poverty. The objective of their work at the Poverty Action Lab is "to improve the effectiveness of poverty programs by providing policy makers with clear scientific results that help shape successful polices to combat poverty." The Lab was started in June 2003 by a group of professors at MIT and their collaborators. Visitors to the site will note that the materials here are divided into sections that include "Research", "People", "News", and "Courses". The "Research" section is a great place to start as policy makers and others can look over their completed projects (such as "Discrimination in the Job Market") and their publications. Moving on, visitors can click on the "People" section to learn more about their staff and directors. Finally, those who are curious about the reach of the Poverty Lab's work will want to look at their media features in the "News" section.
Review by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2008.
http://scout.wisc.edu/

Public Agenda Online
"Public Agenda was founded by social scientist and author Daniel Yankelovich and former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in 1975. Public Agenda's two-fold mission is to help American leaders better understand the public's point of view [and to help] citizens know more about critical policy issues so they can make thoughtful, informed decisions."

Public Agenda Issue Guides (U.S.)
Public Agenda Issue Guides are used by journalists, policy makers, teachers, students and citizens who want to better understand controversial topics. Public Agenda Issue Guides provide facts and figures, different perspectives and analysis of public attitudes from surveys conducted by Public Agenda and by other respected polling and news organizations.
List of Issue Guides:
Abortion * America's Global Role * Campaign Reform * Child Care * Crime * The Economy * Education * The Environment * The Federal Budget * Gay Rights * Health Care * Higher Education * Illegal Drugs * Immigration * Internet Speech/Privacy * Medical Research * Medicare * Poverty and Welfare * Race * Right to Die * Social Security

The Issues
- incl. Abortion - America's Global Role - Campaign Reform - Child Care - Crime - The Economy - Education - The Environment - The Federal Budget - Gay Rights - Health Care - Higher Education - Illegal Drugs - Immigration - Internet Speech/Privacy - Medical Research - Medicare - Poverty and Welfare - Race - ight to Die - Social Security

Excellent collection of resources organized by theme. Explores both the factual side and the public opinion side.
Select an issue from the list for an overview - recent stories - facts and trends (different perspectives on the issue from different schools of thought) - sources and resources - how the public defines the issues - public views on policy options - areas of public consensus and demographic division - and more

Here are just two examples of what you'll find here :
Issue guide on Poverty and Welfare
Issue guide on Social Security

Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families (PDF file - 931K)
Economic Policy Institute
Family Budgets Calculator
Press Release (July 24, 2001)
This 115-page report, released at the end of last month, "is the most comprehensive study of family hardships ever published." The report examines the plight of the working poor by determining basic family budgets for communities across the nation -- the amount of money a family needs for food, housing, utilities, child care, transportation, and health care -- and comparing these figures to wage statistics. The report concludes that two-and-a-half times more families fall beneath the basic family budget levels for their communities than fall below the federal poverty line. The Family Budgets Calculator is an online supplement to the report that generates basic budgets for different kinds of families for 400,000 communities.
Reviewed by The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2001
- Got to the Economic Policy Institute website

Research Forum on Children, Families and the New Federalism
The Research Forum encourages collaborative research and informed policy on welfare reform and child well-being. Our web site features an on-line database of summaries of large- and small-scale research projects. The database currently (June/02) includes 63 reviewed and 190 unreviewed research projects.
The Research Forum is an initiative of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) - see the link to the NCCP above (in alphabetical order)

View the list of projects included in the database or search the database.

Recent American Social Research:
Research Forum Update (12 December 2003)
[weekly newsletter]

Implementation of Welfare Reform in Virginia
Virginia Time Limit Study
State of Louisiana TANF Evaluation
Wyoming Survey of Former POWER Recipients
Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study
National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies
Evaluation of the Families in Transition Program
Complete Project List - links to all 65 reviewed and 275 unreviewed research projects in the Research Forum database

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: TOTAL NUMBER OF FAMILIES AND RECIPIENTS: Percent Change from March 2003 to June 2003
- from the U.S. Administration for Children and Families

December 2003 CLASP Update
- from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

Rethinking Local Affordable Housing Strategies: Lessons from 70 Years of Policy and Practice
- from the Brookings Institution

Medicaid: Current Benefits and Flexibility
- from the Kaiser Family Foundation

Source:
The Research Forum Website
"The Research Forum website is designed to provide researchers, policymakers, and practitioners with information about research related to welfare and income security, child/family, and community/neighborhood issues. Some of the most useful features of the website include key topics pages, a searchable research project database, a publications calendar, an Add A Project form, a glossary, a database updates log, various policy resources, and Research Forum publications. (...) The web site includes up-to-date summaries of 65 large scale or multi-site, reviewed research projects and 275 smaller (unreviewed) projects."
[ National Center for Children in Poverty - Columbia University Health Sciences, New York ]

Research on Welfare Programs Important During a Period of Uncertainty (PDF file - 450K, 6 pages)
The Forum Newsletter
January 2003
"This issue by Barbara B. Blum examines the effects of reauthorization uncertainties and economic conditions on program administration and research."

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change.

Barely Hanging On: Middle-Class and Uninsured (PDF - 512K, 10 pages)
http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/58034.pdf
In recent times, the ability of middle-class persons to secure adequate health care insurance has been compromised by a number of factors. These are the findings of a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released in March 2010. The work chronicles state-by-state health coverage trends since 1999, and it was prepared by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) at the University of Minnesota. The report notes that the total number of uninsured, middle-class people increased by more than 2 million since 2000 and that the average employee's cost for health insurance rose 81 percent from 2000 to 2008. Visitors can peruse the 10-page report's various charts and tables at their leisure, and the report is of particular interest to those in the fields of public health and health care management.
Reviewed by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2010.

Related links:

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The mission of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is to improve the health and health care of all Americans. Our goal is clear: To help Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need.

State Health Access Data Assistance Center
The University of Minnesota's State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) is funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help states monitor rates of health insurance coverage and to understand factors associated with uninsurance.

Research on U.S. Health Insurance Coverage - links to reports, journal articles and books on health insurance coverage in the U.S. from 1999 to 2005

Cover The Uninsured Week - U.S.
May 1-8, 2005
"Today, 45 million Americans have no health insurance, including more than 8 million children. Eight out of 10 uninsured Americans either work or are in working families. Being uninsured means going without needed care..."
Cover The Uninsured Week is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Who's Involved - Former Presidents Ford and Carter are again serving as Honorary Co-Chairs for Cover the Uninsured Week...

SafeLink Wireless (U.S.) is a government supported program that provides a free cell phone and airtime each month for income-eligible customers.
To be eligible for SafeLink, a person must be participating in specified State or Federal assistance programs, such as Federal Public Housing Assistance, Food Stamps and Medicaid - OR - the person's total household income is at or below 135% of the poverty guidelines set by individual Statea and/or the Federal Government.

Is a cellphone a basic human right?
As the United States provides mobile phones to the poor, experts argue they are not a luxury
January 10, 2009
By Lynda Hurst
All compassionate governments should provide which of the following to their people:
a) food
b) shelter
c) medical care
d) a cellphone.
Having a little problem with d)?
Rephrase it then to "the right to communicate." Still a problem? It isn't south of the border. In the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. has increased the drive to ensure all citizens have basic phone services and access to help in times of emergency. More than 7 million Americans still don't. Last fall, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched SafeLink, a program that provides eligible people with a free cellphone and 68 minutes a month of free airtime for the period of one year. It includes texting, voicemail, call waiting and caller ID. The program is up and running in Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, where more than 2 million households qualify for the service, and is scheduled to go into nine other states, including New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. SafeLink was the brainchild of Miami-based TracFone Wireless Inc., the largest prepaid cellphone company in the U.S. As a purely prepaid provider, TracFone has always aimed at the market's lower end.
Source:
The Toronto Star

The Scout Report

The Scout Report - December 15, 2006 issue
Selections from the Table of Contents:
(click the link above to access any selection or to read the entire issue)
* Electronic Journal of Sociology
* The History of the Supreme Court
* The knowledge economy of Europe
* Open Budget Index
* Stop Child Poverty
* USDA: Food & Nutrition Service
* The World
* Tools for Understanding
* As founder of the Grameen Bank receives Nobel Peace Prize, the profile of microcredit lending grows
Source:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2006
[ Internet Scout Project ]
[ University of Wisconsin - Madison ]
NOTE: The Scout Report is a weekly newsletter that's available by e-mail or online.
Just go to the Scout Report site to check out the rest of the current issue as well as back issues, and to sign up for the e-mail edition.

Previous Issues of The Scout Report - back to 1994

------------------------------------------------

Poor and Homeless Continue to Face Major Challenges in Urban Areas - U.S.
October 12/05

Crowded Out By Luxury Lofts, Poor Seek Relief
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-downtown12oct12,0,2051236.story?coll=la-home-local

Polk Gulch cleanup angers some
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/12/POLKSTREET.TMP

Nation taking a new look at homelessness, solutions
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-11-homeless-cover_x.htm

Study: U.S. poor trapped in urban areas
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/12/poverty.study.ap/index.html

Katrina’s Window: Confronting Concentrated Poverty Across America [pdf]
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20051012_concentratedpoverty.htm

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness [pdf]
http://www.ich.gov/

"As the recent tragedy wrought by Hurricane Katrina revealed, poor and homeless residents of America’s cities remain particularly vulnerable. Whether it is the phenomenon of gentrification or the world of natural hazards, many continue to remain marginalized in terms of opportunities, whether they be economic or otherwise. This week, a number of news pieces once again reminded the general public about the precarious situation faced by this group. In Los Angeles, the City Council decided to impose the first limits on the luxury loft and condo boom that is gradually pushing out single-room-occupancy hotels, most of which are concentrated in the city’s downtown area. While this type of creeping development may affect the poor in increasingly popular urban places, less successful cities continue to have many neighborhoods with concentrated poverty. As a report from the Brookings Institution released this week noted, poor planning over the past several decades has continued to concentrate public housing at the urban core. Generally, the end result is that many urban dwellers remain cut off from the rapid economic and housing growth that has been experienced around the urban fringe. [KMG]

The first link will lead users to a nice article from this Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times that discusses the recent action taken by the City Council. The second link leads visitors to a San Francisco Chronicle article that discusses the recent trend towards gentrification in the city’s Polk Gulch neighborhood. The third link leads to a USA Today article from this past Monday, which talks about how the recent Hurricane Katrina tragedy may transform certain aspects of addressing the homelessness situation in the country. The fourth link will take visitors to a CNN news piece, which talks about the recent report from the Brookings Institution that examines the concentration of urban poverty throughout a number of US cities. The fifth link leads to the full text of that report, authored by Alan Berube. The final link will take users to the homepage of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. [KMG]"

Source:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2005.
http://scout.wisc.edu/
NOTE: The Scout Report is a weekly newsletter that's available by e-mail or online.
Just go to the Scout Report site to check out the rest of the current issue as well as back issues, and to sign up for the e-mail edition.

- Go to the Homelessness and Housing Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/homeless.htm

The Past, Present, and Future of Minimum Wage
By Stan Raybern
December 31, 2009
The U.S.federal minimum wage was established at $.25 per hour in 1938 and has increased over the years, in theory, to keep up with inflation, cost of living, and many other factors. Although the federal minimum wage is currently set at $7.25, each individual state ultimately has the ability to set their own minimum wage. Residents of Kansas are keenly aware of this fact, where the state minimum wage is set at an astonishing $2.65. Check out where your state stands against the rest of the country, as well as other thought provoking facts as we take a look at the past, present, and future of minimum wage across America
Source:
Shrinkage is Good (Blog)

Stateline.org

Funded entirely by The Pew Charitable Trusts as a public service, Stateline.org has published online every weekday except holidays since Jan. 25, 1999.

This Web site, staffed entirely by professional journalists, was originally envisioned primarily as a resource for newsmen and newswomen who cover state government. Using computer technology as a delivery vehicle, we proposed to arm these news-gatherers with timely tips and research material on state policy innovations and trends, enabling them to make their reporting more informative and useful to consumers. This, we believed, would help nourish public debate of important state-level issues such as healthcare, tax and budget policy, the environment, welfare reform and other issues that in recent years have not gotten the media attention they deserve.

But our readership has grown far beyond our original target audience and now includes thousands of state officials, students of state government and ordinary citizens who want to keep track of what's going on in their state capitol and in other states throughout the country.

Stateline.org is an independent element of the Pew Research Center and is based in Washington, DC. In addition to our online news gathering activities, we periodically publish printed reference materials that are free for the asking, including a State of the States report released every January. We also sponsor professional development conferences and workshops for the news media, including the annual conference of CapitolBeat, the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors. For further information, email editor@stateline.org or contact us at 202-419-4470.

Stop Capital Punishment Now! - U..S.
"Stop Capital Punishment Now! is an Internet based initiative attempting to achieve total abolition of the death penalty in all countries of the world and particularly in the United States of America. We believe that the taking of a human life is morally and ethically wrong. We believe that the premeditated killing by the state of its own citizens is barbaric and reprehensible."
Abolition Organizations and Web Sites - links to 40+ sites, mainly American...
The Canadian Abolition Project - Canadians working together to end the death penalty
"The Canadian Abolition Project was founded to campaign in support of Canadian government policies that will ensure consistency with Canada's position as a completely abolitionist nation. We will encourage and support interventions by the Canadian government in defence of Canadians facing the death penalty abroad. We are dedicated to achieving abolition of the death penalty for all, in all countries of the World and particularly in the United States of America. ."
- incl. links to : Canadian Abolition Sign Up Page - Canadian Abolition Email Archives - Canadian Resources [contact info for Canadian Senators, MPs and committees] - Invitation to the 1st Annual Peaceful Presence and Public Awareness Day in Toronto.

Views from the American Right

- The Family Research Council
- The Heartland Institute
- The Heritage Foundation
- The Claremont Institute
- Privatization of Social Security
- RAND Home Page
Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy
Cato Institute -

The Cato Institute also maintains the following Web sites:
www.socialsecurity.org
www.freetrade.org
www.libertarianism.org
www.individualrights.org

U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network

On Welfare and the Alternatives
Welfare reform was a good idea in theory but hasn't quite worked out the way NEWT (Gingrich) and Bill Clinton thought it would.
March 1, 2007
"(...)if you want to decrease the size of government while making people self-sufficient and in doing so leaving the family unit intact, there is a rather simple solution that has been batted around since the Nixon administration. The Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is a government ensured guarantee that no one's income will fall below the level necessary to meet their most basic needs for any reason. As Bertrand Russell put it in 1918, "A certain small income, sufficient for necessities, should be secured for all, whether they work or not, and that a larger income should be given to those who are willing to engage in some work which the community recognizes as useful. On this basis we may build further." Thus, with BIG no one is destitute but everyone has the positive incentive to work. BIG is an efficient, effective, and equitable solution to poverty that promotes individual freedom and leaves the beneficial aspects of a market economy in place. (...) I believe in dismantling the entire welfare system, Medicaid/care included and replacing it with the above BIG. This is the conservative solution without making judgments or convoluting it with man-managed bureaucracies as this would be the domain of the US Treasury department.
Source:
411mania.com ("pop-culture since '96")

What is the Basic Income Guarantee?
[For a discussion of BIG as a solution to poverty see "An Efficiency Argument for the Basic Income Guarantee"]
[For cost estimates of BIG See Garfinkel, Huang, and Naidich (2002) or Clark (2002)]
[For a History of USBIG 1999 to 2004, see The first five years of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network]
[For a discussion of the diversity of BIG proposals see, "The Many Faces of Universal Basic Income." (Reprinted by permission from the Political Quarterly 75 (3), 2004, pp. 266-274.0)]
Source:
U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

PovertyUSA (CCHD) - America's Forgotten State
"For more than 31 million Americans, every day is a bitter struggle to survive with the least. They are America's poor, left behind on the road to prosperity. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has created this site to raise awareness about poverty and help close the borders of this forgotten state."
- Go to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) website

January Is Poverty in America Awareness Month: New Media Campaign Spotlights 12 Million Poor Children in U.S.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Press Release
January 2, 2002
"The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) today launched a new national awareness campaign emphasizing the tragic reality that one out of every six children in the United States lives in poverty, according to the most recent U.S. census figures. (...) Although poverty rates declined slightly from 1999 to 2000, more than 31 million people in the United States are poor and youth under 18 years of age still experience the highest incidence of poverty. The child poverty rate is actually higher than it was in 1979 and the U.S. ranks higher in this category than most industrialized nations."

United Council on Welfare Fraud - The United Council on Welfare Fraud (UCOWF) is an international organization of over 2,000 individuals from the United States and Canada who have combined their efforts to fight fraud, waste, and abuse in social service programs.

United Health Foundation
" UnitedHealth Group established the United Health Foundation in 1999 as a nonprofit, private foundation with a mission to support the health and medical decisions made by physicians, health professionals, community leaders and individuals that lead to better health outcomes and healthier communities."

15th Annual Report About Nation’s Health Shows After Years of Progress,
Overall Healthiness Slowing Dramatically, Some Areas Declining (PDF file - 131K, 4 pages)
Minnesota, New Hampshire and Vermont Hold Top Three Positions as Nation’s Healthiest States, Southeastern States
Experience Targeted Success but Continue to Face Challenges
Washington, D.C.
News Release
November 8, 2004
"United Health Foundation, together with the American Public Health Association (APHA) and Partnership for Prevention, today released the 15th annual America’s Health: State Health Rankings at the APHA’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C."

America's Health: State Health Rankings - 2004 Edition
- incl. links to : Intro and Findings (Foreword and Introduction, Measures of Success, 2004 Results, Changes from 2003, 1990, Comparison to Other Nations) - Components - State Snapshots - Methodology - Commentaries and Special Features - Appendices (Occupational Fatalities, Health Disparity, Index of Tables [total of 37 tables])

Source:
State Health Rankings Home Page

Related links:

TANF Policies for the Hard-to-Employ:
Understanding State Approaches and Future Directions
July 2007
- summarizes how 15 states interact with hard-to-employ welfare recipients and new federal welfare requirements’ likely impacts on these state efforts.
Abstract + Excerpt (HTML)
Complete report (PDF file - 168K, 56 pages)

Framework for a New Safety Net for Low-Income Working Families
June 2007
- describes low-income working families’ circumstances and the gaps in current safety-net programs.
Abstract + Excerpt (HTML)
Complete report (PDF file - 279K, 56 pages)

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More Urban Institute reports and related resources on work and income
More Urban Institute Reports - all topics, 4000+ reports
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How Have Asset Policies for Cash Welfare
and Food Stamps Changed since the 1990s?
By Signe-Mary McKernan, William Margrabe
Posted to Web: June 28, 2007
[PDF version - 63K, 1 page]
Absract : Cash welfare and food stamps are means tested: assets and income must fall below set limits for families to qualify. While this ensures that benefits go to the neediest families, asset limits may also discourage asset building. This Opportunity and Ownership fact sheet examines allowance changes for restricted and unrestricted accounts at the federal and state level. It tracks the different allowances for IDAs, food stamps, and welfare programs from 1992 to 2003.

American Non-Governmental
Social Research Links
(M-Z)

Sites non-gouvernementaux de
recherche sociale aux États-Unis
(M-Z)

American Non-Governmental Social Research Links(M-Z)

Sites non-gouvernementaux de recherche sociale aux États-Unis(M-Z)

American Non-Governmental
Social Research Links
(M-Z)

Sites non-gouvernementaux de
recherche sociale aux États-Unis
(M-Z)