Battered by the Storm: How the Safety Net Is Failing Americans and How to Fix It
by Deepak Bhargava, Timothy Casey, John Cavanagh, Karen Dolan, Peter Edelman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Sarita Gupta, Dedrick Muhammad, Diana Pearce, Steve Savner, Kevin ShihLink to article
This is a brief summary of a study done by the Institute for Policy Studies. Click on the link to download the entire study.
The economic crisis is still on the rise for millions of Americans, while at the same time the social safety net is failing to support many of them.
The national study, Battered by the Storm: How the Safety Net Is Failing Americans and How to Fix It, concludes that the economic crisis is still on the rise for millions of Americans, while at the same time the social safety net is failing to support many of them. It offers one of the boldest, most comprehensive plans to combat poverty and unemployment — beginning now.
Among the study’s key findings:
- Levels of long-term unemployment, underemployment and discouraged workers are reaching historic levels;
- The percentage of poor children receiving temporary assistance under TANF (the main federal “welfare” program) has fallen from 62% in 1995 to 22% in 2008;
- TANF benefits are far from sufficient to support the families that depend on them: 2008 assistance payments averaged only 29% of the money needed to bring families up to the official poverty line;
- Even while labor force participation of mothers has increased, the supply of affordable child care has lagged behind, creating a significant barrier to employment for many, especially single mothers; and
- Roughly 57% of unemployed people are receiving unemployment compensation; for those receiving benefits, amounts are less than half of wages, and many are losing work-related health benefits.
The social safety net has eroded over the past 30 years, failing millions of Americans. Short-term fixes such as the Recovery Act are rescuing only a small percentage of those who need help.
Tags: Battered by the Storm: How the Safety Net is Failing Americans and How to Fix It, economic crisis, erosion of the social safety net, Institute for Policy Studies, long-term unemployment, Recovery Act, TANF, underemployment
December 15th, 2009 at 8:05 am
There is little use for a safety net when the corporate world has no interest in advancing the career of US workers when Washington DC is not only willing but anxious to increase the amount of off shoring as well as H1B and other visa workers.
We are indeed a nation of educated and innovative individuals of immigrants, however our melting pot is being cooled in order to maintain the corporate burner which has proven to be driven by unethical and profit driven for the most part.
Washington can indeed offer a safety net, they can support the $15K Plan a plan to stimulate the Us economy by dir5ectly stimulating the US citizen.
visit http://www.twitter.com/15000each for an eye opening view of extending the deficit to quicken the recovery and strengthen the US worker and family opportunities.
I appreciate the focus of the blog but do not believe that Washington or Corporate American care for or are willing to cut the profit machine to save US the US family.