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CLASP responds to latest poverty data showing a drop resulting from federal programs to address the pandemic and recession. Congress must continue this investment through the Build Back Better Act.
The Census Bureau annual release on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage shows that government investments in 2020 successfully reduced poverty.
Public benefit programs such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and refundable tax credits like the Child Tax Credit provide critical supports to help people meet their basic needs, but too often, individuals and families are unable to connect with and enroll in multiple programs for which they are eligible.
In many states, people with drug-related felony convictions are banned from SNAP and TANF. This impedes successful reentry.
A recent update to the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) will result in an average 27% increase in benefits to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, one of many important steps to ensure that people experiencing poverty can afford the food they need to live and thrive.
Elizabeth Lower-Basch was quoted about how "people’s image of public benefits is driven by stereotypes.”
Access to food, cash assistance, health care, and housing are pathways to economic justice that everyone deserves—no matter their citizenship status. However, federal restrictions enacted 25 years ago interfere with the ability of immigrants to secure critical benefits with significant consequences to their and their families’ wellbeing.
By Elizabeth Lower-Basch and Jessi Russell
CLASP was referenced about the effect of Child Tax Credit on other government programs.