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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

Simplifying the Child Care Eligibility “Maze”

An important way to help low-income working families meet their basic needs and improve their lives is to make sure they receive the work supports for which they qualify, such as health coverage, food assistance, and child care assistance.  A new report from the Urban Institute and the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) explains how states can simplify their child care subsidy programs — which help cover low-income families’ child care costs so the parents can get and keep jobs — to better serve families.

The report is part of the foundation-funded initiative Work Support Strategies, through which CBPP, the Urban Institute, and CLASP work with selected states to streamline the delivery of health and human services to low-income working families.

The report outlines an approach in which eligible parents applying for child care assistance give their information once, are then connected not only to child care assistance but also other benefits for which they are eligible, and can keep the full package of benefits as long as they are eligible — all of it with minimal red tape.  That reduces burdens on low-income families and the state.

The report will be an important resource for states seeking to simplify and streamline their child care programs as well as facilitate connections between child care and other key work supports, such as SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid, and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).

For more general information on why it’s so vital to deliver work supports more efficiently, the improvements made in recent years, and the steps that states can take, see this CBPP report.

Stacy Dean

Vice President for Food Assistance Policy