To provide a fuller picture of the public income support system for low-income families, this analysis blends the SPM with corrections for underreporting of key government benefits in survey data.

The budget resolution takes an important first step toward enacting groundbreaking legislation with long overdue investments to address problems that have plagued the United States for generations.

Much of the recent inflation spike reflects temporary factors that, going forward, aren’t likely to significantly affect the more moderate underlying inflation trend.

Vouchers deliver major benefits to some 680,000 seniors nationwide — more than any other rental assistance program.

Congress is crafting recovery legislation that has the potential to significantly reduce poverty, broaden opportunity, and increase racial equity in the United States. The investments under consideration would make a substantial difference in the lives of children and youth, a large body of research shows

Government officials and agencies, community-based organizations, and advocates across the country can help reduce poverty and hardship by conducting aggressive outreach and giving hands-on assistance to help the lowest-income, and likely hardest-to-reach, families access the Child Tax Credit.

TANF falls far short of what it should be. It reaches few families in need and provides inadequate cash aid and other assistance to help families resolve crises and improve their well-being.

Economic security programs can help families meet basic needs and improve their lives, but design features influenced by anti-Black racism and sexism have created an inadequate system of support that particularly harms Black families and other families of color.

Just 23 of every 100 families with incomes below the federal poverty line receive TANF benefits, down from 68 families upon the program’s creation 25 years ago.

Residents of the territories are U.S. citizens or, in the case of American Samoa, U.S. nationals; yet federal law treats them far less favorably than residents of the states when it comes to their Medicaid coverage — even though they are more likely than residents of the states to rely on Medicaid for their health care.

States can expand opportunity and build stronger, more prosperous, and inclusive communities by reducing the incarceration of children and young adults and increasing the use of sensible alternatives...

States can expand opportunity and build stronger, more prosperous, and inclusive communities by reducing the incarceration of children and young adults and increasing the use of sensible alternatives that advance equitable outcomes.

Policymakers are paying long-overdue attention to reducing high and increasing rates of deaths and severe health complications among Black people who give birth. Comprehensively addressing this challenge and the broader maternal health crisis requires making a continuum of high-quality health coverage, health care, and other services accessible before, during, and after pregnancy.

Due to limited program funding, families struggling to afford housing that manage to get off the waiting list for a Housing Choice Voucher must typically wait for years before receiving a voucher,...

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) is the primary source of nutrition assistance for low-income families and individuals, enabling them to spend more on...

The Trump Administration and 18 Republican state attorneys general are asking the courts to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) as unconstitutional.

Policymakers should look to increase taxes on the nation’s wealthiest households, which not only enjoy enormous tax breaks but also have done extremely well in recent decades.

The Thrifty Food Plan — the USDA’s food plan designed to provide a nutritionally adequate diet at minimal cost and the basis for SNAP benefits — is badly out of date.

For the many lower- and middle-income families whose finances were tenuous even before the COVID-19 pandemic or whose wages stalled in recent decades even as the economy grew, recovery proposals from the Biden Administration and members of Congress would provide the kind of foundation that households need to thrive.

Much of the income of the very wealthy escapes annual taxation because the increase in the value of their stocks, real estate, and other investments is not considered “taxable income.”

Safe, affordable housing remains out of reach for millions of people with disabilities and their families. As Congress considers recovery legislation, lawmakers have a historic opportunity to address this by expanding the Housing Choice Voucher program to more households.

Working with states to obtain and analyze administrative data is a central component of effective administrative advocacy aimed at ensuring that all eligible people have continued access to coverage.

While government programs have done much to narrow these disparities in poverty, further progress will require stronger government efforts to reduce poverty and discrimination and build opportunity for all.

The end of the school year usually coincides with a troubling spike in childhood hunger as low-income children lose access to free and reduced-price school meals. Federal policymakers likely staved...

The Biden budget departs sharply from the last decade of austerity.

This paper explores the background of the AVS requirement, the vendors that administer the systems; and the typical AVS process. It discusses AVSs’ current limitations and highlights best practices for advocates to promote and state agencies to implement to improve the AVS process and streamline eligibility determinations. Finally, it recommends federal action to help AVS states streamline processing.