SSI/SSP program, hit often by cuts, in line for more in October, By Jim Miller, August 20, 2009, Riverside Press-Enterprise: “California’s budget crisis has triggered a quick drop in welfare payments to about 1.3 million elderly, blind and disabled residents, fraying a major part of the state’s safety net. State spending on the federal-state Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Program has grown by about a quarter this decade. Now it’s shrinking. Since January, the maximum monthly payment for individual participants in the program has declined from $907 to $850. Last month’s budget-balancing package will cause checks to drop again in October to a maximum of $845 for individuals. The federal poverty level is $10,830 annually for a one-person household, an average of $903 a month…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty