Why are welfare rolls flat, while the food stamp program grows rapidly?, By Pamela M. Prah, July 2, 2012, Stateline: “The number of people receiving food stamps hit a record high during the recent recession and remains high. But that has not been the case for welfare. In some states, welfare participation rates have actually decreased over the past few years. Equally surprising is the fact that less than one-third of the federal and state money currently spent on welfare is actually given to people as cash assistance. The rest is spent on specialized services such as child care, child welfare and teen pregnancy counseling, but the government really doesn’t know how these funds are used and who benefits…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty