Supplemental Security Income is a means-tested income assistance program authorized by Title XVI of the Social Security Act. The SSI program replaced the combined federal-state programs of Old Age Assistance, Aid to the Blind, and Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled in fifty states and the District of Columbia. However, these programs still exist in the U.S. territories of Guam, Puerto Ric…
Noncash benefits are those given in a form other than cash, such as vouchers, coupons, or commodities of some kind. The remainder of this chapter discusses some of the major noncash means-tested programs, including food stamps; the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs; the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program; Medicaid; Head Start; home energy assistance; and housing assistanc…
The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is America's largest food assistance program. Food stamps are designed to help low-income families purchase a nutritionally adequate, low-cost diet. Generally, food stamps may only be used to buy food to be prepared at home. They may not be used for alcohol, tobacco, or hot foods intended to be consumed immediately,…
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) provide federal cash and commodity support to participating public and private schools and to nonprofit residential institutions that serve meals to children. Both programs have a three-level reimbursement system. Children from households with incomes at or below 130 percent of the poverty line receive free meals. Chil…
The WIC program provides food assistance as well as nutrition counseling and health services to low-income pregnant women, to women who have just given birth and their babies, and to low-income children up to five years old. Participants in the program must have incomes at or below 185 percent of poverty (all but five states use this cutoff level) and must be nutritionally at risk. Under the Child…
Medicaid, authorized under Title XIX of the Social Security Act, is a federal-state program that provides medical assistance for low-income people who are aged, blind, disabled, or members of families with dependent children and for certain other pregnant women and children. Within federal guidelines, each state designs and administers its own program. For this reason, there may be considerable di…
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (PL 105-33) set aside $24 billion over five years to fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in an effort to reach children who are uninsured. This was the nation's largest children's health-care investment since the creation of Medicaid in 1965. SCHIP requires states to use the funding to cover uninsured children whose famili…
Head Start began operating in 1965 under the general authority of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (PL 88-452). Head Start is designed to help low-income children from birth to age five improve their social competence, learning skills, health, and nutrition so that they TABLE 8.14 Head Start enrollment and federal funding, fiscal years 1965–2002 can begin school on a footing lev…
What is now the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) began as Title III of the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980 (PL 96-223). The act provided funding for the states to create programs for three types of energy assistance: TABLE 8.15 Characteristics of children enrolled in Head Start, selected fiscal years, 1980–2002 (By percent enrolled) In 1981 Title XXVI of…
The primary purpose of federal housing assistance is to improve housing quality and to reduce housing costs for low-income Americans. However, affordability rather than housing quality has become the predominant problem facing low-income renters and homeowners. The number of substandard housing units continues to decline. Affordability problems occur nationwide, affecting poor households in every …
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