Poverty rates rise for single-mother families, while cuts loom
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A broad measure of poverty for families headed by single mothers rose last year and is now back to 2018 levels, per a new analysis of Census Bureau data from the National Women's Law Center.
Why it matters: Cuts to safety net programs for the poor are on the table next year as the GOP looks to pay for an extension of the 2017 Trump tax law.
- That move is more likely to benefit higher earners and corporations — and hurt lower-income people.
How they did it: The center looked at both the government's official poverty measure and the supplemental one, a more detailed way of figuring out how people get by.
- It takes into account the cost of housing, as well as both cash income and benefits like tax credits and SNAP (federal food assistance).
By the numbers: For households led by single mothers, the supplemental measure of poverty increased to 29% in 2023 from 27% in 2022.
- That's more than 2.7 million families.
- The rate for children also increased to 14% last year from 12% in 2022.
- There are big variations between demographics, the analysis finds. Some 7.4% of white, non-Hispanic children lived in impoverished households, compared with 20%, 22% and 14% for Black, Hispanic and Asian children, respectively.
- The supplemental poverty rate for children has soared after plunging in 2021, because of the end of pandemic-era supports for families.
Zoom in: The official poverty measure, which doesn't account for benefits, actually edged down in 2023 to 11.1% from 11.5%, as Americans saw real gains in household income.
- But for women it rose by 0.3 percentage points, per the Law Center analysis.
Zoom out: Families with children headed up by a single parent face enormous headwinds in the U.S., where child care is increasingly expensive and there are few social supports for parents.
- That's especially true for mothers. Women, who on average still earn less than men, are more likely to live in poverty.
- The official poverty rate for families with children headed by a single woman was double the rate for those headed by a single man.
What to watch: Vice President-elect JD Vance wants to increase the child tax credit — but it's not clear if that would end up benefiting the poorest families.
- During President-elect Trump's first term, the tax credit was doubled but it was only partly refundable — meaning if you don't earn enough money you can't get the full value of the credit in cash.
- Lower-income families aren't able to take full advantage of the full $2,000 per child as a result.
The intrigue: House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) last month raised the prospect of work requirements for Medicaid, as well as a provision that would check eligibility more than once a year.
- Those types of moves would likely result in fewer people getting health care coverage as the challenges of simply keeping up with paperwork and bureaucracy tend create a drop-off in enrollment.
Between the lines: Ironically, perhaps, there's a push to reduce paperwork and bureaucracy at the federal level.
- But that drive — the DOGE thing — appears to be more centered on the hoops businesses need to jump through, not impoverished people.
