TANF down, Food Stamps up as recession collides with safety net
We posted a link earlier to an article about the increase in the use of food stamps, and accompanying decline in the stigma attached to them. This seemed like a positive response of the social safety net to the economic crisis. However, the New York Times reported this weekend that there has been a 50% increase in the past two years in the number of people reporting food stamps as their only source of income – no TANF (cash welfare assistance), no unemployment, no nothing. The Times estimates that about 6 million people now survive on food stamps alone. After the major welfare reform efforts of the mid-90s, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) rolls have decreased to about 75% of their 1990s and have not increased substantially during the recession. We also linked earlier to an op-ed on the role of TANF during the recession.
Some policy advocates are increasingly concerned about this reliance on the food stamp program. ‘“The food-stamp program is being asked to do too much,” said James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington advocacy group. “People need income support.”’ The FRAC has substantial resources on the current state of hunger in the United States, as well as federal programs to address hunger. And when food stamps are an increasingly important factor in families’ survival, lawsuits ensuring the timely processing of applications (such as this one in Texas) become ever more important.