Poverty

Tim Fernholz’ recent article in The American Prospect focuses on the possibility that savings accounts and financial literacy education for low-income Americans could be a key first step towards combating poverty in the U.S. Tim, a financial regulation expert, is a staff writer at TAP and a New America Fellow in the Asset Building Program, focuses much of his article on recent pilot savings and financial counseling programs implemented in New York City.

Three billion people today are under the age of twenty-five, half a billion of these live on less than $2 a day and less than 10% have access to financial services.  For those of us who envision a peaceful future world not plagued by poverty, we share a sense of urgency to find ways to provide opportunity and growth for this large, underserved population.  We ask a simple question: How can we catapult low-income and poor youth to a better future?

As the Obama Administration plans to revisit way we measure poverty, Reid Cramer, director of New America's Asset Building Program, says the official poverty line is way out-of-date with contemporary living standards -- all but ignoring the current costs of housing, transportation, and child care. It also fails to account for regional cost of living differences or the value of government transfers like the EITC. Consequently, the measure has limited value in describing economic adversity and the impact of our policy efforts. An overhaul is long overdue.

The Supplemental Poverty Measure Webinar Series
The U.S. Census Bureau has announced plans to develop a supplemental poverty measure based on recommendations by the National Academy of Sciences. This modern assessment of deprivation will be released initially in the fall of 2011 and will be used alongside the official poverty measure, developed half a century ago.

Together, the two webinars are designed to provide a thorough review of the supplemental poverty measure. You are strongly encouraged to register for both.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, Opportunity NYC, has come under fire lately. The program—which rewards low-income families for engaging in certain positive behaviors—recently published preliminary results, and critics claim initial findings show that CCTs do not work in the U.S.

On April 26, four of America’s leading social scientists convened to discuss economic inequality and the Great Recession, in a forum co-hosted with The Nation magazine. Amid worrying signs of resurgent inequality, they debated the problem in light of structural realities, political constraints, and global trends.

Although by official estimates the state of the economy is improving, millions of Americans are still without jobs. While current unemployment figures are under 10% and some gains have been seen in a few economic sectors, the picture is not exactly rosy quite yet. If the number of individuals underemployed or working part-time but desiring full-time employment was considered, then the unemployment numbers would rise considerably.

The welfare reforms of 1996 replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as the primary safety for the poor. But the Great Recession has exposed the failure of TANF as a safety net to catch American families as they experience hardship.

Big business and advocates for the working poor often have trouble finding common ground. But that shouldn't be a problem for the next few weeks leading up to April 15. New research shows they both have more than ever at stake this year in boosting California's woefully low participation in the country's largest program for the working poor – the earned-income tax credit. They just need to realize it.

How can cash payments from Governments to the poor help increase financial inclusion? Recently, CGAP released their latest focus note which points out that Governments make payments to 170 million worldwide for social programs or wage payments but less than one quarter of these payments actually helps further financial inclusion.