How can we stop child poverty

Child Poverty — Children's Defense Fund

Child PovertyBen Dawson2022-08-03T09:36:09-05:00

The Problem

To succeed, children need quality and healthy homes, generous income and wealth support, quality health care, ample nutritious food, good schools, safe neighborhoods, and access to resources and opportunities that enable them to reach their full potential. Our children are striving, but too often the decks are stacked against them and the basic building blocks for success are out of reach.

Every child deserves to live in a world where they can learn, thrive, and live up to their fullest potential. The only way to do so is to confront our current systems and institutional racism and advance change for all of our communities, especially our Black, Latinx, and indigenous children and families.

About 1 in 7 children—nearly 10.5 million—were poor in 2019. Almost half of these children lived in extreme poverty at less than half the poverty level. Children of color—who make up a majority of all children and our nation’s future—are at greatest risk. Seventy-one percent of poor children were children of color. More than 1 in 4 Black and 1 in 5 Hispanic and Indigenous children were poor compared with 1 in 12 white children. Across all racial and ethnic groups, the youngest children were the poorest. Nearly 1 in 6 children under 6 lived in poverty during their years of greatest brain development.

Poverty and income inequality leave children without reliable access to nutritious food, healthy homes, quality health care, and other resources to support their healthy development and later success.

More than 1 in 7 children in America experienced food insecurity and did not have enough to eat in 2019.
Many did not even have a safe and stable place to sleep. More than 1.5 million school-aged children experienced homelessless during the 2017-2018 school year, living in shelters, transitional housing or on the streets.
Children in poverty were also more likely to be uninsured.

Denying millions of children basic necessities like food, housing and healthcare can have devastating and lasting consequences. Child poverty creates gaps in cognitive skills for young children, jeopardizes children’s health and ability to learn, and fuels an intergenerational cycle of poverty. Child poverty is too costly for our children and nation—and it is neither necessary nor morally defensible.

A baby is born into poverty every minute in America

71 percent of poor children are children of color

4.5 million U.S. children live in extreme poverty on $9 a day per person

Our Vision

We envision an America where we fully invest in our communities, particularly communities of color, so that no child lives in poverty, where racial justice is realized and all children have the opportunities they need to reach their full potential. We believe that we must tear down the systemic and institutional racism and discrimination embedded in our institutions and our policies to fully realize this dream. As a country, we have the resources to end child poverty now and must create the will to do so. We cannot afford to wait. The future of our children—and our nation—depends on it.

The Solution

We fight to end child poverty and ensure all families have resources they need to thrive and flourish by expanding, improving, and advancing new federal programs and policies that help our communities. Ending child poverty will take a multi-pronged approach. To end child poverty now, we must:

Ensure Children’s Basic Needs are Met: We must aggressively increase investments in housing assistance through vouchers and affordable construction for families struggling to make ends meet and those experiencing homelessness. rs, so they all can afford a safe and stable home to raise their children. Additionally, we must strengthen Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to fight for racial justice and help families afford basic necessities like meals, a trip to the laundromat, and diapers. We must also increase the value of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) monthly benefit, enact universal school meals for all, and greatly expand summer and after school meals b, so children are re healthy and ready to learn.
Enact a robust, permanent child allowance and baby bonds: We must guarantee a minimum income and baby bonds for every child to ensure they have the opportunity to thrive and invest in their life. Regular, meaningful assistance to families will cut poverty deeply, promote racial equity and justice, and serve as a foundation for a more equitable and inclusive social support system that gives children cash now and for a brighter future tomorrow (baby bonds).
Ensure a living wage and support for families and their children: We must increase wages to at least $15 an hour because people deserve to earn a living with time for a life and caring for their family. That means counting caregiving as work, guaranteeing all workers can meet their own medical needs through comprehensive paid leave, and enacting a national, permanent subsidized jobs program for young adults.
Ensure more children and youth have the support they need from the start: : To reduce child poverty long term, children also need access to affordable, comprehensive physical and behavioral health care, affordable high-quality early development and learning opportunities, including child care, robust Head Start and early Head Start, high performing schools and colleges, and families and neighborhoods free from violence.

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10 Policies to Cut Child Poverty in Half in 10 Years

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At least 9.6 million U.S. children (13%) live in poverty.

Among Latino children, poverty rates are even higher (22% vs. 8% white children). These children will often lack quality education and healthcare while suffering trauma and poor health outcomes.

But what if there was a way to fight poverty?

Or better yet, what if you had a road map with the most effective ways to fight poverty?

A new bipartisan report produced by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), focuses on 10 big policy areas that could cut the child poverty rate by up to 50%, while at the same time increasing employment and earnings among adults living in low-income families.

Researchers conducted two simulations or projections for each policy area to explore the effects that different versions of the expansion might have.

1. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)

The EITC provides a subsidy to individuals of low to moderate income and has largely been successful at reducing poverty and increasing employment among single parents.

Option 1: Increase in payments along “flat portions of the EITC schedule.” This led to an additional 270,000 workers added to the economy, an increase of $4.9 billion in earnings, and a reduction in child poverty from 13% to 11.8%.
Option 2: Increase EITC payments by 40% across the whole schedule. This led to an additional 541,000 workers added to the economy, $9.0 billion in earnings, and a reduction in child poverty to 10.9%.

2. Expand Child Care Subsidies

Option 1: Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) to a fully-refundable tax credit focused on families with low incomes and kids younger than 5. This led to an additional 518,000 low-income workers added to the economy, $9.3 billion in earnings, and reduced child poverty to 11.8%.
Option 2: Provide assistance from the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) for eligible families with incomes less than 150% of the poverty line. This results 236,000 low-income workers added to the economy, $4.2 billion in earnings, and a reduction of poverty to 12.4%.

3. Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

Option 1: Increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.25, (with indexing to occur alongside inflation). This would lead to 42,000 lost jobs and an increase in earnings of $3.5 billion.
Option 2: Raise the minimum wage to $10.25 or the 10th percentile of the state’s hourly wage distribution (whichever is lowest). This would increase net earnings by $1.9 billion, but lead to 28,000 in lost jobs.

4. Implement the ‘WorkAdvance’ National Training/Employment Program

These programs would make men with families and an income below 200% of the poverty line eligible for training.

Option 1: Provide training to 10% of eligible men. This would lead to a total of 487,000 men enrolled in the program and an increase in total earnings of $817 million per year.
Option 2: Provide training to 30% of eligible men. This would lead to a total of 487,000 men enrolled in the program, and an increase in earnings of $2.4 billion per year.

Programming would initially incur costs but ultimately lead to savings through increased earnings and tax revenues and decreased benefits from other programs.

5. Expand SNAP

Both policy options proposed would allow benefits to reach teens and address food gaps that exist during summers, when children no longer have access to school-based food.

Option 1: Increase SNAP by 20% and adjust for children ages 12 and older (per household) and Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer to Children (SEBT). Child poverty would decrease to 11.3% (after accounting for employment effects).
Option 2: Increase SNAP by 30% and adjust for children ages 12 and older (per household) and Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer to Children (SEBT). Child poverty would decrease to 10.7% (after accounting for employment effects).

Latino families in particular benefit from SNAP. The program lifted over 1.2 million Latino children out of poverty in 2015.

6. Grow the Housing Vouchers Program

Expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher Program would have the following effects on children:

Option 1: Increase vouchers so that 50% of eligible families not receiving subsidized housing would use them. This would reduce child poverty to 10.9%.
Option 2: Increase vouchers so that 70% of eligible families not receiving subsidized housing would use them. This would reduce child poverty to 10.1%.

7. Expand the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program

Policy options for expanding the SSI program would increase benefits to families with children and teenagers with disabilities.

Option 1: Increase by one-third the maximum child SSI benefit (to $977 per month from a current baseline of $733).
Option 2: Increase by two-thirds the maximum child SSI benefit (to $1,222) from a current baseline of $733).

Overall, the simulations showed little changes in child poverty with a decrease to 12.8% (including employment effects).

8. Create a Universal Child Allowance

Option 1: Provide a monthly benefit of $166 per month ($2,000 per year) per child to families with children younger than 17 who have a Social Security number. This also calls for phasing out the child tax credit, additional child tax credit, and child allowance benefits.
Option 2: Provide a monthly benefit of $250 per month ($3,000 per year) per child to families with kids younger than 18 who have a Social Security number. This also calls for phasing out the child tax credit, additional child tax credit, and child allowance benefits for those between 300 and 400% of the poverty line.

The first option would provide almost a universal tax credit in the form of a monthly payment. The second option would phase out benefits at lower income levels than what is established under current laws. Results from option 1 were not large enough to reduce child poverty, and option 2 reduced poverty only slightly by 0.1 percentage points.

9. Create a Child Support Assurance Program

Option 1: Set a guaranteed minimum child support of $100 per month per child.
Option 2: Set a guaranteed minimum child support of $150 per month per child.

Results from this analysis found that child poverty rates were not impacted by much due to the modest amounts of increases to income this would provide.

10. Increase Immigrants’ Access to Safety Net Programs

The final set of policy approaches explored expanding benefits to immigrant families.

Simulations showed minimal effects with a reduction in child poverty to 12.9% for the first policy option and 11.9% once employment effects were factored in.

Option 1: Restore program eligibility for non-qualified legal immigrants. This option would eliminate eligibility restrictions for non-qualified parents and children in the SNAP, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, SSI, and other means-tested federal programs.
Option 2: Expand program eligibility for all non-citizen children and parents. This option would eliminate eligibility restrictions for all non-citizen parents and children in the SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, SSI and other means-tested federal programs.

A Combination Approach Works Best

Each of the 10 policies independently has the potential to help children and families out of poverty.

But the report makes it clear that no policy alone could achieve the goal of cutting poverty in half. That takes a combined approach.

Researchers went on to conduct a cost-benefit analysis for four different combinations of these policy approaches.

Of the four strategies tested in simulations, a “universal supports and work package” approach appeared to have the greatest potential to reduce both poverty and deep poverty by half. This approach would include expansion of the EITC and CDCTC, an increase in the minimum wage, increased eligibility for immigrants to safety net programs and a new child support assurance program.

It also would increase employment by 600,000 and earnings by $13.4 billion.

Consequences of Child Poverty

Increases in child poverty rates that would occur if federal assistance programs were eliminated (via NASM’s “A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty” Report)

The report concludes that there is indeed a causal link between poverty and negative child outcomes.

Poverty during early childhood or throughout large portions of childhood is especially detrimental.

They provide recommendations for how and why communities should move forward by taking action to prevent child poverty.

Costs of Child Poverty

Researchers also found that costs associated with poverty—lost worker productivity, increased crime rates, and increased costs in health care—may amount to nearly $1. 1 trillion annually.

That is 5.4% of gross domestic product.

Contrary to what many may think, the report highlights that funding social programs aimed at cutting poverty in half actually costs much less (~$90 billion) than the costs associated with child poverty.

Also, cuts to the federal earned income tax credit and child tax credit would increase child poverty by nearly 4.4 million children. Cuts to SNAP would increase poverty by up to 3.8 million children.

Solutions to ‘Deep Poverty’

Although tax credits may help some children, this does not appear to have as large of an impact on families considered to be living in “deep poverty” (an income under 50% of the poverty threshold). This is due to their already low salaries.

Access to financial assistance and SNAP have the greatest potential to alleviate deep poverty.

“Capable and healthy adults are the foundation of any well-functioning society, but because millions of American children are in families living below the poverty line, this future is not as secure as it could be,” said Greg Duncan, chair of the committee that wrote the report and distinguished professor of education at the University of California, Irvine, in a news release.

“Evidence suggests a lack of economic resources compromises children’s ability to grow and achieve in adulthood, hurting them and the broader society.”

Read a summary of the report here. The full report is also available for download here.

How Can You Help Children in Poverty Where You Are?

Start by taking a look at local health inequities.

Download a customized Salud America! Health Equity Report Card.

You will see how your area stacks up in poverty and other equity issues compared to your state and nation.

The you can email your report card to local leaders and share it on social media. It can be an important tool to make the case for community change to boost health equity!

GET YOUR HEALTH EQUITY REPORT CARD!

Understanding & Reducing Poverty

UNICEF: We cannot let a generation of children fall victim to the COVID-19 pandemic |

The main finding of the study, which was prepared by UNICEF and Save the Children, is that the increase in the number of children living in so-called multidimensional poverty is one of the serious consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now there are about 1.2 billion such children. And this is 150 million more than before the pandemic.

The analysis of multidimensional poverty used data from 70 countries. They concerned access to education, health care, housing, food, sanitation and water. A previous survey conducted in these countries before the pandemic found that about 45 percent of children were denied access to at least one of these important elements of child well-being.

However, new data show that the situation has only worsened and will become even worse in the coming months.

“COVID-19 and lockdown measures put in place to prevent its spread have pushed millions of children into poverty,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. - Families that were already coming out of poverty are again in trouble, and some are faced with such shocks that they did not know before. What is most worrying is that we are still closer to the beginning of this crisis than to its end. ”

Experts point out that child poverty indicators have more than just a monetary dimension. Family incomes are certainly important, but they give only a partial picture of the situation of children. To understand the full scale of poverty, it is necessary to analyze all the problems that children from vulnerable segments of the population face - from medicine and education to water supply and housing conditions. The UN believes that only measures aimed at improving performance in all these areas can lead to the elimination of multidimensional poverty.

In addition, child poverty will not be overcome without special social protection programs, proper fiscal policy, increased employment of parents and providing them with paid parental leave.

In the new study, the experts paid special attention to the problem of children's unequal access to new technologies, which is necessary for education today.

“Children who are deprived of education are more likely to be victims of forced labor or early marriages and end up in poverty for many years. We cannot allow an entire generation of children to fall prey to this pandemic. Governments and the international community must take the necessary actions to cushion the blow,” said Save the Children International Director General Inger Esching.

The authors of the study note that today not only the number of poor people is growing, the poor are getting even poorer. “We must act and immediately do everything to ensure that children are not deprived of education, treatment, food, water and shelter,” said the head of UNICEF.

She called on governments to prioritize the most marginalized children and their families, expand their social protection systems, including cash transfers, help with distance learning, guarantee children's health care and provide them with school meals.

HRC member Tatyana Margolina proposes five effective measures to combat poverty in the Russian Federation

February 20 is World Day of Social Justice. This day is a reminder of the need to step up the efforts of the international community in the areas of poverty eradication, full employment, decent work, gender equality, social welfare and social justice for all.

February 20 is the World Day of Social Justice. This day is a reminder of the need to step up the efforts of the international community in the areas of poverty eradication, full employment, decent work, gender equality, social welfare and social justice for all.

February 20, 2020

February 20 - World Day of Social Justice. The holiday was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in a special resolution No. A / RES / 62/10 of December 18, 2007.

The resolution recognizes the need to further strengthen the efforts of the international community in the areas of poverty eradication, full employment, decent work, gender equality, social welfare and social justice for all.

The rights of citizens to decent wages and measures to combat poverty are in the field of close attention of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the development of civil society and human rights.

HRC member Tatyana Margolina, speaking today about ways to achieve social justice, proposes five effective measures for the country aimed at combating poverty. Many of them are already being implemented by the government of our country. According to the human rights activist, work to reduce poverty should be multi-level and multi-faceted, including:

1) a consistent increase in wages,
2) ensuring priority in the employment of poor citizens,
3) participation of business in increasing the incomes of low-income families,
4) expansion of admission to professional educational organizations, ensuring the availability of vocational education for children from low-income families,
5) implementation of the practice of the social contract.

In any case, the achievement of social justice is, of course, the responsibility of the state, but both business and the citizens themselves are real participants in the movement for justice, the member of the Council believes.

Tatyana Margolina
HRC member, professor at Perm State University

February 20 - World Day of Social Justice

According to human rights standards, born as members of the human race, we are doomed to equality with others (I am an equal among equals!), We can count on acceptance by other people and on respect for us, each of us, just as a person, by representatives of the state.

Everything is more complicated in life. There is no real world of social justice: inequality and even discrimination have not been eliminated.

It is unfair if in a country the birth of children dooms a family to the status of a poor family (among all low-income households, families with children make up almost 88 percent, child poverty in Russia (ages zero to 18) is 27 percent). It is unfair if medical care or medicines are not available to you if you live in a remote area. It is unfair if there is education, but it is impossible to get a decent job. It is unfair if you are denied a job because you are a woman and not a man. It is doubly unfair if the salary does not match the effort and time spent.

Injustice gives rise to negative feelings (depression, apathy, aggressiveness, irritation) and destructive actions, creates social tension, conflicts, protest moods.

Social Justice Day is a reminder to all of us to step up efforts to eradicate poverty, reduce poverty, achieve full employment, decent work, equal rights for men and women, and social welfare for all.

The Day of Social Justice is a chance to take a critical look at the results of our efforts to achieve justice, for example, to reduce poverty.

You can change the criteria and methods of surveying poor households and they will immediately become noticeably smaller. Purely formal approach. Or you can build targeted support for poor families, offering them options to get out of poverty or reduce it.

Work to reduce poverty - multilevel and multidimensional:

- consistent increase in wages - the task of all levels of government and business, not individual campaigns, but a constant, gradual increase in order to achieve a social standard that our country has not yet adopted ( article 4 of the European Social Charter on the right to fair remuneration for work has not yet been ratified by the Russian Federation). "Recognize the right of workers to remuneration for work that will ensure them and their families a decent standard of living" is a fair goal to improve the well-being of all working citizens and one of the ways to increase the incomes of poor families.

- priority in employment of low-income citizens , especially those living in rural areas, in small towns and urban-type settlements (the number of poor people in rural areas per 100 thousand people is almost 40% higher than in cities. A significant number of the poor are concentrated in small towns and workers' settlements with a population of less than 50 thousand people).

- participation of business in increasing the incomes of low-income families : both in hiring them, and in teaching self-employment, the basics of entrepreneurship are quite real tasks for both large and small businesses.

Overcoming poverty is not a charitable action of business, it is, first of all, mechanisms for increasing the contribution to the economy of people with a normal labor potential, but temporarily in a state of social vulnerability.

According to Professor A.G. Aganbegyan, "Surveys show a direct dependence of poverty on the level of education: it is minimal for people with higher and secondary vocational education (13% of all the poor each) and increases sharply with only a general secondary education (39,3%) and especially general education (43.7%)".

Vocational education, along with the task of training personnel for various spheres of human life, of course, also performs a social function, the level of education correlates with the willingness and ability to live in changing conditions Maybe it's time to set the task to stop the decline in admission to professional educational organizations, to ensure the availability of vocational education for children from low-income families . ..

It's no secret that some low-income families are stricken with dependency attitudes, focused on supporting the state, but do not make efforts to increase their family's income. A good incentive for such citizens may be the practice of implementing the social contract . The main essence of the social contract is that there is a transition from one-sided economic support to poor families, to an active mutual dialogue and cooperation, involving the fulfillment of obligations from both sides: from the poor family and from the state. At the same time, both the initiative on the part of the family, associated with the need to develop and realize one’s potential, skills, abilities, and support from the state, including consultations from specialists, drawing up an adaptation program aimed at achieving a certain specific goal and acquiring a new source of income, are important. .

A sociological study conducted with families participating in social contracts on the basis of the Ministry of Social Development of the Perm Territory showed that in 2018 more than 2 thousand social contracts were concluded in the region, 77% of the contracts were directed to the development of personal subsidiary plots (breeding large, medium and small livestock, poultry, fur-bearing animals, growing flowers, vegetables and herbs, development of sewing, knitting, needlework, car repair, confectionery production, etc.

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