Search

This study documents an increase in the prevalence of extreme poverty among US households with children between 1996 and 2011 and assesses the response of major federal means-tested transfer programs. Extreme poverty is defined using a World Bank metric of global poverty: $2 or less, per person, per day. Using the 1996-2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), we estimate that in mid-2011, 1.65 million households with 3.55 million children were living in extreme poverty in a given month, based on cash income, constituting 4.3 percent of all nonelderly households with children. The prevalence of extreme poverty has risen sharply since 1996, particularly among those most affected by the 1996 welfare reform. Adding SNAP benefits to household income reduces the number of extremely poor households with children by 48.0 percent in mid-2011. Adding SNAP, refundable tax credits, and housing subsidies reduces it by 62.8 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects upon probabilities for the progressive implementation of a basic income in Brazil and presents a proposal to that end. It considers short- to medium-term prospects within a context that lacks a tradition of universal policies. Although a Law approving the right to a basic income became effective in 2005, Brazilian social policies are increasingly focused on increasing the number of means-tested income programmes while making them conditional on a proven lack of resources and targeting only the very poorest segments of society for a limited period. Such is the case with the Bolsa-Família programme, which is at the forefront of the Brazilian government's agenda. Our proposal is to progressively move from means-tested programmes to a basic income through the adoption of a universal child benefit scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores ethnic group differences in the severity of child poverty in Britain. Using administrative data it looks at benefit receipt of families with children over a period of a year and a half. Building on existing work on 'welfare dynamics', but taking the child as the unit of analysis it explores both mobility in benefit receipt and severity of poverty among children supported by benefits. Severity is viewed as a function both of benefit dependency and the extent to which benefits fall short of needs; and in ascertaining income-to-needs shortfalls external measures against which to assess benefit adequacy are introduced. The article investigates differences in benefit mobility and in severity of poverty by ethnic group, and demonstrates that differences in family patterns can result in extreme cumulative disadvantage for British children of Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the attitudes of different socio-economic groups toward means-testing. By using data from an opinion survey of 1,117 Finns, the study seeks to answer the following questions: Are universal social benefits more popular than selective ones? Who are the most vigorous opponents of means-testing, the middle classes or blue-collar workers? Results give some support to the hypothesis that selective benefits are the most unpopular. The study also shows that opinions on selectivity do not cluster in one dimension, but that there are several aspects of selectivity and that the attitudes of socioeconomic groups vary depending on which aspect of selectivity is at stake. The working class and Social Democrats have more reservations toward selectivity which targets the needy, whereas they are more eager to introduce selectivity into universal welfare programs by discriminating against high-income earners. Salaried employees and voters of the Conservative Party are more reluctant to exclude well-to-do people from universal benefits, whereas they accept tighter means-testing in currently means- or income-tested schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]