{
  "id": "RL30401",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL30401",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 101757,
      "date": "1999-12-15",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:40:09.305941",
      "title": "Cash and Noncash Benefits for Persons With Limited Income: Eligibility Rules, Recipient and Expenditure Data, FY1996-FY1998",
      "summary": "Eighty benefit programs provide aid -- in cash and noncash form -- that is directed primarily to\npersons with limited income. Such programs constitute the public \"welfare\" system, if welfare is\ndefined as income-tested or need-based benefits. This definition excludes social insurance programs\n(e.g., Social Security and Medicare).\n  Income-tested benefit programs in FY1998 cost $391.7 billion: $277.3 billion in federal funds\nand $114.4 billion in state-local funds. Total welfare spending rose by 3.1% from its FY1997 level. \nHigher medical spending accounted for $10.3 billion of the year's net increase of $11.8 billion and,\nfor the first time, medical benefits accounted for half of all income-tested spending. Expressed in\nconstant FY1998 dollars, welfare spending increased by $5.8 billion (1.5%). Real spending\nincreases: medical benefits, 3.9%; services, 5.4%; education benefits, 1.8%, and housing aid, 0.6%. \n In real terms, cash benefit outlays held steady, but spending for food aid, jobs and training, and\nenergy assistance declined. Welfare consumed the same share of the federal budget (16.8%) as in\nFY1997, but accounted for a slightly smaller share of gross domestic product (4.6% compared to\n4.7% in 1997).\n  In FY1998, medical services represented 50.1% of total welfare spending; cash benefits, 24.1%;\nfood and housing benefits, 16.6%. Services, energy aid, education, and jobs/training accounted for\nthe remainder. The composition of welfare spending differed by level of government. Medical aid\nconsumed 72% of state-local welfare funds, but only 41% of federal welfare dollars.\n  Most income-tested programs provide benefits, in the form of cash, goods, or services, to\npersons who make no payment and render no service in return. However, in the case of the job and\ntraining programs and some educational benefits, recipients must work or study. Further, the block\ngrant program of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) requires adults to start work\nafter a period of enrollment, the food stamp program imposes work and training requirements, and\npublic housing requires residents to engage in \"self'sufficiency\" activities or perform community\nservice. Finally, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is available only to workers.\n  An unduplicated count of welfare beneficiaries is not available. Enrollment in Medicaid,\nAFDC, and food stamps has declined from 1994/1995 peak levels, but the number of recipients of\nEITC and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) continues to grow. Average 1998 monthly numbers:\nFood stamps, 21 million; TANF, 8.8 million; and SSI, 7.2 million. In 1998, EITC payments went\nto an estimated 58.2 million persons, and in 1997, 40.4 million persons received Medicaid services. \nThe Census Bureau classified 34.5 million persons as poor on the basis of pre-tax money income in\n1998 and found that 69.2% of them were in households that received some income-tested aid other\nthan the EITC. Among male-present families with children who were poor before transfers, the\nEITC was the main form of aid.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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          "encoding": null,
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL30401",
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      ],
      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Domestic Social Policy",
    "Health Policy"
  ]
}