IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v695y2021i1p242-259.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Major Means-Tested and Income Support Programs for the Working Class, 2009–2019

Author

Listed:
  • Yu-Ling Chang
  • Jennifer Romich
  • Marci Ybarra

Abstract

This article examines policy changes to and trends in five cash or near-cash income support programs for low-income workers and their families from 2009 to 2019. Our analyses show that the safety net expanded during the recession and then contracted via the tightening of eligibility rules and expiration of most temporary expansions for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), unemployment insurance (UI), and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Expansions for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) over the period 2009 to 2019 align with a decades-long trend of social welfare policy reinforcing or enforcing labor force participation. Caseloads fell mostly rapidly for UI, which is explicitly designed as countercyclical support; and for TANF, which maintained high levels of administrative burden. We conclude with a cross-program discussion of the state of the social safety net in the pandemic era and postpandemic recovery.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu-Ling Chang & Jennifer Romich & Marci Ybarra, 2021. "Major Means-Tested and Income Support Programs for the Working Class, 2009–2019," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 695(1), pages 242-259, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:695:y:2021:i:1:p:242-259
    DOI: 10.1177/00027162211033524
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027162211033524
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00027162211033524?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:695:y:2021:i:1:p:242-259. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.