Recession cut into employment for half of working adults, study says, By Michael A. Fletcher, June 30, 2010, Washington Post: “The recession has directly hit more than half of the nation’s working adults, pushing them into unemployment, pay cuts, reduced hours at work or part-time jobs, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The economic shock has jolted many Americans into a new, more austere reality, which is likely to have lasting consequences for an economy fueled mostly by consumer spending. More than six in 10 Americans say they have cut down on borrowing and spending, the survey found. The reason: Nearly half of the survey’s respondents say they are in worse financial shape as a result of the downturn, which destroyed 20 percent of Americans’ wealth…”
Monthly Archives: June 2010
Electronic Benefit Transfers and Casinos – California
- California welfare cards can be used in many casino ATMs, By Jack Dolan, June 24, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “California welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state, a Los Angeles Times review of records found. The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms, the review found. State officials said Wednesday they were working to determine how much money had been withdrawn from casino ATMs by people using the welfare debit cards…”
- Confusion over use of welfare debit cards at casinos, By Clark Mason, June 29, 2010, Santa Rosa Press Democrat: “Several Indian casinos on the North Coast and a poker cardroom in Petaluma are listed among gambling venues where welfare recipients have used state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash. In the wake of a newspaper story that found California welfare recipients could use their cards in a majority of the 57 casinos in the state, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to ensure the ATMs at the casinos no longer accept the cards. But a spokesman for the governor said Monday that it could be several weeks before the welfare cards are deactivated at the gambling establishments. ‘We said we need to prohibit these cards from being used in casinos,’ said Governor’s spokesman Aaron McLear. ‘They’re going through the process of reprogramming them now.’ Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said it is ‘deeply disturbing’ that welfare recipients are using the debit cards to gamble. Casinos are ‘taking advantage of folks that are on welfare and allowing them to use welfare debit cards to gamble and lose at the tables and slots,’ said Huffman. ‘Already, people view casinos as preying on the poor. This only fuels the perception,’ he said. He also said it is upsetting that it was allowed to happen at all. ‘It clearly tells us we have some work to do and ought to take some simple, but firm steps right away to make sure it never happens again,’ he said. After last week’s publication of a Los Angeles Times story on the topic, state officials acknowledged welfare recipients used the debit cards to withdraw more than $1.8 million in taxpayer cash in casinos and card rooms between October 2009 and last month…”
Health Care Reform and Part-Time Workers
Health-care overhaul will improve insurance options for part-time workers, By Michelle Andrews, June 29, 2010, Washington Post: “Sarah Rose Nordgren works 25 to 30 hours a week as a waitress at an upscale restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C. She also tutors high- schoolers on their college entrance essays and has an editorial internship at a book publisher. But if something were to go seriously wrong with her health, she’d be in trouble because none of her three jobs offers health insurance. She’s been looking for a full-time job with benefits for several months, but there’s nothing on the horizon. So she shuttles between jobs and hopes that she stays healthy. Nordgren’s situation is not unusual. Fewer than a third of employers that offer health insurance make it available to their part-time workers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is a program of the foundation.) And even if health insurance benefits are offered, part-timers, who often work in lower-paid retail, restaurant and service jobs, may not be able to afford them…”
Right to Information Law – India
Right-to-know law gives India’s poor a lever, By Lydia Polgreen, June 28, 2010, New York Times: “Chanchala Devi always wanted a house. Not a mud-and-stick hut, like her current home in this desolate village in the mineral-rich, corruption-corroded state of Jharkhand, but a proper brick-and-mortar house. When she heard that a government program for the poor would give her about $700 to build that house, she applied immediately. As an impoverished day laborer from a downtrodden caste, she was an ideal candidate for the grant. Yet she waited four years, watching as wealthier neighbors got grants and built sturdy houses, while she and her three children slept beneath a leaky roof of tree branches and crumbling clay tiles. Two months ago she took advantage of India’s powerful and wildly popular Right to Information law. With help from a local activist, she filed a request at a local government office to find out who had gotten the grants while she waited, and why. Within days a local bureaucrat had good news: Her grant had been approved, and she would soon get her check…”
State Budgets and Federal Stimulus
- States fear strain as feds curb spending, By Ronald J. Hansen, June 21, 2010, Arizona Republic: “With Congress increasingly reluctant to add to the nation’s debt, financial help is hard to find for state governments and individual casualties of the recession. Last week, the Senate rejected a bill that would have extended stimulus provisions to help the unemployed. Several attempts to extend higher Medicaid assistance have failed, too, leaving dozens of states, including Arizona, with looming budget holes that collectively total about $24 billion. Many still expect that the Medicaid money will materialize, if only because many states have expected the help for months and built it into budgets that begin in July. In Arizona, the federal money would mean an extra $394 million to help defray the medical costs of about 310,000 poor adults. Extending help for the unemployed would cost $40 billion nationwide. Without a share of that money in Arizona, weekly unemployment checks that are already among the smallest in the nation are $25 lower, and fewer people qualify for help at all. The push for austerity comes as Congress tries to balance the needs of the social safety net against the costs of soaring debt…”
- States struggle to balance budgets after Congress refuses to offer more stimulus money, By Beth Fouhy (AP), June 28, 2010, Grand Forks Herald: “For at least 30 cash-strapped states counting on federal stimulus money, the news was a stunning blow: A deficit-weary Congress had rejected billions in additional aid, forcing lawmakers into a mad scramble to balance their budgets. Now, with a new fiscal year just days away in most states, many governors are proposing to make up for the shortfall with tax increases, cuts in essential services and potential layoffs of thousands of public employees. ‘I support restraining federal spending, but cutting the only funding designed to help states maintain the very safety-net programs Congress mandates us to preserve will have devastating consequences,’ California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a letter to his state’s congressional delegation. California faces a whopping $19 billion deficit _ more than 20 percent of the state’s total budget _ despite deep cuts that have already been made to many programs. Its new fiscal year begins July 1, and a budget deal there is nowhere in sight…”
Report: Cost of Living – California
- Budget project issues ‘Making Ends Meet’ report, By Tom Abate, June 25, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle: “A single adult must earn nearly $32,000 to live in San Francisco, while two working parents with two young children must take in a little more than $84,000 to get by, according to an analysis released Thursday by a public policy group in Sacramento. The California Budget Project report, titled ‘Making Ends Meet,’ estimates the cost of supporting a family of from one person to four people in each of the state’s 58 counties. The study uses federal and state figures to average a range of expenses including housing, utilities, food, transportation, health care, taxes, clothing, laundry services, reading materials and bath products such as toothpaste. ‘We don’t assume any cable TV or smart phone expenses,’ said budget project director Jean Ross, noting that the phone category supposes a $23 a month landline…”
- Many S.J. families struggling, By Jennifer Torres, June 25, 2010, Stockton Record: “More than half of local families – including those whose earnings place them well into middle-income levels – could be struggling to maintain even a modest standard of living (no vacations, no college savings, no home ownership), according to a new analysis that suggests other measures of poverty fail to consider what it really takes to support a family in the state. The California Budget Project, a nonprofit research organization, on Thursday released an update to its periodic report, ‘Making Ends Meet: How much Does it Cost To Raise a Family in California?’ The report offers county-by-county estimates of the child care, transportation, health care, housing and other costs that confront families – and that, in many cases, strain monthly wages. In San Joaquin County, according to the report, a family of four, with two working parents, would need to bring in nearly $5,800 a month, or close to $70,000 annually, to cover basic bills without public assistance…”
Delivery of Food Stamp Benefits – Texas
- Texas hit with fine for food stamp errors, By Corrie MacLaggan, June 28, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Federal officials have fined Texas $3.96 million for errors in issuing food stamp benefits, according to a letter to House Speaker Joe Straus. The penalty is for a high rate of overpayments or underpayments two years in a row, said the letter from U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon. Among the four states hit with penalties, Texas was fined the most. Also fined were Indiana ($1.2 million), Maryland ($742,238) and Iowa ($205,730), federal officials said. Texas plans to appeal, said Geoff Wool, a spokesman for the state Health and Human Services Commission. He said the commission learned of the fine on Friday. Wool said Texas’ appeal will focus on the fact that the number of food stamp recipients in Texas spiked after Hurricane Ike in 2008, increasing 26 percent in the year that followed…”
- U.S. fines Texas $4 million for botching food-stamp claims, By Robert t. Garrett, June 29, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Federal food stamp officials have fined Texas nearly $4 million for making too many errors in calculating people’s monthly benefits. U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon notified state officials late last week, offering to waive half of the $3.96 million fine if Texas would use the money to improve administration of the program. But Texas Health and Human Services Commission spokesman Geoff Wool said Monday that the state will appeal. A penalty is unfair because hurricanes and the recession overwhelmed the state workers who process food stamp requests, Wool said. Texas either overpaid or underpaid on food stamp benefits 6.9 percent of the time in fiscal 2009, according to the federal Food and Nutrition Service. In Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, the most error-prone regions, the state miscalculated benefits more than 10 percent of the time. Among all states, only Indiana and Maryland performed more poorly. Both had payment error rates of just over 7.1 percent last year, while the national rate was 4.36 percent, ‘the lowest rate in the history of the program,’ the service proclaimed…”
State Budgets and Medicaid
- Congress blasts Medicaid hole in states’ budgets, By Tami Luhby, June 28, 2010, CNNMoney.com: “Young children in Massachusetts will lose state-funded mental health services. Welfare recipients will see their employment and training programs slashed. And homeless families will lose nearly all their state assistance to move into more permanent housing. Massachusetts lawmakers had to make these and other difficult cuts last week after discovering they had to slash another nearly $700 million out of the state budget. The Bay State had assumed Congress would pass $24 billion in additional Medicaid funding for states before their fiscal years start on July 1. But that money hasn’t materialized. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., effectively killed the bill last week after deficit-wary Republicans blocked it for a third time. So officials in Massachusetts and 29 other states that counted on the funds to balance their budgets are left with the task of slashing services and payrolls once again…”
- No Medicaid money as new fiscal year draws near, By John Gramlich, June 28, 2010, Stateline.org: “A new fiscal year is set to begin, and at least 22 states are counting on federal Medicaid money that has yet to materialize. A congressional proposal to approve more Medicaid funding – which was originally part of the stimulus package and is set to expire at the end of 2010, halfway through the fiscal year that begins in most states on Thursday (July 1) – ran into Republican opposition in the Senate last week. The provision was part of a larger package that included an extension of unemployment insurance for jobless Americans. Republicans argue that the programs are worthwhile, but that the government must curtail spending…”
Gulf Oil Spill and Low-Wage Workers
Don’t ignore low-income spill victims, advocates urge BP, By Deborah Barfield Berry, June 26, 2010, USA Today: “Vicky Townley is waiting to hear whether BP will compensate her for tip income she says she’s lost because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. ‘Things are so slow we’re basically living from paycheck to paycheck, which is not very much,’ said Townley, a bartender in Gulf Shores, Ala., who filed her lost-wages claim three weeks ago. Before the spill, she said, she earned $60 a day in tips during the summer months, which helped in the long slog to rebound from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. ‘Things were just starting to pick up,’ she said. ‘Then the recession, then the oil. What next?’ Gulf Coast groups representing low-income workers say they want to make sure BP’s claims process doesn’t overlook workers like Townley in the rush to compensate fishermen and other high-priority spill victims…”
Cities and Tax-Increment Financing (TIF)
Study: Poverty decreases use of TIF, June 17, 2010, St. Louis Business Journal: “Rich cities are getting richer by using tax-increment financing (TIF) and poor cities are missing out, a new study shows. That could have a significant impact, considering more than half (56 percent) of all Missouri cities with a population of greater than 2,500 have adopted at least one tax increment financing (TIF) project, according to the study. For every 1 percent increase in the poverty rate, the likelihood of a TIF having been approved decreases by 9 percent, among Missouri cities surveyed. ‘This may suggest that the law be amended to target TIFs to locations that meet objective measures of economic disadvantage, such as poverty, income or unemployment,’ Kenneth Thomas, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement. He is associate professor of political science at University of Missouri-St. Louis. ‘As it stands, rich cities are getting richer by using TIFs,’ he added…”
Millennium Development Goals and Global Poverty
- Crisis deepens Middle East poverty, says report, By Deena Kamel Yousef, June 24, 2010, Gulf News: “Significant parts of the Middle East are experiencing an increase in extreme poverty as the global economic slowdown increased unemployment and hunger spikes in the region, according to the 2010 United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report released Wednesday. About 6 per cent of people in the region lived on less than $1.25 a day in 2005 compared to 2 per cent in 1990. The global economic and financial crisis, which began in the advanced economies of North America and Europe in 2007, sparked abrupt declines in exports and commodity prices and reduced trade and investment, slowing growth in developing countries, the report said…”
- Millenium Development Goals hit by crisis but still achievable, UN says, By Uwe Hessler, June 23, 2010, Deutsche Welle: “The United Nations published its 2010 Millenium Development Goals Report simultaneously in New York, Paris and Berlin on Wednesday. The food crisis of 2008 as well as the 2009 economic crisis ‘didn’t stop progress’ in reaching the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), the report said, but had made the prime goal of halving global poverty by 2015 ‘more difficult to achieve.’ The number of people in the world living on less than the $1.25 (1.05 euros) per day global poverty line had substantially decreased from 46 percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2005 – the latest available figure on global hunger given in the report…”
- Fiscal crisis slows U.N. poverty fight, By Edith M. Lederer (AP), June 24, 2010, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “The global economic crisis has slowed the fight against poverty but the developing world is still on track to meet a key U.N. goal of halving the number of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015, according to a report released Wednesday. The U.N. report cited new World Bank estimates suggesting that the crisis left an additional 50 million people in extreme poverty in 2009 and will leave 64 million impoverished by the end of 2010, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and eastern and southeastern Asia. Hunger may also have spiked in 2009 – with more than 1 billion people undernourished – as a consequence of the global food and financial crises. The effects of the crises are likely to persist with poverty rates slightly higher than they would have been had the world economy grown steadily at its pre-crisis pace, the U.N. said…”
Senate Jobs Bill and State Budgets
- Aid bill’s defeat a blow to states, By Daniel Malloy and Tracie Mauriello, June 25, 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “After failing to garner the needed 60 votes Thursday, U.S. Senate leaders prepared to scrap a bill that would have extended aid to states, unemployment benefits and a host of tax provisions, potentially blowing an $850 million hole in Gov. Ed Rendell’s budget. The cloture vote to end debate and advance the measure fell short, 57-41, with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., joining a united Republican caucus to oppose more spending as Congress becomes increasingly debt-conscious. Lawmakers in Harrisburg, backed up against their yearly budget deadline, had one wary eye on Washington on Thursday…”
- Granholm: Senate’s funding failure will force devastating cuts, By Chris Christoff, June 25, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Gov. Jennifer Granholm said today Michigan faces ‘devastating’ cuts in unemployment benefits, health care for low-income families and possibly funding for colleges and local communities as a result of the U.S. Senate’s failure Thursday to enact a $16-billion funding measure for states. Without its share, Michigan will lose extended unemployment benefits for 87,000 people starting July 1, and won’t receive more than $500 million in federal Medicaid payments that the administration had counted on for next year’s budget. Granholm called U.S. Senate Republicans obstructionists for blocking the funding bill, despite pleas from 47 governors who face deficits or large numbers of unemployed residents…”
Health Insurance Coverage in the US
Health safety net frays with fixes still years off, By Noam N. Levey, June 20, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Despite passage of the landmark health care overhaul this spring, the nation’s health system is continuing to fray, raising the prospect that the country could experience a crisis before the law establishes a health care safety net in 2014. Three months after President Barack Obama signed the law, that unsettling possibility is increasingly casting a shadow over its implementation, which the White House and its Democratic congressional allies had hoped a wary public would begin to embrace. Instead, state governments struggling with budgets savaged by the recession are contemplating further cuts in health care aid for the poor, despite the promise of more federal dollars. At the same time, several million unemployed Americans and their families who have used federal assistance to hold on to health insurance from work will lose coverage in coming months as the special assistance program expires…”
Effects of Cuts to Social Programs on Public Health
- Welfare cuts put added health strain on population, June 25, 2010, BBC News: “Analysis of European data showed that a £70 reduction in welfare spending per person is associated with a 2.8% rise in alcohol-related deaths and 1.2% rise in deaths from heart disease. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the UK research team said ordinary people may be paying the ultimate price for budget cuts. One expert added that social support was vital for health. The study comes after the government announced sweeping budget cuts, including reductions in tax credits for families, housing benefit and maternity grants. To pick out the effects of welfare funding on health, researchers looked at government spending in 15 European countries, including the UK, from 1980 to 2005…”
- Budget cuts will affect death rate, says report, By Aditya Chakrabortty, June 25, 2010, The Guardian: “The spending cuts made by the chancellor, George Osborne, in this week’s budget could cause up to 38,000 extra deaths over the next decade, according to academic research published tomorrow. Reductions in welfare payments and the 25% cut in spending across many government departments could lead to an increase in heart attacks and alcohol-related illnesses, according to analysis produced exclusively for the Guardian by an epidemiologist at Oxford University. David Stuckler warns that the announced reduction in overall support for the long-term unemployed, disabled people and families and children, might severely impact people’s health, or even cost them their lives…”
Access to Community Colleges and For-Profit Colleges
- Community colleges cutting back on open access, By Tamar Lewin, June 23, 2010, New York Times: “When Giovanny Villalta tried to register for winter-term classes at Mount San Antonio College here, he hit the wall. ‘I was assigned a late registration slot, and by the time I was allowed to register, everything was full,’ Mr. Villalta said. ‘Biology, full. Anatomy, full. Physics, full. Psychology, full. History of Asia, full. Any history class that would count toward transferring to a four-year U.C. campus, full.’ So Mr. Villalta, who had been a high school athlete, ended up taking track – and nothing else. ‘It was pretty frustrating,’ he said. ‘You feel like you’re wasting time, and your life’s just going by.’ In this economy, community colleges are widely seen as the solution to many problems. Displaced workers are registering in droves to earn credentials that might get them back in the game. Strapped parents, daunted by the cost of four-year universities, are encouraging their children to spend two years at the local community college…”
- For-profit colleges find new market niche, By Tamar Lewin, June 23, 2010, New York Times: “Kaplan University has an offer for California community college students who cannot get a seat in a class they need: under a memorandum of understanding with the chancellor of the community college system, they can take the online version at Kaplan, with a 42 percent tuition discount. The opportunity would not come cheap. Kaplan charges $216 a credit with the discount, compared with $26 a credit at California’s community colleges. Supporters of for-profit education say the offer underscores how Kaplan and other profit-making colleges can help accommodate the mushrooming demand for higher education. The number of California students choosing for-profit schools has been increasing rapidly, state officials say. At the same time, government officials have become increasingly concerned that students at for-profit colleges are far more likely than those at public institutions to take out large loans – and default on them…”
US Strategy on Homelessness
- Administration broadens effort to fight homelessness, By Henri E. Cauvin, June 23, 2010, Washington Post: “The Obama administration released a strategy Tuesday to end homelessness by expanding programs to secure housing for veterans and families with young children and by building on efforts to help chronically homeless people. With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq highlighting the needs of veterans and the economic crisis straining more families, the administration’s plan widens the role envisioned for the federal government in curbing and ending homelessness. It does not commit additional federal money on top of the billions of dollars already budgeted by the various agencies involved in reducing and preventing homelessness. Instead, the 67-page strategy, drafted by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and unveiled Tuesday, details several smaller projects intended to spur collaboration among federal agencies and with local and state governments…”
- Obama builds on Bush success to help the homeless, Editorial, June 22, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “To see what’s happening with the homeless population in America today, consider the following ’30s.’ In the last three years, during the great recession, the number of people who are considered to be chronically homeless has decreased by 30 percent. Over the same time period, the number of homeless families who are temporarily living in shelters has increased by 30 percent, according to a report last week by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The opposite trends show how far America has come in trying to solve homelessness, and where it needs to redouble its efforts. The Obama administration is attempting that extra effort with a national plan to eliminate homelessness. The plan, required by Congress, seeks to end chronic and veterans homelessness in five years – 10 years for families, youth, and children…”
US Refugee Resettlement System
Federal review aims to improve refugee system, By Anna Gorman and Alexandra Zavis, June 23, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Recognizing that the United States is failing thousands of refugees fleeing war-torn countries, the Obama administration is conducting the first thorough review of the refugee resettlement system in 30 years and plans to announce major reforms this summer. Officials say the system is outdated and lacks adequate resources to help refugees find jobs and support themselves before exhausting their benefits. That task has been made more difficult by the recession and high unemployment. ‘The basic set-up of the program hasn’t been altered in many years,’ said National Security Council spokesman Ben Chang. ‘It was time to take a fresh look.’ Several changes have already been made to ease the transition for newcomers, most of whom have no U.S. work experience, little savings and limited English skills. The largest numbers of refugees last year – admitted based on persecution or fear of persecution – came from Iraq, Bhutan and Burma…”
Widows and Poverty
Report: Over 115 million widows live in poverty, By Edith M. Lederer (AP), June 23, 2010, Washington Post: “At least 245 million women around the world have been widowed and more than 115 million of them live in devastating poverty, according to a new study launched Tuesday night by Cherie Blair, wife of the former British prime minister. The most dire consequences are faced by 2 million Afghan widows and at least 740,000 Iraqi widows who lost their husbands as a result of the ongoing conflicts; by widows and their children evicted from their family homes in sub-Saharan Africa; by elderly widows caring for grandchildren orphaned by the HIV/AIDS crisis, and by child widows aged 7 to 17 in developing countries, the report said…”
Weatherization Program – California
After cold start, weatherization program heating up in California, By Peter Urban, June 22, 2010, Salinas Californian: “Although it ranks near the bottom in national completion rates, California expects to meet its September goal of weatherizing at least 12,945 homes to secure $92 million in additional federal stimulus funds. For its part, Monterey County already is within reach of its weatherization target for the same time frame. The U.S. Department of Energy slated $166 million for California to caulk windows, install weatherstripping and make other efficiencies to reduce electric bills for low-income families. A year ago, California received $74 million in stimulus funds for what the DOE then described as an ‘aggressive and innovative’ proposal to weatherize 43,400 low-income households within 33 months. The final $92 million is due this September if the state completes at least 30 percent of its overall goal…”
Recession and State Budgets
States face new pinch as stimulus ebbs, By Deborah Solomon, June 23, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “Already-strapped states are about to face a new squeeze as the boost from federal economic-stimulus spending draws to a close and Washington looks increasingly reluctant to widen the nation’s budget deficit. States have long known stimulus funds sent their way early in the recession would taper off in the first half of 2011. But many hoped a rebound in tax receipts would close the gap. While state revenues have rebounded somewhat, legislatures still must grapple with deficits totalling $127 billion over the next two fiscal years, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers. Meanwhile, many lawmakers in Washington, concerned about a U.S. budget deficit that could rise by as much as $11 trillion over the next decade, are opposing more spending…”