EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, OCTOBER 12, 1999 (TUESDAY)
Public Information Office CB99-191
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
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e-mail: pio@census.gov
Thomas Palumbo
301-457-3229
About 1 in 7 People Received Government Assistance
in an Average Month in 1993-94, Census Bureau Reports
About 40 million people -- 15 percent of the population -- received
government assistance in an average month during 1993 and 1994, before the
passage of federal welfare reform legislation in 1996, according to a
report on participation in major means-tested programs released today by
the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.
"Average monthly participation increased noticeably from about 11 percent
of the population in the 1987-90 period to 15 percent in 1993-94," said
Randy Sherrod, author of the report. "Individuals were more likely to
participate in Medicaid than in any other program."
The report, Dynamics of Economic Well-Being: Program Participation 1993-94,
Who Gets Assistance?, provides a set of baseline estimates for the
pre-reform era.
Other highlights:
- About 60 percent of the poor received benefits in an average month in
1994, compared with 7 percent of the non-poor.
- Individuals in families maintained by women were about five times as
likely to participate in means-tested programs in an average month in
1994 than were individuals in married-couple families (44 percent
versus 9 percent).
- Adults without a high school degree were more than twice as likely as
high school graduates and five times as likely as those with some
college to participate in an assistance program.
- Only a small proportion of the population participated on a long-term
basis, with about 10 percent receiving some type of aid in each month of
the 1993-94 period. Almost 58 percent of the poor, however, received
benefits in all 24 months of the period.
- Children under 18 years of age were more likely than people in other
age groups to be long-term program participants.
Data are from the 1993 panel of the Survey of Income and Program
Participation. Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and
nonsampling error.
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