By DAVID GARDNER
Last updated at 9:18 PM on 3rd November 2011
WORST FIVE STATES
1 Mississippi 21.5%
2 New Mexico 20.7%
3 Oregon 20.6%
4 Tennessee 20.2%
5 Louisiana 19.9%
Shocking figures revealed today that one in 15 people in America is now living in poverty.
The number - a record high - is spread widely across metropolitan areas as the country's economic troubles continue to bite.
And almost 15 per cent of the population are also now on food stamps, it emerged yesterday.
The ranks of the poor applying for food stamps increased by a worrying 8.1 per cent over the past year to make a total of 45.8 million.
The increase in poverty is believed to have been caused due to the housing bust pushing many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places and shriveled jobs and income.
'There now really is no unaffected group, except maybe the very top income earners,' said Robert Moffitt, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.
'Recessions are supposed to be temporary, and when it's over, everything returns to where it was before. But the worry now is that the downturn — which will end eventually — will have long-lasting effects on families who lose jobs, become worse off and can't recover.'
Once-booming Sun Belt metro areas are now seeing some of the biggest jumps in concentrated poverty.
About 20.5 million Americans, or 6.7 per cent of the U.S. population, make up the poorest poor, defined as those at 50 per cent or less of the official poverty level.
Those living in deep poverty represent nearly half of the 46.2 million people scraping by below the poverty line. In 2010, the poorest poor meant an income of $5,570 or less for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.
That 6.7 percent share is the highest in the 35 years that the Census Bureau has maintained such records, surpassing previous highs in 2009 and 1993 of just over 6 percent.
After declining during the 1990s economic boom, the proportion of poor people in large metropolitan areas who lived in high-poverty neighborhoods jumped from 11.2 per cent in 2000 to 15.1 per cent last year, according to a Brookings Institution analysis released on Thursday.
As a whole, the number of poor in the suburbs who lived in high-poverty neighborhoods rose by 41 per cent since 2000, more than double the growth of such city neighborhoods.
Poverty for Americans 65 and older is on track to nearly double after factoring in rising out-of-pocket medical expenses, from nine per cent to more than 15 per cent.
Poverty increases are also anticipated for the working-age population because of commuting and child-care costs, while child poverty will dip partly due to the positive effect of food stamps.
And with one in 15 in poverty, more than one in four of working age are now tapping food stamps.
According to Department of Agriculture figures, worst hit were people in Mississippi, where more than 21 per cent were recipients.
One in five residents in Tennessee, Oregon, New Mexico and Louisiana also depended on the hand outs - formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) - to eat.
Officials fear the numbers may swell even more in the coming months as people battle financial hardship and record unemployment.
But one reason for the rising number of recipients was that many states have waived requirements limiting the assets food stamp applicants could own, said the Wall Street Journal.
The number of food stamp users exploded after the recession hit in late 2007 and has continued growing even though the downtown is officially supposed to be over.
Researchers from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire estimated that the percentage of Americans receiving food stamps increased by 61.2 per cent between 2007 and 2010.
Reliance on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Programme was very high among single parents, rising ten per cent.
In 2010, 42 per cent of single mothers and 25 per cent of single fathers relied on the stamps. In rural areas it was ever higher at one in two single mothers.
States also made changes to make it easier for residents to tap into the program, such as waiving requirements that limited the value of assets food stamp recipients could own.
This is believed to have been caused due to the housing bust pushing many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places and shriveled jobs and income.
'There now really is no unaffected group, except maybe the very top income earners,' said Robert Moffitt, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. 'Recessions are supposed to be temporary, and when it's over, everything returns to where it was before. But the worry now is that the downturn — which will end eventually — will have long-lasting effects on families who lose jobs, become worse off and can't recover.'
The institute also found that 14.6 per cent of rural households were relying on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme in 2010.
Suburban households are less likely to receive SNAP benefits, but usage is on the rise. About nine per cent of suburban households received SNAP in 2010, up from 5.4 pe rcent in 2007.
Jessica Bean, a vulnerable families research associate with the Carsey Institute, said she thinks rural residents have traditionally been less likely to collect SNAP benefits because they live in remote areas where it’s hard to access social services and are more concerned with the social stigma.
In a rural area, she said: 'When you go into the grocery store and you pull out your food stamps card, everybody knows you.'
Just one in ten married couples with children are using the government-funded food benefit.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2056864/Handout-nation-Food-stamp-map-America-reveals-hotspots-15-population-government-help.html#ixzz1cm8SyVYw
Discussion Questions
1. What do you think is really behind the dramatic increase in the amount of food stamp benefits? Is it that food insecurity has actually increased dramatically since the Great Recession, or that people are taking advantage of the system with the recent removal of the limit on assets for applicants? Or a mixture of both? Why?
2. What is a solution to reduce the need for food stamps in the United States?
1. I think that a lack of sharing with the impoverished by people who have more food than they need is one reason why food stamps have increased. Many people buy more food than they need and much of the food that would be edible goes to waste by it sitting in the consumers refrigerators and pantries. I do not think food insecurity is increasing as the crops are still able to grow and USA can import crops for cheap, but because nobody is doing anything to help out the impoverished and it is becoming increasingly easier to use food stamps, the rates are increasing.
ReplyDelete2. A solution to reduce the need for food stamps in the United States is a collective effort of the American people who can easily afford food, often too much food, and a heart change to make sure that more people have accessibility to secure food. People should make sure to give back and prepare meals for those who are homeless and are not able to provide food for themselves, who do not know where they are going to get every meal from each day. It starts with individuals and not a government policy.
Convincing people with "more food" to share with those with "less food" oversimplifies the issue. Food insecurity lies within deeper income and wealth inequities in our country. Now more than ever, there is increased tension between the have and have-nots. If well-paying jobs, healthcare, and other economic resources were made available to everyone, regardless of his or her race, class, and gender, then our most basic need, food, would become more accessible.
ReplyDeleteThere are several reasons why the usage of food tamps has risen over the past several years, as was pointed out in the article. A combination of an economy in recession, a decrease in restrictions for the eligibility for food stamps, in addition to a possible decrease in social stigmas associated with food stamps. Many people that have jobs are lining up at food banks because they can no longer afford to house, clothe, educate, and feed themselves and their families. Because so many more people are in this position, people may be more likely to take advantage of social services if their neighbors are in the same position they themselves are now finding themselves in. There are more movements turning to local and community gardens to help ease the financial burden of food and provide individuals with nutritious food that may have otherwise not been accessible.
ReplyDelete1-Several problems have to be addressed with the increase of food stamps.
ReplyDeleteThe economic situation has a relationship with the problem regarding food stamps. Also, I think there are people out there who need help but also other people are benefiting and taking advantage of the system. People try to cheat on their taxes.
2.I think that a good education towards food can decrease the necessity for food stamps. Nutritious food can be found at a non-expensive prices if people know what they are purchasing and consuming. Government spending and taxation can also be improved. I think that society needs to look at the reasons why people are on welfare and work on fixing that, rather than come up with new ways to give out food stamps. A collective and unified effort coming from the American population would stabilize the situation and would help people that need food.
1. The state of the economy and the massive income disparity is the most obvious reason for the increase in food stamp recipients. As our political system morphs more into a plutocracy each day, it should come as no surprise to anyone who understands the income distribution of our population why the demand for food stamps is so high. For a better understanding of the wealth (or lack thereof) distribution in America check out this infographic: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph
ReplyDelete2. The reason people are on food stamps is because they can't afford food, simple as that. So the easiest solution would be to reverse this income disparity that has increased in the last few decades. That is much easier said than done, and unfortunately the poorest 20% of the population can't afford lobbyists.
1) It's almost certainly a mixture of both. Some of those statistics at the beginning of the article seem to indicate that people actually are significantly poorer than they have been in recent history. If the population is poorer and food prices are going up, then there will be more people relying on government welfare services for their food. It's that simple.
ReplyDelete2) Getting food stamps is also probably linked more to the actual price of food compared to your income than it is to food availability, so fixing food access problems probably won't do much to solve the issue. The solution, then, seems to be to make food cheaper (hard to do, if we don't give up on also having food be fairer, better, and more sustainable), or to make people not poor. We can't make people not poor. I have no idea what to do, other than to work to fix concrete realities that need fixing in the high-poverty communities where the problem seems to be concentrated, and thereby make the community less prone to all of the ancillary causes of poverty, like crime and lack of community ties. Perhaps if the physical realities of a place are designed in such a way as empowers the good guys in a neighborhood over the bad guys, those neighborhoods can become better places to live, with better schools, bigger hopes, and better expectations. Perhaps this is a solution to the issue of urban poverty? There seems to be some hope for this approach, which is sometimes called defensible space planning, as it has yielded results where it has been applied, like in Dayton, Ohio's Five Oaks neighborhood.
1. I think that the increase is mostly due to an increase in food insecurity since the recession. It goes without saying that many more Americans are facing economic hardship, and it's not surprising that many would turn to food stamps for support. In addition, I think it's unlikely that a significant portion of the increase is due to people taking advantage of the system. I think being on food stamps carries an unfortunate stigma, and most people would rather be independent.
ReplyDelete2. This is a complicated issue; I think that right now, a lot of people need jobs, and even more need higher paying jobs. I really don't think the problem is that too many people are on food stamps, as your question seems to imply. I think the real problem is food insecurity and hunger, and if food stamps help to reduce these problems, then I don't see a need to reduce them. As toward the broader problem of unemployment and poverty, I don't really have an answer.
1) With every program there's always the potential for people to scam the system, but I think the increases are due to economic problems. We must face the uncomfortable fact that this is one of the worst recessions we've faced--probably the worst for anyone under age 70. So, more folks who thought they'd never need help are realizing that food stamps can actually help them.
ReplyDelete2) A lot of it requires fixing the economy, which is itself a large issue. Government spending and middle-class tax breaks are among many things that can be done in that regard. Living wage movements could also be beneficial to helping folks get off food stamps. Specific to food policy, perhaps subsidies should be increased for farmers of fruits and vegetables, to ensure a lower cost of healthy food. However, we will never be able to completely eliminate the need for food stamps, and we must continue our commitment to helping others in need.