child care - Digital Library Collections

THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK 1998
fatigue, trouble concentrating in school, and
stunted growth.
No relief for families with high living expenses.
In 1997 the Clinton Administration proposed
three measures to blunt the pain offood stamp cuts
for families with children. One of these would have
benefited poor families with children and high
housing costs (those who spend more than half
their income on rent and receive no government
housing assistance). Under the food stamp rules, a
portion of the money that some of these families
must spend for rent is inappropriately counted as
being available to purchase food. As a result, the
food stamps these families receive fall short of
what they actually need, and many have trouble
paying their rent and utility bills and also feeding
their children. The Administration's proposal
would have meant larger food stamp benefits for
families in this predicament, putting them on a par
with elderly individuals and those with disabilities
who have high housing costs and have long received
augmented food assistance. Congress, however,
refused to adopt this proposal.
Congress also rejected a measure intended to
soften the blow of the 1996 welfare law on parents
who need cars to commute to work. The law sets a
permanent ceiling of $4,650 on the market value of
a car that is exempt from the food stamp program's
stringent limits on assets. This frozen limit is only
3 percent higher than the cap initially set in 1977.
Since then, however, used car prices have nearly
tripled, increasing 170 percent. As automobile
costs rise with inflation in the years ahead, growing
numbers of poor families who must drive to work,
especially those in rural areas and parents commuting
to suburban jobs from inner cities, may become
ineligible for food stamps.
The welfare law also freezes the standard deduction
for food stamp recipients-the amount
subtracted from the income of most food stamp
households for the purpose of calculating benefit
levels. The Administration proposed a change in
the rules so that the deduction would eventually
keep pace with the cost of living, as it had in the
past. Again, however, Congress rejected the plan,
and a permanent freeze remains in effect. As inflation
raises the cost of food and other necessities
and the standard deduction stays constant, these
families will fmd it a little tougher each year to
adequately feed their children and themselves and
cover other expenses.
• Of the 13.2 million children who received monthly food stamps
in FY 1996, nearly 80 percent were under the age of 12, and 37
percent were under age 5. Thirty-seven percent were Black, 36
percent were White, and 21 percent were Hispanic.
• More than 5 million families with children will lose an average of
$36 each month in food stamp benefits during FY 1998.
• In 29 cities nationwide, requests for emergency food aid jumped an
average of 16 percent in 1997. Most of the requests came from
families with children, and nearly one in five went unmet.
• During the 1997 school year, 26.9 million children received free
or subsidized lunches, and almost 7.1 million received a daily
breakfast at school.
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