Lift New Yorkers Out of Poverty
Raise the Welfare Grant Now
 

Faces of Welfare | The Increased Cost of Household Items | States that have Raised the Welfare Grant | Comparisons of the Shelter Allowance and HUD Fair Market Values | HANNYS testimony on welfare grant Sept. 7, 2007 | Friedman Empire Justice Center welfare grant testimony | Faith Groups Urge Governor to Hike Welfare Grant

Testimony To the Joint Budget Hearing of the Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee - On Human Services - February 5, 2008

Chick here for a daily report on how Hunger Action Executive Director Mark Dunlea is doing with his Welfare challenge.

Hunger Action Network is We are calling for an increase of the welfare basic grant to at least $450 to reflect the increase in cost of living since it was last raised in 1990. We also want a commission established to determine how to raise welfare benefits above poverty, and then index it to inflation. Also, Fuel for Heating Allowances should be increased to account for inflationary increases since the last adjustment in 1987.

A grant increase is only possible if Governor Spitzer includes it in his budget proposals for next year (2008-09). While the budget is normally released January 20th or so, the Governor is talking about putting it out earlier. Thus we have the summer and fall to make sure he hears the message about the need to raise benefits. Click here for a sample letter.

We saw some positive signs on this issue this year. The Assembly included a small welfare grant increase proposal in their initial budget. Assembly Speaker Silver publicly spoke in favor of a grant hike. The Senate Democrats also recently proposed an even larger hike.

We especially need help in mobilizing the people directly impacted by low welfare benefits. We need to build a solid grassroots effort to put pressure on the Governor and Legislature going into the budget process for next year.

Letter to welfare supporters | Sample letter to Governor Spitzer

__________________________________________

Welfare helps poor children and their parents obtain basic necessities such as heat, housing, food and clothing. The Governor and the State Legislature have not raised the welfare grant since 1990, and now the value of welfare benefits has fallen to only half of the federal poverty level. With a new Governor taking office in 2007, we need to renew the state’s commitment to end poverty and hunger.

Who is on welfare?
577,000 New Yorkers are on Temporary Assistance including 333,000 children. Unless a welfare recipient is unable to work because they are elderly, a child, or suffers from a disability, there are strict work requirements that they must comply with or face losing their assistance.

What is the welfare grant?
There are two main components to the welfare grant. The shelter allowance pays for housing costs such as rent and utilities. The basic cash allowance is designated for clothing, toiletries, household cleaners, transportation and other necessities as well as food that is not covered by food stamps.

The basic grant has remained the same for sixteen years – only $238 a month for a family of three. For more than a decade the courts, including the state’s highest court, have ruled that the shelter allowance is illegally low – but the state continues to appeal. They did finally make a small adjustment in 2004 to the shelter allowance – but it is still illegally low and the lawsuit is continuing.

How much is the welfare grant?
The welfare grant varies by family size. The basic grant is the same everywhere, but the shelter allowance varies by county. The combined welfare grant is only half of the federal poverty level – which by the government’s own definition means that households only have half the income needed to pay for rent, food, utilities and other basic necessities.

Basic Cash Grant

# of People in Household One Two Three Four Five Six Each Add’l
Actual Basic Cash Grant $112 $179 $238 $307 $379 $438 $60
If the grant was adjusted
for inflation in 2006 		$173 $277 $369 $476 $588 $679 $93
Shelter Allowance
(Family with Children in Albany)

$214

$219 $309 $348 $386 $404 $17
Combined
Shelter Allowance + Cash Grant 		$326 $398 $547 $655 $765 $842  

Federal Poverty Level per Month

 $816 $1100 $1383 $1666 $1950 $2233  

Housing costs are much higher than the shelter allowance and the cash grant can manage
Comparing the HUD Fair Market Value for rent throughout New York State to OTDA’s Shelter Allowance Schedule, there was an average $317 disparity between the allowance and the fair market rent. This gap is more than the maximum cash grant for a family of three . Five different times the NYC Courts have ruled that the shelter allowance is illegally low.
Because families are not able to afford adequate housing, they live in unsafe neighborhoods or shelters -- and still struggle to pay their rent.

Welfare Benefits have lost ground to a rise in inflation and the real cost of living
The rate of inflation from 1990 to 2006 is 55% -- and the cost of many items has risen above that. The attached charts show how much the cost of basic necessities such as soap, bus tokens and milk have risen over the last sixteen years.
Additionally, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that it costs $3,536 monthly for a parent and two children to subsist in Albany county, including $679 for housing costs and $405 for food. Welfare’s maximum monthly benefit for a family of three with no income is $577, about one-sixth of the EPI’s standard.

The federal poverty level for a family of three is at $16,600 while the maximum benefit is only $6,924 a year. Considering additional food stamp benefits, welfare still does not lift people above 50% of the poverty level.

The time is now for New York to stop giving insufficient aid to needy families.
Since federal welfare reform was enacted in 1996, with increased work requirements for participants, many other states such as California, Massachusetts, Vermont and Illinois have increased their welfare grants. New York’s low welfare benefits is a major factor why one out of every five children in New York lives in poverty – above the national average and much higher than other industrial countries. Welfare reform provided New York with an annual “surplus” of more than one billion dollars that by law had to be spent on helping to move participants out of poverty. Some of these funds should be used to raise welfare benefits.