Roughly 1 in 10 children in parts of Detroit and Flint will lose welfare benefits Saturday, when cash benefits for families who’ve been on welfare 48 months or longer are cut off. Sept. 30, 2011 — The Detroit News
The Department of Human Services announced they’ll be implementing an asset review for those on food assistance that considers more than an applicant’s income.
The Michigan League for Human Services thinks this will only hurt the economy more. DHS officials say this new policy is needed. Sept. 19, 2011 — WLNS.com
A coalition of policy groups today called for Gov. Rick Snyder to reverse a new $5,000 limit on assets for the Food Assistance Program. The asset test is set to take effect Saturday.
The groups sent a letter, signed by 115 organizations – including emergency food providers, statewide policy groups and others – protesting the asset test that puts seniors, kids, families and state tax dollars at risk. The $5,000 includes cash, some savings, and the total value of vehicles with the first $15,000 exempted.
“We all agree that poverty is a bad thing. We all agree that hunger is a bad thing. We all agree that we need to be good stewards of our precious dollars,’’ said Gilda Z. Jacobs, president & CEO of the Michigan League for Human Services. “On Saturday, the Snyder administration will implement a policy that runs counter to all of that.”
The groups pointed out that because food assistance is federally funded, no state tax dollars will be saved. In the past high error rates have cost the state $65 million in penalties. Studies show that most errors are caused by overburdened caseworkers.
The new test is also bucking the trend where most other states eliminated asset tests in order to help the newly unemployed and others get through tough economic times. In fact 29 other states have no asset tests and 48 states and the District of Columbia exempt at least one vehicle from asset tests.
The new policy also comes as census data show that one in every four children in Michigan – 23.5 percent – is living in poverty. That’s an income of about $17,000 or less a year for a family of three.
“With the number of children living in poverty in Michigan rising every day, putting more roadblocks in the way of families that need help now makes absolutely no sense,’’ said Jack Kresnak, president and CEO of Michigan’s Children. “Practically no state revenues are spent on food stamps and this new eligibility requirement only exacerbates an already difficult situation for Michigan’s impoverished children who don’t have access to nutritious food.”
Last month, food assistance helped 810,000 children in Michigan, including 278,000 children ages 0-5.
The program is also important for seniors living on fixed incomes. Between 2001 and 2009, the percentage and number of people age 50 and above struggling with hunger increased by nearly 80 percent, nationally.
In Michigan, nearly one third of all people 50 years of age and older – 301,500 residents – have already turned to the state Food Assistance Program for help.
“We know that is a low-ball figure compared to the number of older adults who could benefit by such assistance, but who don’t even yet know about it,’’ said Andy Farmer, associate state director of the AARP Michigan. “So this is no time for our state leaders to be placing additional barriers to ending hunger among Michigan’s elderly. They can’t take it, they shouldn’t be made to and driving more of our older citizens toward starvation is no way to assure stable communities, attract business or create jobs.”
The new asset test will also discourage families from saving.
“Safety net policies like the Food Assistance Program should help families overcome temporary difficult economic times — asset tests do the opposite,” said Ross H. Yednock, director of the Asset Building Policy Project at the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan.
“Instead of creating opportunities to save and achieve lasting financial security, asset limit tests force families to forfeit their long-term savings and economic self-sufficiency in order to receive short-term, yet vital, assistance. It is public policy that is as short-sighted as it is economically unsound.”
Peggy Vaughn-Payne, of the NorthWest Initiative in Lansing, a neighborhood organization, said it will be hard for groups serving families and communities to make up the difference.
“Even under the current rules, the families we serve and the children who rely on food assistance programs still struggle to receive healthy meals and nourishment,” Vaughn-Payne said. “These changes in asset limits will put more of our families on the brink of food insecurity and make it harder for organizations like ours to meet the growing need in our community.”
Grim news out recently from Kids Count finds that of the 50 largest U.S. cities, Detroit has the largest share of children living in poverty or in low-income families. Four out of every five children in Detroit live in households earning less than 200 percent of the poverty level. That’s the amount most studies show is needed to cover basic needs.
Other recent census data do show some good news for children in the state.
Young children in Michigan are more likely to have health insurance than those in 47 other states. Michigan ties with New Hampshire and Maine in having only 4 percent of children under the age of 6 not covered, according to the latest data released by the Census Bureau. Massachusetts and Hawaii with only 3 percent of young children lacking health insurance have the best ranking. This information and lots of other new data from the Census Bureau are constantly being updated on the Kids Count Data Center.
In 2009 almost 1 million children in Michigan were covered by a public health insurance program such as Medicaid or MIChild. This coverage has allowed children to get necessary preventive care during this time of high and extensive unemployment among parents and substantial cutbacks in health insurance benefits among the employed. Roughly two of every five children in the state depends on these public health insurance programs—mostly Medicaid.
More good news is the emphasis in the governor’s health agenda on expanding Healthy Kids Dental program as a priority item in the next budget. This program increases access to dental care for children eligible for Medicaid. Over half of Michigan’s third graders have dental decay, and those without private insurance were at double the risk of untreated dental decay—one of every three compared with one of every six for those with private insurance. The regional disparity was particularly striking in those southeastern counties currently without access to Healthy Kids Dental.
While expansion of the Medicaid and MIChild programs has been critical in ensuring children are covered for health care, without adequate funding to ensure access to providers, the program is only a paper promise. Kudos to the governor for protecting and expanding access to oral health care for children.
– Jane Zehnder-Merrell
Comments (2)
Did one man’s luck turn into a financial catastrophe for Michigan’s poor? Sept. 27, 2011 — Bridge
A lot of people are worried about what’s been going on in the stock market. I guess I should be, too. To the extent I have any retirement savings, they are tied up in stock-heavy mutual funds. Sept. 23, 2011 — Michigan Radio
More Michigan residents are living in poverty as the state works to free itself from the lingering effects of the nation’s recession, according to new census data released Thursday. Sept. 23, 2011 — Lansing State Journal
I have spent the last few days immersed in the reality that many of our Michigan families are going to be hurt by the pending cash assistance cutoffs. It feels like they are being walked down a plank blind-folded.
While in the Metro Detroit area, I attended a meeting with human service agencies that are being slammed with this onslaught of changes that Michigan’s governor and policymakers are implementing with flagrant disregard for the harm this will cause our children. There seems to be a disconnect with what’s on paper and the actuality families are facing.
There are several Detroit communities making significant strides in improving the circumstances of the families that live there by transforming them into safe and supportive neighborhoods for children. As the families losing cash assistance are forced to uproot their families, this leads to transient solutions that affect the education and health of the children and is a setback to the efforts these communities are working so hard to attain.
One mother of two will have to downgrade to a 1-bedroom apartment in a dilapidated building and is scared of what is coming next. She has been forced to occupy an apartment that is unsafe and is afraid that her children will be taken by protective services.
Another mother with one child that I met at a Department of Human Services Resource Fair held in Jackson has complied with all requirements and is now so depressed that she can hardly speak without choking up. They are both days away from losing their cash assistance and trying to find a way not to give up.
A DHS official was asked what will happen to these families and he answered Michigan people are resourceful or they will leave the state. I wonder if that is the ultimate goal? What I do know is that this is not the way we want to treat our most vulnerable.
I recently visited the MLK Memorial and read the quote, “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I think it is becoming longer.
– Renell Weathers
One in four kids in poverty in Michigan, census shows
New data points to need for a balanced approach
Nearly 2 million people in Michigan lived in poverty in 2010, with the poverty rate jumping 20 percent since the country slid into the Great Recession, new census data released today shows.
Overall, 16.8 percent in Michigan lived in poverty last year, up from 14 percent in 2007 before the latest recession. African Americans in Michigan experienced double the poverty rate with 33.9 percent living in poverty last year.
Child poverty also grew to 23.5 percent in 2010, up from 22.5 percent the previous year and 19.4 percent in 2007. In Detroit, more than half of the children – 53.6 percent – lived in poverty last year.
“With one of every four kids in our state and half of the kids in our largest city growing up in poverty, we need to redouble our efforts to address revenue shortfalls to protect children and families in Michigan,” said Gilda Z. Jacobs, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Human Services. “We’ve been slashing the very services that keep these children and families from falling through the cracks.’’
Poverty is defined as income of about $17,000 or less for a family of three and $22,000 or less for a family of four.
Unfortunately the state budget that begins on Oct. 1 relies on steep cuts to vital programs that can offset the lifelong consequences for children in impoverished families while offering $1.6 billion in tax cuts for businesses.
Among safety net cuts are the ending of cash assistance on Oct. 1 to 11,000 families, including nearly 30,000 children; reduction of the Earned Income Tax Credit to working poor families; elimination of the back-to-school clothing allowance for most of the state’s poorest children and new limits on food assistance that will harm the newly unemployed. In addition, deep cuts to education are included in the new budget. Only health care was spared.
“We can’t solve our problems in Michigan by continuing to rely on cuts alone and keeping our fingers crossed that businesses will create new jobs in a slow economy,’’ said Karen Holcomb-Merrill, policy director at the League. “We need to take a balanced approach that includes new revenues so we can invest in our future and, more importantly, our children’s future.’’
The number of people living in poverty also underscores the critical role of federal assistance, including unemployment insurance, expanded food stamps, and tax credits for middle- and low-income households.
“As bad as poverty is today, Census figures from last week show that those programs kept many in Michigan and millions more Americans from falling below the poverty line in 2010,’’ Jacobs said.
To avoid worsening poverty and undermining the economy’s future, Congress must also take a balanced approach to deficit reduction that relies on both responsible cuts and ways to increase revenue. Reductions in Medicaid and other critical supports for struggling families would take away help as they continue to weather this difficult economy.
The Michigan League for Human Services is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide policy and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that Michigan’s low-income residents achieve economic security.
Just as the nation was declaring the recession officially over last year, the landscape in Michigan was far from rosy: The poverty rate in 2010 was its highest in at least four decades, and incomes continued to fall as the economic shift away from manufacturing continued, new census data released this morning shows. Sept. 22, 2011 — The Detroit News
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