FPWA
Fulfilling the Promise of Opportunity
FPWA
Fulfilling the Promise of Opportunity
FPWA’s newest investigative report, “Caught in the Gaps: How the pitfalls of cash assistance programs perpetuate economic insecurity for New Yorkers”, explores various financial gaps in New York State’s cash assistance programs, Family Assistance (FA) and Safety Net Assistance (SNA).
Taking a deep-dive into the programs, our analysis shows that cash assistance covers only a small percentage of the New Yorkers who are experiencing economic deprivation, even as measured by the artificially low Federal Poverty Level (FPL). Approximately 500,000 New Yorkers receive FA and SNA each year, yet more than 2.5 million lived below the FPL in 2020. For the few able to access cash assistance, the report finds that the programs do not even cover the cost of recipients’ basic needs, preventing them from breaking free of the cycle of poverty.
On January 11, 2023, we hosted a virtual event to share and discuss the report’s findings and key policy recommendations. Speakers included Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and State Senator Roxanne Persaud, who have sponsored legislation that would substantially increase the cash assistance grant for all recipients.
Following the release of the report, we will work with a statewide coalition to urge officials to adopt an array of solutions to improve cash assistance. The coalition will call on state legislators to advance a series of bills which would expand eligibility and increase the benefit level for all recipients.
Find out more by reading our press release. You can also download our two-pager with the report’s key findings and recommendations.
One step forward and two steps back is the phenomenon that too many working families across our city, state, and nation experience when they access safety net benefits.
FPWA’s investigative report, “Pushed to the Precipice: How Benefits Cliffs and Financial Gaps Undermine the Safety Net for New Yorkers,” explores the barriers working families face when striving for financial stability. It also provides recommendations to reduce the impact that an abrupt benefit cutoff can have on New York State families.
New York’s social safety net is intended to help low-income families secure necessities like food, housing, healthcare, and childcare. However, these benefits are riddled with financial gaps related to eligibility, coverage, and hardships that bar families from accessing and keeping them before they achieve financial stability.
For example, New York State’s childcare subsidy terminates when wages or income reach 200% FPL, or $43,440 for a family of three. This can trigger a devastating “cliff effect,” when a small increase in income results in a net loss – which forces families to make hard choices: To turn down the increased income or struggle with inadequate benefits and funds to pay for one of their most expensive basic needs.
“People are actually being held back by the very programs that are purportedly designed to help them move forward. The effect is to create a permanent underclass, and we, as a society, must question why this is apparently an acceptable norm,” said Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO and Executive Director of FPWA. “Until we are able to say that all New Yorkers have or can access what they need to be self-sufficient without penalty, we cannot claim that we have a safety net system that is fair, just and equitable.”
Our Pushed to the Precipice report bases analysis of benefits cliffs and financial gaps in data from “The Self Sufficiency Standard for New York,” which we released in March 2021.
The Self Sufficiency Standard provides critical data on the income needed for working-age families in New York to cover their most basic life needs, including childcare but also food, housing, transportation, and much more.
The report outlines what working-age families of various sizes and compositions need to make ends meet without public or private assistance in each county in New York. It is a much needed and anticipated update of ten-year-old data that can be used by New York State and local policymakers and legislators to calculate how much income is needed for genuine economic security. Find out more by reading our press release.
