State Cash Safety Net for Poor Single People Weaker Despite Recession

A new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit think tank that examines the impact of federal and state budget policy on low- and moderate income families, suggests that state cash assistance safety net programs, typically called General Assistance (State-Administered General Assistance or SAGA in Connecticut) continue to be scaled back, with (1) fewer states offering them and (2) fewer individuals qualifying because of eligibility rules. Thirty states were offering this assistance when the study was done.

Most states, including Connecticut, eliminated GA for the non-disabled during the last 20 years (Connecticut did so in 1997). But between 1998 and 2010, five additional states either terminated their programs or cut them back. And in 2011, two states eliminated their programs, one restricted eligibility, another reduced benefit levels for all recipients, and a third did both. In most states the benefit level was a small fraction of the federal poverty level.

The study includes detailed information about all 30 states’ GA programs.