A Frayed and Fragmented System of Supports for Low-Income Adults Without Minor Children

CBPP reports that over 100 million people — about a third of the country’s population — are non-elderly adults who don’t have minor children in the family and don’t have severe disabilities. More than 1 in 8 of these adults are in poverty. “These adults need stronger supports to help meet essential needs, a problem that the hardships inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic have magnified.” Our system of economic and health supports — such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and refundable tax credits — is geared largely toward helping children and their parents, people with disabilities, and the elderly. The nation’s basic supports for low-income, non-elderly adults without children, particularly for those who do not meet a rigorous disability standard, are weak, fragmented, and often highly restrictive, leaving many of these individuals without help they need to afford the basics. These adults need stronger supports to help meet essential needs, a problem that the hardships inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic have magnified. Due to systemic racism and other factors that have resulted in fewer educational and employment opportunities, non-elderly adults who identify as Black or Latino are more likely to have low incomes. #workforce #racialequity #covid-19