Chairman Guthrie, Ranking Member Davis, and members of the committee: Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on how to best encourage work and increase earnings for beneficiaries of our nation’s safety net programs.
My testimony today is informed by more than 18 years of working in state and local social services agencies in New York state and New York City. It is also informed by the evidence base associated with our safety net programs, the populations that participate in them, and the current condition of our labor market. My remarks reflect three key points:
(1) Our country’s social safety net reduces poverty, but it is most effective when families combine earnings with support
(2) Too many families receiving government benefits are not working at all, and
(3) An expectation of work across safety net programs needs more emphasis, which includes but is not limited to, implementing work requirements in our safety net programs.
As I mentioned, much of my career has been spent working to provide benefits directly to low-income residents. The most important lesson I learned is that our system is designed to help people escape poverty by combining income from earnings with assistance from government. When earnings are leveraged with public benefits, even a low-wage job offers a path out of poverty for families in which the adults are not disabled. A single parent with two children who works full-time for $8 per hour can receive $25,000 per year in government benefits when you consider SNAP, tax credits, child support and Medicaid, bringing their total income above the poverty line.
Work is important from an income perspective, but it also contributes to a sense of self-worth and confidence, as well as having the effect of strengthening social and communal ties. But for too many, work is absent and no earnings exist.
For these reasons, I believe that our public policies need to prioritize families who are receiving aid but not working. I am not referring to the elderly or the disabled. I am referring to working-age people receiving benefits who are not working but likely could be. And contrary to what some believe, the problem of limited or no work among recipients is real and large and needs to be addressed.
