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Show Benefit levels under the Supplemental Security Income program, serving between 4 and 4.5 million elderly and disabled poor, are somewhat higher and more uniform. SSI benefits averaged $336 per person in 1986, compared with the average AFDC payment of $118 per person that year. In FY 1987, the federal government, which primarily funds the program, appropriated $10. 9 billion for SSL Unemployment Insurance-a federal/state program that provides short-term assistance-serves only a small percentage of unemployed workers (35 percent in December 1986). Because benefits typically last only 26 weeks, many of the unemployed no longer receive them. Other workers do not even qualify for UI due to short or spotty employment histories. assistance. UI is not means-tested; benefits are available to unemployed workers based on their previous salary and duration of employment. A FDC is designed exclusively to provide financial assistance to poor families with children. In 1986, the federal government spent $8.2 billion on the program, about one-half of the total cost. State and local governments picked up the rest of the tab. Although AFDC now serves 10.8 million people, (7. 2 million of them children), the program inadequately covers poor families' needs. Because the federal government does not require indexing AFDC for inflation, the value of benefits in most states has eroded 30 percent since the 1970s. States also have the discretion to set benefit levels based on their own ''needs standards.'' As a result, benefits vary from state to state, from a low for a family of three of $118 per month in Alabama to $617 per month in California. Moreover, half of the states do not participate in the AFDC-UP (unemployed parents) program; destitute two-parent families are ineligible for benefits in these states. Proposals for Reform For the last 25 years, the AFDC program has been under attack from all sides of the political spectrum. Welfare system critics have long argued that long-term assistance makes recipients dependent and unable to move ahead continued on page 4 2 |
