In-Kind Assistance Programs in the United States

Forms of Welfare in the United States: In-Kind Assistance Programs

Introduction to In-Kind Assistance Programs

Most people on welfare receive more than just cash assistance. For example, many low-income families receive some form of food or nutritional assistance from the government. Cash welfare recipients often participate in programs that provide health services, particularly for their children. More than one-fourth of cash welfare recipients have received housing assistance or live in public housing, and an increasing proportion now participate in programs designed to help them find work.

Medicaid provides medical assistance for people who live in low-income families with dependent children and for individuals with low incomes who are elderly or disabled. Between 1986 and 1991, Congress extended Medicaid coverage to support pregnant women and some children who have no other ties to the welfare system. In 2001 Medicaid covered approximately 34 million people, or about 12 percent of the total U.S. population. Nearly 50 percent of Medicaid enrollees were children. The cost of the program has grown faster than the rate of inflation and was estimated to be $228 billion in 2001. Slightly more than half of that was paid for by the federal government, with the rest covered by state funds.

In 1965 U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson declared a War on Poverty in his domestic reform program called the Great Society. As part of this program, Congress established Medicare, a social insurance counterpart to Medicaid. Medicare provides medical pensions for all retired U.S. citizens and a small segment of the disabled. The program cost $242 billion in 2001 and covered about 40 million people.

The Food Stamp program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and financed through the Social Security Administration, provides families with vouchers or electronic benefit cards to purchase food. This benefit is available to both low-income families with dependent children and households without children. The food stamps supplement what participants would normally spend on food, thereby enabling them to obtain an adequate diet. In a typical month in 2001, more than 17 million households participated in the Food Stamp program. Millions of low-income children also receive nutritional help through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program, which provide low-cost or free meals to eligible children each school day.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development offers a number of programs that provide housing assistance to low-income families. Unlike some other welfare programs, there is no entitlement to this kind of assistance. An entitlement is support that the government must provide if a person qualifies as eligible according to income, assets, and categorical eligibility standards. People who meet eligibility requirements must formally apply for housing assistance, but have no guarantee they will receive it. The government provides eligible applicants with various housing options. They may be provided with apartments in housing projects specifically built for low-income families or adults. Alternately, they may receive subsidized rent in apartments or housing complexes where some of the units are reserved for the poor, or they may receive vouchers that they can use to offset housing costs.

The federal government sponsors a number of other programs for various poor and disadvantaged groups. These include the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which provides supplemental food and nutrition information primarily to pregnant women and infants who are at risk of nutritional deficiency; various job-training and job-seeking assistance programs; the Head Start early education program for disadvantaged children; the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP); supports for former war veterans; and many others.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about In-Kind Assistance Programs in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to In-Kind Assistance Programs

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