An Overview of Welfare Program Participation

With few exceptions, the demand for welfare assistance increased sharply in the 1990s. Nonetheless, one-third of the poor received no benefits in 2000. Several reasons explain why more than 33 percent of those living below the poverty line did not receive the assistance available to them. Some were ineligible because they had such assets as a car or a savings account that brought them above permitted limits. Others did not know they were eligible for benefits, while some knew they were eligible but chose not to accept benefits or thought the effort was not worth the amount of benefits they would receive.

How Many People Receive Benefits?

The U.S. Bureau of the Census reported that in 2001 about 70.3 million people, or 25 percent of the total U.S. population, lived in households that received some form of means-tested assistance—assistance based...