Children and Youth Receiving Public Assistance

Related Indicators:

• Children Receiving Public Assistance 0-17 yrs [view data]

Life Area:

Economic Security

Definition:

Public assistance programs provide cash aid to meet the basic support needs of individuals and families. To be eligible for public assistance, a family's countable income and resources must fall below certain limits. Families receive the difference between countable income and a standard of need based on their family size and the housing costs for their district. Districts include New York City and each of the Rest of State counties.

The indicator shows the number and percent of children who received public assistance in New York State at the end of the respective year. Children were counted as receiving public assistance at the end of the year if they received aid under the State’s Family Assistance (FA) program or the State’s Safety Net (SN) program. A federally-subsidized program, FA is the state's primary public assistance program for families with children. SN, a state funded general assistance program, provides public assistance for single adults, childless couples, and a relatively small number of families with children who are not eligible for aid under FA.

Significance:

The number and percent of children receiving public assistance is primarily a measure of the extent to which New York State children are dependent on government aid to meet their basic economic needs.

Note:

Prior to and including 1997, children were counted as receiving public assistance if they received aid under either the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program or the Home Relief (HR) program, programs that predated the FA and SN programs discussed above.

Findings:

• The rate of public assistance receipt among children varied greatly across the State. In 2009, the percent of children receiving public assistance was almost 2.4 times higher in New York City (9.9%) than in Rest of State (4.2%).
• Among Rest of State counties, the rate of public assistance receipt ranged widely, from a high of 9.8 percent in Monroe to a low of 0.3 percent in Putnam. The counties with relatively large urban and suburban populations, such as Monroe, Erie, Broome, Onondaga, and Albany, had relatively high rates of public assistance use. Highly suburban counties, such as Putnam, Nassau, and Suffolk had relatively low rates of public assistance use. Use of public assistance in highly rural counties in Rest of State was widely varied.
• The number and percent of children receiving public assistance declined considerably from 2000-2009. By the close of 2009, 6.6 percent of all children received public assistance, a decline of about one-third in the rate of public assistance receipt from 2000.
• The rate of decline was higher in New York City than in the Rest of State.