Reducing Poverty Requires Increased Child Care Assistance: NWLC Child Care Data sets a Benchmark

Yesterday the Half in Ten campaign released its report Restoring Shared Prosperity. The report, using data from 2010, sets policy benchmarks by which the campaign will track the progress, in every state, of reaching Half in Ten’s goal of cutting poverty in half over the next ten years.

Cutting poverty in half is an important goal for women and their families. If the level of poverty in 2010 were cut in half today:

• More than 23 million fewer people would be in poverty – 8.6 million of whom would be women.
• One in nine, rather than more than one in five children, would be poor.
• Poverty rates for black and Hispanic single mother families would drop to one in four from one in two.

One of the policy areas the report discusses as a means to reduce poverty and increase family economic security is affordable child care. Helping families pay for reliable child care enables parents to work and children to be in an environment that supports their growth and learning—and as a result supports families’ financial security and the country’s prosperity now and in the future. Yet, far too many families struggling to make ends meet are denied this assistance—as illustrated by the indicator adopted by Half in Ten (using data collected and analyzed by NWLC), income eligibility limits for child care assistance. Most states set their income limits far below the level allowed under federal law, 85 percent of state median income. In 35 states, families with incomes above 200 percent of poverty cannot qualify for child care assistance, even though this income level is barely enough to afford basic necessities.

Unfortunately, states are not making progress on this indicator. In a few cases, states have lost ground since 2010, the benchmark year used in the Half in Ten report. NWLC’s recently released report, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2011: Reduced Support for Families in Challenging Times shows that between 2010 and 2011, four states lowered their income limits as a dollar amount while only one state increased its income limits to sufficiently surpass inflation; the rest merely kept pace with inflation or kept their income limits the same as a dollar amount.

Income limits are not the only area in which families needing child care assistance are experiencing setbacks. In 37 states, families were worse off under one or more key child care assistance policies in February 2011 than they were in February 2010—due to lower income limits, new or longer waiting lists for child care assistance, higher parent copayments, and/or lower reimbursement rates for child care providers. Families were better off in only 11 states.

Poverty must be reduced to help women and families and Half in Ten’s report suggests useful ways to tackle this epidemic. Federal and state investments in child care as well as in developing job opportunities, affordable housing, nutrition assistance, and other supports will be essential to meet the goal of cutting poverty in half in ten years.