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Need SNAP benefits? You may have to wait.

Nov 20, 2023
In more than a dozen states, less than 80% of SNAP applications are being processed on time. Before the pandemic, the numbers were much better.
The most recent data show that applications for SNAP benefits are being processed late in a dozen states, including New York and Georgia.
Scott Heins/Getty Images

Why it's getting more expensive to hire workers in China

Aug 9, 2023
China’s government is making employers pay more into its social welfare system, just as the economy is stalling.
STR/AFP via Getty Images

"Bootstrapped": The self-made myth and the “dystopian social safety net” it created

Apr 3, 2023
Journalist Alissa Quart says America’s myths about self-reliance have overshadowed the roles that communities play in financial success.
Warming centers, like this one set up in a Boston train station in February, are part of the "dystopian social safety net," author Alissa Quart says.
Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

State abortion bans will push people "deeper into poverty," professor says

And for teens, says Lina-Maria Murillo, "you're essentially cutting them off from making major decisions about the future."
"In a country that has fought vehemently against universal health care, our maternal mortality rates are some of the worst in the industrialized world. Forcing birth is only going to make that worse," says Lina-Maria Murillo of the University of Iowa.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Being single in the U.S. comes at a cost

Dec 22, 2021
Author Anne Helen Petersen compares being single in the United States to living in a hostile climate like the Arctic.
"Nearly 40% of the population is either single or a single parent, and the ways in which people are falling through these social safety nets” demonstrates the need for change, said author Anne Helen Petersen.
Leon Neal via Getty Images

With pandemic safety net policies expiring, renters brace for eviction

Jul 30, 2021
The federal eviction moratorium is set to expire at the end of July. Houstonians won’t have a state or local moratorium in place to pause evictions.
Houston-area renters line up for rent relief assistance at La Iglesia del Pueblo on July 5.
Jen Rice

As the new year approaches, government relief programs are set to expire

Nov 25, 2020
And there's no additional stimulus relief aid is in sight.
A "Cancel Rent" banner hanging in New York. Key programs that helped keep people financially afloat in the pandemic, as well as the CDC's eviction ban, will end.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

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IMF encourages countries affected by COVID to keep spending on safety net

Oct 13, 2020
For the world's poorest, the pandemic has exacerbated their situation.
A woman walks past a promotional poster for the virtual 2020 International Monetary Fund annual meetings, outside their  headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 13, 2020.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Must workers choose between benefits and flexibility?

Aug 11, 2020
The debate over gig worker classification has called labor law into question.
A ride-share driver in Los Angeles calls for enforcing California Assembly Bill 5, which requires some companies to reclassify independent contractors as employees.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

What it's like to navigate the first year of motherhood without a stable home

Apr 28, 2020
Data can tell us who is on welfare, but not what it's like to to live in the system.
A woman feeds a baby at a Thanksgiving meal hosted by the Bay Area Rescue Mission in Richmond, California, in 2015.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images