Public Programs and the Wellbeing of Families with Children
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (PST)
- Chair: Lara Shore-Sheppard, Williams College
The Role of Continuing Disability Reviews in Child SSI Participation Patterns
Abstract
The number of child Supplemental Security Income recipients has varied substantially during the 21st century – increasing by 44 percent from 2002 to 2013 followed by a subsequent decline of 25 percent. These periods of program growth and decline coincided with a period of reductions and increases in the frequency of continuing disability reviews (CDRs) for recipients to determine whether children continue to meet the disability criteria required to qualify for SSI. Our research aimed to summarize longitudinal patterns of which child SSI recipients had benefits ceased from CDRs over time as well as quantify the extent to which CDR cessation patterns contributed to caseload dynamics over time. Our analyses indicate that CDR cessations can typically explain three-fifths to two-thirds of the overall changes in the number of children receiving SSI, both during the periods of program growth (2002 to 2013) and subsequent caseload decline (2013 to 2021). Despite variation in the frequency with which children faced cessation from CDRs, the characteristics of these children were mostly stable. Interestingly, though youth from areas with high socioeconomic deprivation make up a large share of child SSI recipients, they were disproportionately more likely to have benefits ceased following a CDR.What is the Value of the Child and Dependent Care Credit?
Abstract
The Child and Dependent Car Credit (CDCC) subsidizes child care costs for working families. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 increased the CDCC’s generosity during 2021 only. I find that while the CDCC is of relatively little value in its current form, increases in eligibility rates and conditional benefits under the pandemic expansion increased the credit’s value dramatically. Conditional on CDCC eligibility, higher-income households experienced the largest increases in benefit levels under the expanded CDCC, but lower-income households benefited disproportionately when measuring benefits as a share of income or child care spending.Social Security and Childhood Economic Resources in Grandparent Households
Abstract
Though Social Security is typically considered a program to support retirees, nearly one in ten children live in a home with Social Security income. Children are substantially more likely to live with an older adult than they were two decades ago, and they are twice as likely to report Social Security income in their household as traditional cash welfare. We use the sharp increase in eligibility for Social Security benefits at age 62 to investigate the role played by the Social Security program in multi- and skip-generation households in which children live with an older adult between ages 57 and 67. Relative to a linear trend in age, an analysis of the American Community Survey suggests these grandparent households experience a jump in Social Security participation of 24 percentage points at age 62. We do not find that Social Security eligibility increases household income on average, but it is associated with a shift towards Social Security income and reductions in deep poverty. There is also increased availability of household members’ time for home production, driven by a reduction in labor supply of older adults.Discussant(s)
Sheridan Fuller
,
Federal Reserve Board
Tara Watson
,
Brookings Institution
Kristin Butcher
,
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Wellesley College
JEL Classifications
- H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
- J1 - Demographic Economics