The National Poverty Center released a working paper discussing low-income families and their interactions with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the Food Stamp program. This working paper combines State-level policy data with rich data on a national sample of low-income families to investigate family and State-level predictors of TANF and Food Stamp receipt. Two key findings are discussed: 1) families experiencing more economic hardship are more likely to receive benefits, and 2) States' coverage is associated with families' receipt of TANF, but not Food Stamps. The paper closes with a discussion on the implications for policy and research.

The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) released a report that provides a gender analysis of national and State poverty and income data for 2012, released by the Census Bureau in September 2013. The National Women's Law Center supplies this analysis because little information broken out by gender is available directly from the Census Bureau's series of reports titled "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States." The report found that poverty rates among women, like poverty rates overall, remained at historically high levels last year. Women's poverty rates were once again substantially above the poverty rates for men. The data also show that income supports such as Food Stamps/SNAP benefits kept millions of Americans out of poverty last year. The wage gap remained unchanged in 2012, with women working full time, year round typically earning 77 cents to every dollar paid to their male counterparts – the same level at which they have remained for a decade.

Brookings Center on Children and Families and Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity held an event on December 5, 2012 to examine the impact of the election on programs affecting the poor like Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as the Earned Tax Credit (EITC). Answers to this and related questions were discussed by a panel of experts.

The United States Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service released a report that estimates the extent to which inflation in food prices has eroded improvement in the food security of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients that followed the increase in benefit size in April 2009 mandated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The Administration for Children and Families' programs are joining the fight for healthy and food secure American Indian and Alaska Native children and families.

The Center for Law and Social Policy released a Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) Policy Brief discussing SNAP work requirements and time limits. Background information is provided on SNAP, along with recommendations to improve program operations.

The Institute for Research on Poverty hosted a podcast titled "Family Change, Father Involvement, and Child Food Insecurity." In this podcast, Daniel Miller of the Boston University School of Social Work discusses his research on measuring child food insecurity in the context of family type, changing family structure, and father involvement. Miller states that there is still a lot not known about food insecurity for kids, but that understanding the connections between family change and food insecurity has a lot of promise in giving a better picture of the problem.

This report displays and discusses some of the data related to the poverty of children and their living arrangements and data on male employment and earnings, educational attainment, and incarceration. It then provides information on federal programs that could play a greater role in addressing poverty of children through the fathers of these children (nearly all noncustodial parents are fathers). These programs provide economic assistance, family support, and job training and employment to eligible participants. The report also examines federal programs that have the purposes of preventing teen pregnancy and helping disadvantaged youth obtain the skills and support they need to make the transition to adulthood. The underlying premise of these programs generally is that the aid or services received from these programs by low-income noncustodial fathers can help them in meeting their financial commitments to their children (or future children) and providing emotional support to their children. The report concludes by presenting several public policy approaches proposed by the policy community that might improve the lives of low-income noncustodial fathers and their children. For example, social policy could play a role by expanding economic assistance programs to noncustodial fathers, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); and implementing strategies to prevent the build-up of unpaid child support through early intervention. (author abstract)

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released a SNAP chartbook. This chartbook highlights some of the key characteristics of the almost 47 million people using the program, as well as the data on program administration and use. It is divided into eight topic specific parts, and is intended to complement a more detailed analysis that the CBPP has released on particular aspects of SNAP.

The Urban Institute recently published an article discussing the Work Support Strategies Initiative. Work Support Strategies (WSS) is a multiyear, multi-State initiative to implement reforms that help eligible low-income families get and keep a full package of work support benefits, including Medicaid, nutrition assistance (SNAP), and child care assistance. This report summarizes the lessons learned from the nine planning grant States (Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina), just one year into a four-year project. The report includes what the States did, how they overcame challenges, and how the planning year changed their strategies and capacities for the future.