The Consolidated Assistance Program, Reforming Welfare by Synchronizing Public Assistance Benefits

Oren M. Levin-Waldman

Economics Public Policy Brief Archive from Levy Economics Institute

Abstract: Levin-Waldman examines the structure of existing welfare programs and concludes that the current array of benefits could be synchronized and consolidated to create a new system that would provide economic incentives to work. He suggests combining elements of the earned income tax credit (EITC) and current welfare programs into one program, a consolidated assistance program (CAP). Levin-Waldman argues that a program composed of an assistance component (with one set of benefits for working parents and a different set for nonworking parents) and a child support component could be designed to assure minimal subsistence to those unable to work while providing incentives for those on welfare to work without, in effect, penalizing them for getting off welfare. Such a program would reform welfare more expeditiously than a plan that would simply expand the EITC or put a time limit on welfare benefits. Moreover, such a plan would not necessarily add to the national budget deficit.

References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/ppb21.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/ppb21.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://levyweb.bard.edu/pubs/ppb21.pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lev:levppb:ppb_21

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Public Policy Brief Archive from Levy Economics Institute
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Elizabeth Dunn ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).