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A new report is upending the notion that only the country’s poorest are tapping into welfare funding and other government assistance programs. According to findings by the Congressional Budget Office, the middle class is depending more on entitlement benefits, too.
Stories of middle-class families struggling to make ends meet have become increasingly common over the past few years. In fact, in a recent study, 40% of Americans reported difficulty in paying for basic necessities like food, healthcare and housing. So it should come as no surprise that the middle class is turning to financial aid to keep up with the rising cost of living.
Source: Congressional Budget Office
The bottom 20% of earners still rely on social safety net programs—such as Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Supplemental Security Income—more than any other income group. But since 1979 the percentage of entitlement benefits going to middle class households has more than doubled.
Today, nearly 47% of benefits go to the middle 60% of wage earners—to households that earned between $43,511 and $112,262 in 2015, according to the Tax Policy Center . Of that group, lower-middle-class households needed the largest portion of those funds (26.4%). But the percentage of disbursements received by the middle- and upper-middle classes within that group also doubled over that period, with Medicaid spending being the greatest driver of this growth. In fact, more than half of all Medicaid disbursements went to households above the lowest group of wage earners.
It’s a stark contrast to 1979, when the majority of Welfare funding went to only the bottom 20% percent of the population—which at the time were those earning less than $7,000 per year. But over the past four decades, wage stagnation, the rising cost of healthcare and an increased cost of living have made the middle class just as dependent on government entitlement programs.
This article, " The Number of Middle Class Families on Welfare Programs Has Doubled ," originally appeared on ValuePenguin .
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
