Living on welfare in one state: Minnesota.(welfare income versus basic family expenses)(Brief Article)

Anyone who has not been poor or on the edge of poverty probably finds it difficult, even impossible, to imagine trying to raise a family on $9,216 a year, or $768 a month, in cash and food stamps, but that is what an AFDC recipient with two children receives in Minnesota. Minnesota provides more generous AFDC benefits than most states, but by the state's own calculations, it falls far short of meeting recipients' basic needs. Based on a study by the state's human services department, a single-parent family of three in 1994 needed at least $12,552 a year, or $1,046 a month, to obtain food, housing and other basic necessities.

Food. The family needed an estimated $288 a month for food, assuming it followed the cheapest of four meal plans developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That amounts to roughly $9.50 a day for three people--or about $1.00 per person per meal. Yet, even this bare-bones estimate was $52 more than the family's monthly food stamp allotment of $286.

Housing and utilities. The family needed $474--almost 90% of its cash benefit--for rent, unless it was fortunate enough to receive some type of housing assistance. (Only 30% of all AFDC families in Minnesota either live in public housing or receive some form of subsidy; these families are required to pay 30% of their income in rent. For a family of three, that amounted to $160 a month in 1994, assuming it had no income other than its AFDC benefit.) In addition, the family needed to spend $64 a month on utilities, bringing its total monthly housing costs to $538.

Clothing. To purchase necessary clothing and footwear, including heavy coats and boots, the family needed to spend $63 a month, or $758 a year. In estimating the family's needs, the state assumed that the costs could be spread ver a 2-3-year period. A nine-year-old girl, for example, was estimated to need $139 worth f clothing a year; included in the calculation were, among other things, half a pair of gloves, half a hat, a third of a bathrobe, half a winter jacket and half a ...