Aging Low-Income Women Raising Minor Children: Employment, Family Structure, and Receipt of Food Stamps and Other Public Assistance

by Demetra Smith Nightingale, Sarah Hutcheon, and Jonathan Pollak

This report describes the individual and household characteristics of low-income middle-aged and older women with childrearing responsibilities and documents the extent to which they receive food stamps and other public assistance benefits. The analysis is based on 1,756 low-income women in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio who were primary caretakers of minor children when first surveyed in 1999, and who were subsequently interviewed again in 2001 and 2005. We find that older and younger low-income women in this sample were similar in most respects but that women in the older age group were more likely than the younger women to be grandmothers caring for grandchildren and reported more health and disability issues. The analysis also indicates that food stamps were the most common public benefit received but was received more by women in the younger cohort, suggesting that greater outreach may be worth considering for older caregiver women.

This study was conducted by John Hopkins University under a cooperative research agreement with USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program (FANRP): agreement number 43-3AEM-4-80116 (ERS project representative: Constance Newman). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA.

Keywords: Food stamps, United States, statistics, public welfare, poor women, elderly pooor, low income households, women, elderly, supplemental nutrition assistance program, employment, food and nutrition programs, Economic Research Service, Massachusetts, Illinois, Texas

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