One in five children in the U.S. lives in poverty. The Children’s Defense Fund contracted with the Urban Institute to estimate how much child poverty could be reduced by a comprehensive set of policies—increasing the minimum wage, providing transitional jobs, expanding subsidized housing and child care, increasing food assistance, increasing federal income tax credits, and changing how child support is counted in determining benefits. Urban Institute staff analyzed the policies using the TRIM3 microsimulation model. We estimate that the full package of policies would reduce the number of poor children by 60 percent--from 10.9 million to 4.3 million.
Urban is a leader in providing evidence and solutions on the issues that affect the well-being of people and communities. Explore our insights.