Study: Food stamp program held down poverty rate

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, "substantially reduced the poverty rate during the last recession," according to a new Department of Agriculture study. SNAP reduced the rate by 8 percent in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available, "a significant impact for a social program whose effects often go unnoticed by policy makers," writes Sabrina Tavernise of The New York Times. The study found that SNAP lifted the average poor person's income about 6 percent closer to the poverty line. It lifted children about 11 percent closer. Both results mean poverty is less severe, Tavernise reports.

The program is one of the largest anti-poverty measures in the U.S., serving more than 46 million people, many of them either elderly or living in rural areas. The extra income SNAP creates isn't counted in government poverty measures, "an omission that makes it difficult for officials to see the effects of the policy and get an accurate figure for the number of people beneath the poverty threshold," Tavernise reports. Enrollment in the program grew by 45 percent during and directly after the recession, from January 2009 to January of this year, according to USDA figures.

Poverty researchers have long known the true effects of the program, and Center for Budget and Policy Priorities researcher Stacy Dean said the release of the report during an election year is its most interesting aspect. She told Tavernise that social programs are sustaining heavy scrutiny by Republicans right now, who think they create an "entitlement society." Florida Republican Allen West said in an email to supporters that SNAP isn't "something we should be proud to promote." (Read more)