Rank Mark R, Hirschl Thomas A
George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, 1 Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1196, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Soc Work. 2002 Jul;47(3):237-48. doi: 10.1093/sw/47.3.237.
What proportion of the American population uses a social safety net program during the course of adulthood? To address this question, we constructed a series of life tables using 30 years of longitudinal data. Our results indicate that two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 20 and 65 will at some point reside in a household that receives benefits from a means-tested welfare program (food stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or other cash welfare). Such assistance is often in the form of in-kind programs, such as food stamps or Medicaid. The findings also indicate that the use of welfare tends to take place over fairly short intervals of time. For example, although 65 percent of Americans will use welfare by age 65, only 15.9 percent will do so for five or more consecutive years. However, once the use of welfare occurs, it is quite likely to occur again at some point during adulthood. Our results suggest that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the use of the United States social safety net is a mainstream experience.
在成年期间，美国人口中有多大比例使用社会安全网计划？为了回答这个问题，我们利用30年的纵向数据构建了一系列生命表。我们的结果表明，年龄在20岁至65岁之间的美国人中有三分之二在某个时候会居住在一个接受经过经济状况调查的福利计划（食品券、医疗补助、补充保障收入、对有受抚养子女家庭的援助或其他现金福利）的家庭中。这种援助通常以实物形式提供，例如食品券或医疗补助。研究结果还表明，福利的使用往往集中在相当短的时间段内。例如，虽然到65岁时65%的美国人会使用福利，但只有15.9%的人会连续五年或更长时间使用福利。然而，一旦开始使用福利，在成年后的某个时候很可能会再次使用。我们的结果表明，与传统观念相反，美国社会安全网的使用是一种主流经历。
