Food Stamp Spending During Recession: A Case Study

From my understanding, according to Moffit, unemployment insurance and food stamps spending were expected to increase during recession because of the rise of unemployment during difficult times in the economy. More people will terminated for their jobs and will have to find ways to pay their bills and food, so it is logical that unemployment insurance’s and food stamps spendings increase during periods where the economy is weak.

On the other hand, social security retirement spendings were not expected to increase as much as they did during the recession. Many elder individuals were force into retirement due the reduction of jobs available during recession. In addition, the disability insurance spending also went up because many people with disabilities lost their jobs during recession and took advantage their disability benefits. …show more content…
Recession increases funding for programs, but it affects programs differently. For example, the Supplemental Security Income and housing aid did not have that much growth during recession.These programs have more requirements such as having a job in the case of the Supplemental Security Income and they also have limited funding. Programs such as the food stamps one have less restrictions, making very easy for more people to qualify for their benefits and it does not have limits on funds. Therefore, for the spending for food stamps programs drastically went up during recession.

In the case, of the earning income tax credit (EITC), recession effects were more unpredictable. This is because as benefits can increase for those whose incomes were reduced, but only to certain point. If income decreases to a very low level or to zero, the EITC is lost. Moffit study, shows that during recession the EITC did help people more because there were more people benefiting form it than people loosing the