Food stamp usage in the US is at a record high and is ris­ing every day. But another num­ber within that group has taken a huge leap in the last cou­ple of years.

The num­ber of peo­ple using food stamps that have no cash income has risen 50 per­cent in the last two years. The peo­ple with no cash income ranges from those draw­ing on sav­ing to those sell­ing blood plasma for a few dollars.

Advo­cates for the poor say that the many with­out cash income is a sign that food stamps are being asked to do too much, and more income oppor­tu­ni­ties must exist.

From the New York Times, reporters Jason Deparle and Robert M. Gebeloff did some research on the issue. The article’s page also includes some inter­ac­tive maps on food stamp usage through­out the country.

About six mil­lion Amer­i­cans receiv­ing food stamps report they have no other income, accord­ing to an analy­sis of state data col­lected by The New York Times. In dec­la­ra­tions that states ver­ify and the fed­eral gov­ern­ment audits, they described them­selves as unem­ployed and receiv­ing no cash aid — no wel­fare, no unem­ploy­ment insur­ance, and no pen­sions, child sup­port or dis­abil­ity pay.

Their num­bers were ris­ing before the reces­sion as tougher wel­fare laws made it harder for poor peo­ple to get cash aid, but they have soared by about 50 per­cent over the past two years. About one in 50 Amer­i­cans now lives in a house­hold with a reported income that con­sists of noth­ing but a food-stamp card.
…

Food stamps, offi­cially the called Sup­ple­men­tal Nutri­tion Assis­tance Pro­gram, have taken on a greater role in the safety net for sev­eral rea­sons. Since the ben­e­fit buys only food, it draws less sus­pi­cion of abuse than cash aid and more polit­i­cal sup­port. And the fed­eral gov­ern­ment pays for the whole ben­e­fit, giv­ing states rea­son to max­i­mize enroll­ment. States typ­i­cally share in other pro­grams’ costs.

The Times col­lected income data on food-stamp recip­i­ents in 31 states, which account for about 60 per­cent of the national case­load. On aver­age, 18 per­cent listed cash income of zero in their most recent monthly fil­ings. Pro­jected over the entire case­load, that sug­gests six mil­lion peo­ple in house­holds with no income. About 1.2 mil­lion are children.

The num­bers have nearly tripled in Nevada over the past two years, dou­bled in Florida and New York, and grown nearly 90 per­cent in Min­nesota and Utah. In Wayne County, Mich., which includes Detroit, one of every 25 res­i­dents reports an income of only food stamps. In Yakima County, Wash., the fig­ure is about one of every 17.

Experts cau­tion that these num­bers are esti­mates. Recip­i­ents typ­i­cally report a small rise in earn­ings just once every six months, so some peo­ple listed as job­less may have recently found some work. New York offi­cials say their num­bers include some house­holds with earn­ings from ille­gal immi­grants, who can­not get food stamps but some­times live with rel­a­tives who do.

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