Saturday, December 19, 2009

Stimulus kept 425,000 Floridians out of poverty

About 425,000 Floridians would have found themselves living in poverty had they not received assistance through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Act also reduced the severity of poverty for about 1,970,000 more Floridians who are poor by lifting their incomes, said the study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The study pointed to the recovery act's increase in food stamp benefits, expansions of the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit; the new Making Work Pay tax credit; extra weeks of unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed and an increase of $25 in jobless benefits; and a one-time payment to many elderly people, veterans and people with disabilities.

Read the report here.