This Week in Poverty: Deal on Unemployment Benefits Leaves Out Poorest

http://www.thenation.com/blog/166435/week-poverty-deal-unemployment-benefits-leaves-out-poorest

While most of the media have focused on the Democrats “pretty much getting what they wanted,” it has given short shrift to what this deal means for the long-term unemployed, currently at near-record levels, with 43 percent of unemployed people jobless for more than six months. Under the new deal they will receive fewer weeks of unemployment benefits than were available between the end of 2009 and last year, with the maximum reduced from ninety-nine weeks to seventy-three weeks by September 2012.

Vital Statistics (from the National Center for Children and Poverty)

Total number of US children under age 18: 72 million

Number of US children in poor families ($22,350 for family of four): 15.5 million

Number of US children in low-income families ($44,700 for family of four): 31.9 million

Percentage of children under age 3 in low-income families: 48 percent

Percentage of children age 3 through 5 in low-income families: 48 percent

Percentage of children ages 6 through 11 in low-income families: 44 percent

Percentage of children ages 12 through 17 in low-income families: 40 percent

White children in low-income families: 31 percent

Black children in low-income families: 64 percent

Asian children in low-income families: 31 percent

American Indian children in low-income families: 63 percent

Hispanic children in low-income families: 63 percent