Alaska Leads Nation with Welfare Recipients
Photo Credit: blmiers2 / Creative CommonsBy Associated Press.
Alaska has the highest number of families on public assistance in the nation, and the state’s rate is more than twice the national average of 2.9 percent, according to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
A state-by-state tally of public assistance rates shows nearly 7 percent of Alaska families receive government help, the Alaska Dispatch News reported (https://is.gd/K6hRAZ). The figures are from 2012, the most recent data available.
Health department spokesman Clay Butcher said seasonal tourism and fishing jobs play a role, as do 140 villages in the state that are exempt from public assistance time limits because of few job opportunities. Most people are limited to receiving public assistance for 60 months.
“We also have a lot of transient types, people who come up in tourism jobs or oil jobs,” Butcher said.
Besides Alaska, 17 states saw an increase in the number of residents who receive public assistance. However, none have a higher percentage of recipients than Alaska, a trend that has held steady since at least 2000, the newspaper reported.
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Photo Credit: iStockAlaska, West Coast lead U.S. in receiving welfare
By Joseph Lawler.
Alaska has the highest rate of residents receiving welfare of any state.
The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that almost 7 percent of people in the Frontier State receive public assistance from the federal or state government, more than a percentage point more than the state with the next highest rate.
West Coast states lead the rest of the country in the share of residents receiving welfare. More than half a million people got public benefits in California in 2012, the most recent year for which welfare data from the Census’ American Community Survey is available.
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