A Primer on U.s. Welfare Reform Context: the U.s. System of Means-tested Transfers Source: K. Spar, " Cash and Noncash Benefits for Persons with Lim- Ited Income: Eligibility Rules, Recipient and Expenditure Data

terms of expenditure. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program, an earnings subsidy program, which provides tax credits to low-income families with earnings, is third largest. The Food Stamp program, which provides food coupons to the poor, and programs for subsidized housing for the poor are fourth and fifth, respectively. The TANF program is, as the table shows, only the sixth largest program in the United States in terms of expenditure, and only half as much is spent on it as is spent on the fifth largest program. TANF’s caseload is also small, although because it provides a cash benefit for all needs and not just a supplemental payment like Food Stamps and the EITC, its expenditure per recipient is larger than that of those two programs. Robert Moffitt