A survey by Pew Research Center found, one in every four American parents struggled to pay for basic needs in 2021. Here’s the detailed story.
American parents struggle to pay for basic needs
As per a new Pew Research Center study, parents in the US struggled with paying for their family’s basic needs in the last year. However, over 50 percent of low-income parents did not have enough money for food, mortgage, or rent. Additionally, one in every three struggled to pay for childcare and health care. The low-income members were also likely to report their worries about losing their job or pay if they miss working for childcare duties.
“The survey followed the expiration of the 2021 expanded federal child tax credit which helped reduce child poverty last year,” stated Sara Kimberlin. Kimberlin is a child welfare researcher from the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University. “We might expect to see an increase in the number of families with kids that are struggling to afford things like food and the rent and mortgage and those kinds of basic needs because we saw a drop off of some of those supports that had been in place,” she added.
Racial contrasts in affording basic needs
Among American parents from all levels of income, Hispanic and black parents were “especially likely” to state they were unable to afford housing and food. “That’s consistent with what we’ve seen in other research both from us and other research more generally about financial challenges and financial stresses,” emphasized Juliana Horowitz. Horowitz is the associate director of research at Pew.
The research found a minimum of one in every three black parents struggles to pay for food. However, only one in five parents were facing similar problems. “The findings reflect how, on average, Black and Hispanic workers receive lower wages than other racial groups because of longstanding barriers and racist policies,” added Kimberlin. “We’re not talking about taking an extended period of time off, we’re talking about just normal day-to-day interruptions that you might experience as a working parent,” emphasized Horowitz.