Monday, September 22, 2025
Chair Kennedy, Chair Livingstone, and Members of the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities:
Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. We urge you to give a favorable report to H. 214 and S. 118: An Act to lift kids out of deep poverty.
These bills would raise cash assistance grants by 20% a year until they reach 50% of the federal poverty level (FPL), and then adjust them annually so that they remain at 50% FPL and do not lose their value over time.
We appreciate the Legislature’s commitment to addressing deep poverty. The Committee favorably reported prior versions of these bills in three previous legislative sessions and included increases to cash assistance grants in the last five budget cycles, from FY21 to FY25.
However, the question of whether to raise cash assistance grants should not need to be revisited every year. Instead, as the bills provide, grants should be increased more rapidly to reach the modest Deep Poverty level and then increased each year to keep up with increases in the cost of living.
The current maximum TAFDC grant of $861 a month for a family of three with no income is still less than half of the federal poverty level—Deep Poverty—currently $1,110 a month. Grant amounts for EAEDC cash assistance for older adults and people with disabilities are even lower, at only $441 a month for an individual, compared to the Deep Poverty level of $652 a month. With grant amounts this low, families cannot afford basic necessities, forced to decide whether they can afford food or medications or a roof over their head.
Please give your full support to these bills. It is time to end Deep Poverty in Massachusetts.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Cohn
Policy Director
Progressive Massachusetts
