Single Moms Will Bear the Brunt of the Republicans’ Cruel Budget Cuts

“It has been difficult to try to navigate, because I do work and I have a child, and I’m not exactly clear on when I’m supposed to do these like other hours,” she said.

For Mia, single motherhood can occasionally feel like a “trap.” At her current salary level, she is able to qualify for those Medicaid benefits that allow her son to receive the care he needs for his asthma. If she earned too much to be eligible for Medicaid, however, she would need to spend hundreds of dollars per month on her son’s medical needs. It isn’t that she wants to live in poverty; she simply does not know how she would support her family on even a middle-class salary.

“If you’re trying to get ahead, or you’re trying to move out of that poverty, you’re on your own,” Mia said.

Mia’s experiences are indicative of the struggles that single mothers in the United States have faced since the inception of the modern social safety net, a catch-22 of being expected to provide for their children while also feeling as if the supportive resources are insufficient.

American social policy has long been heavily influenced by concepts of deservingness. This stemmed in part from the nation’s foundational cultural concept of a “Protestant work ethic”—essentially, the idea that anyone who can work should work, and that individual labor is fundamental to a functioning community.

Federal assistance programs and tax policies intended to assist poor Americans are generally tied to income: If a person earns too much, they cannot receive some benefits, but if they do not have a high enough salary, they can be cut off from others. In the case of SNAP and Medicaid, a household with an annual income above a certain amount will no longer qualify for the benefits. Meanwhile, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF, requires households earn a certain amount to become eligible for cash benefits. With the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit, recipients must earn a certain amount each year in order to receive the full credit.