Urban Institute: Poverty and Safety Net

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10/04/10--22:00: Low-Income Hispanic Children Need both Private and Public Food Assistance (chan 1691489)

Families that use emergency food assistance often also get help from federal nutrition programs. Hispanic families less often receive help through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps) than families of other racial/ethnic groups placing them at greater nutritional risk. Families that do not receive SNAP benefits often think that their income, assets or citizenship status makes them ineligible. The broad use of food banks and pantries among low-income families with children demonstrates unmet nutritional needs and confirms that enhancements to the federal nutrition safety net are needed.


10/04/10--22:00: Emergency Food Assistance Helps Many Low-Income Hispanic Children (chan 1691489)

In 2009, nearly 1 in every 5 children in the United States lived in families that used emergency food assistance through Feeding America, the nation's largest organization of emergency food providers. Higher shares of Hispanic and black children used emergency food assistance than white children, reflecting their higher rates of poverty. While the majority of families using emergency food assistance also accessed at least one of the federal nutrition assistance programs, only one in four received food stamps. The high demand for private food assistance demonstrates the extreme need in 2009 caused by high unemployment and poverty.


11/08/10--21:00: Welfare Rules Databook: State TANF Policies as of July 2009 (chan 1691489)

The Welfare Rules Databook, provides tables containing key Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) policies for each state as of July 2009, as well as longitudinal tables describing selected state policies from 1996 through 2009. The tables are based on the information in the Welfare Rules Database (WRD), a publicly available, online database tracking state cash assistance policies over time and across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Databook summarizes a subset of the information in the WRD. Users interested in a greater level of detail are encouraged to use the full database, available at http://anfdata.urban.org/wrd.


11/22/10--21:00: Nutrition Assistance for Older Adults (chan 1691489)

While a surprisingly small share of low-income older adults receives government nutrition assistance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) and Meals on Wheels (MOW) home delivery program provide important food assistance to them. During 2007 and 2008, about 2 in 10 low-income older adults received assistance from one of these programs; only 1 percent reported getting help from both. Receipt of SNAP declines with age and receipt of MOW rises with age, indicating that these programs tend to complement each other.


12/01/10--21:00: Supplemental Security Income for the Second Decade (chan 1691489)

Supplemental Security Income is an odd combination of income support for families with disabled children, disabled working-age adults, and elderly persons. The program faces challenges on three fronts. Payments for children bear little relationship to family need or costs. State efforts to promote transition of children and adults from TANF to SSI appear driven by fiscal considerations. Measuring the impact of poverty among the elderly is hampered by underreporting of benefits in survey data. This paper argues that SSI serves important purposes, but that the target populations might be served best by gradual decoupling or improved integration with other programs.


12/12/10--21:00: Swimming Upstream: Improving Access to Indigent Health Care in the Midst of Major Economic Challenges (chan 1691489)

An evaluation of San Mateo County's comprehensive health system redesign initiative finds notable improvements in access to high quality patient care for formerly uninsured adults. For example, the percent of such individuals having a usual source of care rose from 42.5 to 91.2 percent with the initiative. The initiative met with success despite mounting fiscal challenges associated with the economic recession and state budget crisis threatening the county's ability to support these innovations. The county's efforts offer lessons for local and national policymakers, program administrators, and providers about how progress is possible despite severe financial obstacles.


12/16/10--21:00: Child Support Plays an Increasingly Important Role for Poor Custodial Families (chan 1691489)

The child support program has become a critical public program for children, serving 17 million children, representing nearly one in four children in the United States. Among social welfare programs, only the Medicaid program serves more children. It is also an important source of income for poor families, lifting a million people from poverty in 2008. This brief describes the role of child support in reducing poverty and shows how poor custodial families have become more reliant upon child support.


12/26/10--21:00: Child Care Instability: Definitions, Context, and Policy Implications (chan 1691489)

Child care instability affects children's development, parent's employment, and family stability. This paper describes why it matters, discusses definitional and measurement challenges, provides a framework to examine links between instability in child care and family domains, and examines the causes of instability (including child care subsidy policy and practice). Findings suggest that policies supporting stability in child care could interrupt the cascading effect of instability in other domains. Policy strategies to improve the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)/Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), such as funding, voucher flexibility, eligibility, quality of care, and referral systems, are examined.


01/23/11--21:00: Can Savings Help Overcome Income Instability? (chan 1691489)

Savings can help low-income households cope with income Instability and unexpected expenses, according to new evidence presented here. For households with nonelderly heads in the lowest income quintile, modest holdings of liquid assets (amounts up to $1,999) can significantly reduce the probability of hardships with health care, housing payments, food security, utility and phone bills, and basic consumption. Programs to promote saving can help low-income households protect themselves from economic shocks, as income variability, in addition to low income, increases risk of such hardships.


02/02/11--21:00: Poverty Among Older Americans, 2009 (chan 1691489)

About one in three Americans age 65 or older lived in low-income families in 2009, including 8.9 percent in poverty. Poverty rates were much higher among those who did not complete high school, lived alone, or had poor health. This data brief reports how poverty and near-poverty rates among older Americans in 2009 varied by demographics, living arrangements, and health status; shows that poverty and near poverty among seniors declined between 2007 and 2009; and describes income sources for poor and non-poor seniors.


02/15/11--21:00: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Poverty (chan 1691489)

This factsheet presents a quick overview of recent cross-cutting Urban Institute research on poverty, including 13 key points on poverty's effects on immigration, health care, children, infants with depressed mothers, employment, assets, and neighborhoods. One in an occasional series of "Thirteen Ways" factsheets.


02/23/11--21:00: Prohibitions, Price Caps, and Disclosures: A Look at State Policies and Alternative Financial Product Use (chan 1691489)

Using new nationally representative data from the National Financial Capability State-by-State Survey, this paper examines the relationship between state-level alternative financial service (AFS) policies (prohibitions, price caps, disclosures) and consumer use of five AFS products: payday loans, auto title loans, pawn broker loans, RALs, and RTO transactions. The results suggest that more stringent price caps and prohibitions are associated with lower product use and do not support the hypothesis that prohibitions and price caps on one AFS product lead consumers to use other AFS products.


02/23/11--21:00: Assessing the Evidence about Work Support Benefits and Low-Income Families (chan 1691489)

For low-income working parents, benefits received through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, and child care subsidies provide vital work support. Access to these programs has been restricted, however, by barriers relating to federal and state funding, program policy, and administrative process, complicating program enrollment and benefit retention. As a result, many low-income working families do not receive the multi-program benefits for which they are eligible. This paper provides a strong rationale for the Work Support Strategies demonstration, enabling selected states to design, implement, and evaluate modernization strategies to dramatically improve families' access to a package of work support benefits.


02/23/11--21:00: Nine States Chosen to be Laboratories Testing Inventive Ways to Streamline Services for Low-Income Working Families (chan 1691489)

In a major effort to tap and foster state capital ingenuity, the Urban Institute has selected nine states to receive $250,000 each in planning grants as part of a five-year initiative with lead funding from the Ford Foundation. Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and South Carolina were chosen for first-year grants to test inventive ways to streamline services for low-income working families.


02/23/11--21:00: Who Needs Credit at Tax Time and Why: A Look at Refund Anticipation Loans and Refund Anticipation Checks (chan 1691489)

Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) and Checks (RACs) are controversial financial products used by one in seven tax filers. This report presents findings on many of the most important individual and geographical characteristics influencing RAL/RAC use, as well as, insights about product use from tax preparers, RAL/RAC lenders, RAL/RAC tax form software developers, low-cost RAL lenders, and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program sites. The results suggest that factors such as lack of interest income, geographic location, EITC receipt, filing as a head-of-household, income, and living in a poor neighborhood, each independently contributes strongly to RAL/RAC use.


02/23/11--21:00: Summary on Developing a Research Agenda on Small-Dollar Credit and Financial Empowerment (chan 1691489)

The U.S. Department of the Treasury gathered 50 foundation representatives and researchers from academia, government, the nonprofit sector, and industry to participate in the convening Developing a Research Agenda on Small-Dollar Credit and Financial Empowerment.This summary provides key insights from the one-day event including discussions on both the demand for and supply of small-dollar credit and what participants identified as research needed to inform policymaking in order to address the challenges related to meeting the small-dollar credit needs of underserved populations, notably low- and moderate-income individuals.


02/24/11--21:00: For Working Poor, Tax Season Brings Rush to Use Refund Anticipation Loans and Checks (chan 1691489)

Nearly one in five tax filers getting a refund this tax season, many of whom number among the working poor, are expected to use a refund anticipation loan (RAL) or refund anticipation check (RAC), a new Urban Institute study estimates. A related study investigates how state regulations affect consumer use of payday loans, auto title loans, pawnbroker loans, RALs, and rent-to-own transactions.


03/01/11--21:00: Partnering with Employers to Promote Job Advancement for Low-Skill Individuals (chan 1691489)

This paper explores the reasons why employer partnerships are important for improving economic outcomes for both low-skill workers and businesses. It identifies the factors that have hindered the growth of these partnerships as well as promising approaches-incumbent worker training and sectoral training-to build partnerships. It concludes with a discussion of policy considerations for creating and sustaining partnerships with employers to provide skill development opportunities.


03/14/11--22:00: Nonprofit-Government Contracting in the Nation's Capital: Challenges and Opportunities (chan 1691489)

Findings from the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropys National Survey of Nonprofit-Government Contracting and Grants show that a majority of human service organizations in Washington, D.C. are struggling due in part to challenges posed by working with the government in providing programs and services to District residents. At a forum of nonprofit leaders and government representatives, participants confirmed the studys findings, shed light on issues unique to the city, and proposed initial recommendations to address some contracting challenges.


03/17/11--22:00: How to Evaluate Choice and Promise Neighborhoods (chan 1691489)

Living in concentrated poverty stifles the life chances of adults and children. Efforts to transform neighborhoods of extreme poverty into places of opportunity must grapple with concentrated disadvantages including distressed housing, failing schools, joblessness, poor health, and violence. Two federal initiatives seeking to address neighborhood deficiencies simultaneously are the Department of Education's Promise Neighborhoods effort and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Choice Neighborhoods program. Evaluating these efforts presents many methodological challenges. This brief provides a framework for designing evaluations of Choice and Promise Neighborhoods including key research questions, different research approaches, and components of an evaluation strategy.


03/30/11--22:00: Reports of Unemployment Compensation in the American Community Survey A Data Note (chan 1691489)

Unemployment compensation (UC), a key part of the social safety net, is not individually reported in the American Community Survey (ACS), an issue for data users wishing to estimate the impact of UC on those in need. Using regression techniques, we predict the share of reported "other" income attributable to UC in the 2008 ACS data for Georgia, Illinois and Massachusetts. We review UC underreporting in the ACS data and discuss one possible method of correction using the Transfer Income Model, Version 3 (TRIM3). We demonstrate the effect of the UC underreporting correction on the poverty rate and poverty gap.


05/19/11--22:00: Savings and Hardship Avoidance Among Households Headed by People with Disabilities: Implications for SSI (chan 1691489)

For households headed by persons with disabilities, savings can provide near-term protection against hardship. Analysis of longitudinal data from the 2001 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation indicates that households with $2,000 or more in liquid assets (interest-earning assets held at financial institutions) are better able to avoid subsequent hardships such as forgone doctor visits and missed utility payments, compared to those with smaller (or no) asset holdings. This evidence has implications for possible increases in the resource limits for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, now $2,000 for individuals and $3,000 for couples.


06/07/11--22:00: Child Care Choices of Low-Income Working Families (chan 1691489)

This research report presents the findings from a qualitative study of the child care choices of low-income working families in two urban communities. Participants included 86 parents with young children, many of whom were immigrants, English language learners, or parents of children with special needs. We discuss the key themes and variations in family experiences, giving particular attention to parental preferences and the factors that influenced their decisions, within the contexts of their employment and the early care and education programs in their communities. We conclude with policy recommendations that can promote parental access to affordable and high quality care.


06/20/11--22:00: The Effects of Health Reform on Small Businesses and Their Workers (chan 1691489)

This brief consolidates the results of several UI studies addressing the effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on small firms.We find generally positive effects of the ACA on small employers and their workers.Employers with fewer than 50 workers will experience substantial savings on health costs; employers with 50 to 100 workers will seea very small cost increase.The smallest firms are expected to have higher offer rates, resulting in a small increase in employer coverage.Small firm workers and their families will reap substantial benefits from the Medicaid expansion and subsidies to low-income families.


07/18/11--22:00: What to Do about the New Unemployment (chan 1691489)

This brief provides information on what we as a country can do about unemployment by drawing together information presented in three UI forums about ways to jumpstart the job market, how younger and older workers are faring in and after the recession, and how the safety net needs to be retooled in times of high unemployment.


07/20/11--22:00: Kids' Share 2011 (chan 1691489)

Kids' Share 2011: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children through 2010, a fifth annual report, looks comprehensively at trends over the past 50 years in federal spending and tax expenditures on children. Key findings suggest that the size and composition of expenditures on children have changed considerably, but children have not been a budget priority. Federal expenditures on children in 2010, were 11 percent of the federal budget, slightly higher than in 2009.This increase is temporary, however, with the children's share of the budget expected to shrink to less than 8 percent by the end of the next decade.


07/20/11--22:00: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Counters High Unemployment (chan 1691489)

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) provides assistance to millions of families in the US. This fact sheet describes how, as unemployment rates have climbed, so have the rates of SNAP receipt among older families, families with children, and single adults.


08/11/11--22:00: Private Transfers, Race, and Wealth (chan 1691489)

How do private transfers differ by race and ethnicity and do such differences explain the racial and ethnic disparity in wealth? Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this study examines private transfers by race and ethnicity and explores a causal relationship between private transfers and wealth. We examine private transfers in the form of financial support received and given from extended families and friends, as well as large gifts and inheritances. Our findings highlight important differences in private transfers by race and ethnicity: African Americans and Hispanics (both immigrant and nonimmigrant) receive less in private transfers than non-Hispanic whites.


08/14/11--22:00: The Effects of the Safety Net on Child Poverty in Three States (chan 1691489)

In 2008, safety net programs cut child poverty in half in Georgia, Illinois, and Massachusetts. Federal programs that provide the same benefit across the country reduce poverty more in lower housing cost states such as Georgia than in higher cost states such as Massachusetts. Massachusetts's generous TANF policy has a greater impact on child poverty than the TANF policies in the other two states. Estimates are produced using the Supplemental Poverty Measure.


08/14/11--22:00: Informal and Nonstandard Employment in the United States : Implications for Low-Income Working Families (chan 1691489)

The informal economy, meaning employment and production that operate outside the regulatory and tax systems, tends to be overlooked in U.S. policy discussions. When it is considered, it is often viewed in terms of black market (i.e., criminal and illegal) activities, undocumented immigrants, or white-collar tax evasion. Beyond these stereotypes, millions of workers are in various informal employment arrangements performing activities not otherwise criminal in nature. This brief presents background information on the informal sector and policy options that could improve economic conditions for low-wage informal workers and their families.


08/16/11--22:00: Characteristics of Low-Income Single Mothers Disconnected from Work and Public Assistance (chan 1691489)

Families headed by low-income single mothers who are not working or receiving public cash benefits ("disconnected families") are among the most vulnerable in our society. This fact sheet shows that the number of families in this situation is increasing over time. It also describes their income, receipt of noncash benefits like housing and food assistance, living arrangements, and characteristics that may impede work.


08/16/11--22:00: What Role is Welfare Playing in this Period of High Unemployment? (chan 1691489)

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the nation's cash assistance program for poor families with children, has not played much of a countercyclical role during the current recession. As unemployment has risen, TANF caseloads nationally have grown much more slowly and state TANF caseloads have not tracked state unemployment growth. Program rules and financing structures limit the responsiveness of TANF in a downturn. As TANF reauthorization is considered, this brief details some relatively small changes that could improve the program's effectiveness in future recessions.


08/23/11--22:00: Welfare Rules Databook: State TANF Policies as of July 2010 (chan 1691489)

The Welfare Rules Databook, provides tables containing key Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) policies for each state as of July 2010, as well as longitudinal tables describing selected state policies from 1996 through 2010. The tables are based on the information in the Welfare Rules Database (WRD), a publicly available, online database tracking state cash assistance policies over time and across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Databook summarizes a subset of the information in the WRD. Users interested in a greater level of detail are encouraged to use the full database, available at http://anfdata.urban.org/wrd.


08/23/11--22:00: Less-Educated Continue to Lose Jobs in Recovery-Even in Low-Wage Industries (chan 1691489)

In the sluggish recovery, less-educated workers, especially those with a high school degree or less, continue to lose jobs at a substantial rate. This factsheet presents employment changes in the recession and recovery by skill level and industry showing that those with less than a high school degree were hit hardest, even in low wage industries. Gains in the recovery have been concentrated among workers with a college education.


08/25/11--22:00: Family Policy Scholar Elizabeth Peters Becomes Director of Urban Institute's Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population (chan 1691489)

Elizabeth Peters, the founding director of Cornell University's Population Program, has joined the Urban Institute as the director of its Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population.


09/01/11--22:00: Is Poverty Incompatible with Asset Accumulation? (chan 1691489)

Is poverty incompatible with asset accumulation? We examine whether the poor can and do save and whether they are able to build up assets over time. Data are presented from household surveys, as well as from programs targeted at helping families accumulate assets. Presenting and evaluating the state of knowledge provides a new lens on whether the current income-based safety net could better serve poor families by having an asset building component. Conventional thinking is that families that are income poor cannot save. This chapter shows that this thinking is inaccurate; poverty does not have to be incompatible with asset accumulation.


09/11/11--22:00: Dynamics of Being Disconnected from Work and TANF (chan 1691489)

This paper analyses the economic well-being of low-income single mothers who "disconnected" that is neither working nor receiving public assistance benefits (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF) or disability benefits). We find that the percentage of disconnected single mothers increased over time. These mothers are extremely poor and are more likely to have challenges that make work more difficult than other single mothers. In addition, many mothers remain in this situation for a year or more. Some are helped by living with other family members or cohabiting and through receipt of public food and housing benefits.


09/11/11--22:00: Vulnerability, Risk, and the Transition to Adulthood (chan 1691489)

Growing up poor strongly predicts poverty and poor adult outcomes. This study explores two primary reasons poverty may persist across generations: risk behavior in adolescence and dropping out of high school. Results suggest that risk behavior and dropping out help perpetuate poor economic outcomes for children from single-parent families but are less important for children who grow up in low-income families. The findings suggest that policies directed at reducing youth risk behavior and dropping out can improve economic outcomes when targeted to youth from single-parent households.


09/12/11--22:00: Is the Safety Net Catching Unemployed Families? (chan 1691489)

The vast majority of unemployed families received some help from core safety net programs in 2009.Among those experiencing unemployment, receipt of unemployment benefits doubled between 2005 and 2009. Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) also increased.Public Assistance played a limited role in unemployed families' lives.About 15 percent of low-work, unemployed families got no help from the safety net.The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 clearly helped to strengthen the safety net.This extra help has mostly ended, leaving many families to contend with high unemployment and a frayed safety net.


09/12/11--22:00: Poverty in the United States (chan 1691489)

The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that the poverty rate jumped to 15.1 percent in 2010, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 and 13.2 percent in 2008. This 18-year high still understates the dire straits of many Americans today. The devastation of poverty grows more severe over time as individuals exhaust private resources and temporary benefits.


09/12/11--22:00: How Do States' Safety Net Policies Affect Poverty? (chan 1691489)

Safety net policies can dramatically reduce poverty.A full assessment requires use of a Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) that adds near-cash benefits and tax credits to cash income, deducts necessary expenses, and uses up-to-date, geographically-sensitive poverty thresholds.This analysis implements the SPM in Georgia, Illinois, and Massachusetts to examine the effects of the key safety net programs on poverty.The results show that safety net policies in these three states have substantially different effects on poverty, but federal programs narrow the differences across the states.


09/12/11--22:00: Unemployment and Poverty (chan 1691489)

Poverty is higher among the unemployed. In 2010, 30 percent of the long-termunemployed were poor,and 66 percentof single parents unemployed more than 26 weeks were poor.


09/12/11--22:00: Workshop on State Poverty Measurement Using the American Community Survey (chan 1691489)

This workshop discussed issues surrounding the potential development of a Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) at the state level using the American Community Survey (ACS).Academics and researchers from around the country participated, including experts that have implemented the SPM for eight different areas. The discussion summarized recent experiences and challenges in implementing the SPM on the ACS and geographic adjustments to the poverty thresholds. The summary highlights the key issues and ideas for next steps.


10/10/11--22:00: Metropolitan Job Growth Patterns in the Great Recession (chan 1691489)

The pace of job growth across the country in this recovery has been slow but not uniform. Metropolitan areas have fared differently, with some experiencing substantially lower job loss than others. This paper examines employment changes across industries that pay low, medium, and high-wages on average by metropolitan area to identify which metros are faring better not only in total employment but in different types of jobs.


10/11/11--22:00: A Comprehensive Review of Immigrant Access to Health and Human Services (chan 1691489)

The Immigrant Access to Health and Human Services study maps and describes the policy context that can affect immigrant access to health and human services and the well-being of immigrants and their children. This paper summarizes federal provisions and key aspects of state-level variation related to immigrants' eligibility for TANF, SNAP, Medicaid, and CHIP based on a review of literature and the latest information. It provides a building block for the fieldwork and in-depth assessment of the policy context around immigrant access to health and human services.


10/24/11--22:00: Today's Children, Tomorrow's America: Six Experts Face the Facts (chan 1691489)

Urban Institute scholars from diverse disciplines tackle a simple-to-state, hard-to-answer question: How can solutions to our national and state budget crises fit the facts about children in the United States? In their responses, the contributors wrestle with recent and approaching economic and demographic challenges in different ways and bring very different experiences to bear. <br><br>


11/06/11--21:00: Who are Low-Asset Low-Income Families? (chan 1691489)

More than a quarter of U.S. families are in the bottom 40 percent of both the net worth and the income distributions. For these families, neither assets nor income offers much protection against financial shocks. This fact sheet describes the characteristics of these families. Low-asset low-income families tend to be younger, single, less educated, in poorer health, and minority.


11/06/11--21:00: Evaluation Design for the Next Phase Evaluation of the Assets for Independence Program, Final Literature Review (chan 1691489)

Based on our review and synthesis of the individual development account (IDA) literature, findings in this report include that IDA accounts (in the short-term, five years after program entry) help low-income families become homeowners, start or expand a business, or pursue secondary education. Studies to date have found no relationship between IDA program participation and net worth. The report reviews empirical evidence on the effect of IDA program participation and project design features on outcomes and highlights remaining gaps in the literature. <br><br>


11/09/11--21:00: How Human Services Programs and Their Clients Can Benefit from National Health Reform Legislation (chan 1691489)

Human services programs-the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, subsidized child care, etc.-and their clients can benefit from national health reform. Millions of low-income health coverage applicants can be connected with human services programs, as the latter programs: (a) help health programs efficiently reach eligible consumers; (b) access unprecedented, time-limited federal funding for modernizing eligibility computer systems while limiting risks to current funding; (c) keep social services offices available as an avenue for seeking health coverage; and (d) use a forthcoming Medicaid expansion to accomplish core human services goals related to employment and child development.


11/14/11--21:00: The Averages Can Be Misleading (chan 1691489)

In this commentary for New York Times' Room for Debate, Institute fellow Sheila Zedlewski explains that many of the nation's 41 million seniors live in or very near poverty and many have assets mostly tied up in their houses. Policy makers must be ever mindful of that diversity when considering changes in policy that would affect retirement income security.