New York City's Welfare Rolls Shrink to Smallest Since 1963

(Bloomberg) -- The number of New York City residents on welfare has dropped to a more than half-century low.

There were 331,700 residents who received cash assistance in June, according to the Independent Budget Organization, a government fiscal monitor. That’s down 71% from the peak of 1.16 million in March 1995 and the least since September 1963.

Changes in federal, state and city welfare laws requiring work or school enrollment for benefits have driven the downward trend, which stands in contrast to the steadily escalating cost of living in the nation’s biggest city. The average payment for a single-parent family of three in New York City was $789 a month in July 2018, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The program costs $1.7 billion annually, according to the city budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020. If total recipients had remained at the March 1995 level, the cost would total $5.7 billion, of which the city would have paid about $4 billion, the IBO calculated.

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