Massachusetts Senate Passes Meal Debt Legislation
Today, the Massachusetts Senate passed H. 3999, An Act to Promote School Nutrition, which will address the challenge that children and families living in poverty face when it comes to unpaid school meal debt. You can learn more about this legislation on the MLRI blog or in Commonwealth Magazine.
“We are very pleased that the Massachusetts House and Senate unanimously passed this important Legislation. Children should never be caught in the middle of school meal debt, denied hot meals or prevented from participating in extracurricular activities or graduation due to unpaid meal debt,” said Patricia Baker, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute’s food security expert. (more…)
Pandemic Related Unemployment Benefits Have Ended. Now What?
On September 4th, the pandemic-related unemployment benefits offered by the federal government ended. Those included:
- Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), for many left out of traditional unemployment;
- Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which extended the weeks for regular unemployment;
- Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), an additional $300 a week for all claimants; and
- Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation (MEUC), an additional $100 to certain workers.
It’s a loss for so many vulnerable individuals and families struggling to put food on the table. In Massachusetts alone, more than 300,000 people have been impacted. There are many reasons individuals who lost unemployment are not able to access work right now – including child care barriers, lack of access to remote work jobs for those who are immunocompromised, concerns regarding the Delta variant of COVID-19, and more. For those who are able to access work, the hours or pay may not be consistent or pay a living wage. Benefits from the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) are a critical tool to ensure individuals and families can put food on the table.
So now what? (more…)
Massachusetts Takes Another Step Toward Lifting Kids Out of Deep Poverty
In July 2021, Massachusetts made further progress towards Lifting Kids Out of Deep Poverty with a 9.1 percent increase in cash assistance grants for families with children, elders, and people with disabilities. Thanks to the incredible advocacy and leadership of Senator Sal DiDomenico and Representative Marjorie Decker, together with 121 legislative co-sponsors of the Act to Lift Kids Out of Deep Poverty, the FY 2022 budget in July 2021 included this significant step forward.
MLRI is proud to lead, along with Greater Boston Legal Services, the Lift Our Kids Coalition, a group comprised of 147 organizations throughout Massachusetts committed to Lifting Kids Out of Deep Poverty in Massachusetts.
People living below half the poverty level – currently $915 a month for a family of three – are considered to be in Deep Poverty. In January 2021, the Legislature took a historic first step with a 10 percent increase in cash assistance grants, raising the maximum benefit for three from $593 a month to $652 a month. This was the first increase in two decades. (more…)