Statement from the Lift Our Kids Coalition on Cash Assistance Increases in the FY 23 Budget
The FY 2023 budget’s 10 percent increase in cash assistance starting in October marks another historic step forward for families in Deep Poverty. This is the third increase in three years after decades of frozen benefit levels. These successive increases demonstrate our legislative leaders’ moral commitment to our most vulnerable children, older adults, and people with disabilities.
Lift Our Kids Coalition Secures 10% Increase to Cash Assistance Grants in FY23 Budget
In late 2018, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, together with Greater Boston Legal Services and many other legal services programs and community organizations, began a campaign to increase state cash assistance grants, which had been frozen for two decades. With the leadership of Sen. Sal DiDomenico (D-Everett) and Rep. Marjorie Decker (D-Cambridge), the Lift Our Kids Coalition secured a 10% increase – the first in a generation – in the FY21 budget, and then a further 9.1% increase in the FY22 budget.
MLRI Files Successful Joint Amicus Brief on Behalf of Advocacy Organizations
Last month, Mass Law Reform, Greater Boston Legal Services, South Coastal Counties Legal Services and the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School submitted an amicus brief for the case of Slavin v. Lewis in Norfolk Superior Court, representing six advocacy groups who serve survivors of domestic abuse. Amicus briefs, also known as friend of the court briefs, can be a key component of efforts to support low income survivors of domestic abuse. Amicus briefs are an opportunity to inform appellate courts on how their decisions may affect people beyond the parties in an individual case.