Over the past half-century, the U.S. safety net has grown considerably stronger for children and elderly adults, substantially reducing poverty among them. But the story is starkly different for another group of Americans that we hear far less about: non-elderly adults, aged 18-64, who aren’t raising children and don’t have a severe enough, or long-lasting enough, disability to meet the stringent criteria for federal disability benefits.
This is no small group. In 2017, the la...