Welfare use as a life course event: toward a new understanding of the U.S. safety net.

What proportion of the American population uses a social safety net program during the course of adulthood? To address this question, we constructed a series of life tables using 30 years of longitudinal data. Our results indicate that two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 20 and 65 will at some point reside in a household that receives benefits from a meanstested welfare program (food stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or other cash welfare). Such assistance is often in the form of in-kind programs, such as food stamps or Medica