When One Is Not Enough: Exploring the Intersection of Multiple Public Benefits and Multiple Material Hardships in Low-Income Single-Mother Families

Families headed by single mothers face economic vulnerability, and many rely on multiple public benefit programs. This study explored multiple benefits program participation and its relationship with material hardship among low-income single-mother families in the United States. Using nationally representative data, we employed cluster analysis to explore patterns of multiple program participation in 10 benefits programs and used logistic regression to examine the relationships between program participation clusters and material hardship. Four program participation groups emerged: Many Benefits, Moderate Benefits, Only School Meal, and No Benefits. Material hardships (i.e., food hardship, medical hardship, unmet basic needs, housing hardship) were prevalent across all clusters. However, the Many Benefits group, which received the highest number of benefits, exhibited the highest rate of both food hardship (43.17%) and unmet basic needs (51.09%). Despite receiving more support than other groups, this group was more likely than the other groups to experience these hardships (except for medical hardship) that public benefits are designed to alleviate. This finding underscores the limitations of current social benefits and calls for policy revisions that enhance the amount, duration, and accessibility of public benefits to promote the well-being of the United States’ most vulnerable families.