The estimates in the Family Eligibility Tool are derived from a person-level database based on the American Community Survey (ACS), an ongoing survey of U.S. households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Here, we summarize how we prepared the data, simulated eligibility for family support programs, and generated the estimates underlying the Family Eligibility Tool. 

Developing the ACS database 

We started with 2022 data from IPUMS USA (University of Minnesota, https://usa.ipums.org/usa) and made the following adjustments to the data. 

  • We dropped from the data people living in group quarters, both institutional and noninstitutional.
  • We added to the household head's family any unrelated non-foster children in one-person families.
  • We calculated monthly income for use in SNAP, WIC, and TANF eligibility simulations. For most income types, we simply divided annual income (reported in the ACS) by 12. For earned income, we used information about each person’s work status and amount of time worked to estimate monthly earnings. We retained annual income amounts on the file to use in determining eligibility for the EITC.
  • We updated family poverty status based on the updated family composition, annual income, and Census Bureau poverty thresholds. We also calculated family poverty level based on simulated monthly income, family size and location, and federal poverty levels from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The former is comparable to official poverty estimates; the latter is used to determine eligibility for some federal programs. 

Simulating program eligibility 

We simulated basic eligibility for programs that support families, including SNAP, WIC, TANF, and the EITC. We considered a family eligible for a program if one or more family members appeared to be eligible for the program. Although the simulation estimates produced by our ACS-based model are not as refined as those that come from more robust microsimulation models, they are an effective way to compare program eligibility across states. 

SNAP. We consulted federal rules and state policies on broad-based categorical eligibility to flag families who met the SNAP gross income test. We also flagged families who met state criteria to be exempt from a resource test. The ACS does not include information on expenses or resources, so we were unable to simulate net income or resource eligibility.  

Some SNAP eligibility rules are different for families that include someone who is age 60 or older or who receives income related to their having a disability. We used information available on the ACS to simulate these policies. SNAP policies restrict the eligibility of some people who are not citizens. Due to data limitations, we did not simulate the ineligibility of recently arrived noncitizen adults or noncitizens who do not have documentation.  

WIC. We flagged families with one or more children ages birth to 4 and monthly family income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. 

TANF. We used state-level policies described in the Welfare Rules Database to develop a simple simulation of TANF eligibility. We first determined which members of a family likely would be members of a potential TANF assistance unit according to state TANF policies. We then calculated the assistance unit’s monthly income, incorporating state policies about whose income is included. In the last step, we determined whether the assistance unit would likely meet state income eligibility requirements. We did not simulate other TANF eligibility policies, such as meeting work requirements. 

EITC. We determined which members of a family would likely make up a tax filing unit and then calculated the tax unit’s gross income. For tax filing units with earnings and children, we estimated eligibility for EITC using gross income as a proxy for adjusted gross income and family composition to arrive at the correct income threshold.  

State EITC, CTC, CDCTC, and paid family leave. We flagged families living in states with their own versions of these programs. We did not simulate state eligibility policies. 

Generating estimates 

We used the results from the program eligibility simulations to estimate the percentage of each state’s population that was eligible for each program in 2022. We did the same for each of 12 population profiles that categorize families by their poverty level and age of youngest child.  

The data for the Family Eligibility Tool are available here:  Public Use Data File (CSV, 45KB).