MichiganRadio

Michigan welfare numbers resume creep upward LANSING, MI (MPRN) - Welfare caseloads in Michigan resumed their climb this summer after leveling off
early in the year. Michigan has a record number of nearly 1.9 million people receiving some form of public assistance.

Participation in the Medicaid health care program for the poor is also increasing.

Sharon Parks is the president of the Michigan League for Human Services. Parks
says she's most concerned with the growing number of people applying for the
cash assistance program for the most desperately poor.

"This is suggesting that we have more people who have reached a level of poverty that's very concerning, and they've burned through their resources, they've depleted their assets," Parks said.


Parks says she expects caseloads to continue to rise as more people lose their
extended unemployment benefits. She says more than 40 percent of unemployed
people in Michigan have been without jobs for six months or longer.
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