Poverty Survey

NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Poll

Poverty in America

As shown, some questions were asked only of subsets of respondents (e.g., people who said they knew about the new welfare law). The tables identify whether the results reflect percentages of the overall population or percentages of a subset. In some cases results for particular income-level subgroups are not shown because there were too few respondents on which to report. Some demographic questions are not shown, but all questions are presented in the order in which they were asked. An asterisk (*) indicates a response of less than 1%.

V. Perceptions of Welfare and Welfare Recipients

27. In your opinion, do you think that most people who receive money from welfare today could get along without it if they tried, or do you think that most of them really need this help?
(Results for total respondents)

	Get along without it	Really need this help	Don’t know
Total	44	47	9
<100%	35	60	6
100-200%	40	49	10
200%+	46	45	9

28. In general, do you think people on welfare have higher, lower, or about the same moral values as other Americans?
(Results for total respondents)

	Higher	Lower	About the same	Don’t know
Total	3	29	63	5
<100%	6	34	56	4
100-200%	3	31	61	5
200%+	3	28	64	5

29. Do you think that most welfare recipients today really want to work or not?
(Results for total respondents)

	Yes	No	Don’t know
Total	47	44	9
<100%	52	41	7
100-200%	42	47	11
200%+	48	43	9

30. Do you think there are jobs available for most welfare recipients who really want to work or not?
(Results for total respondents)

	Yes	No	Don’t know
Total	78	18	4
<100%	73	25	1
100-200%	74	19	7
200%+	79	17	4

31. Do you think most of the jobs they can get pay enough to support a family or not?
(Results for respondents who think there are jobs available for most welfare recipients who really want to work)
[Total =1477, <100% =211, 100-200%= 455, 200%+ =811]

	Yes	No	Depends	Don’t know
Total	35	59	NA	6
<100%	35	60	NA	5
100-200%	30	62	NA	8
200%+	36	59	NA	5

30/31 Summary Table

	JOBS AVAILABLE
	NET	Jobs pay enough	Jobs do not pay enough	No jobs available	Don’t know
Total	78	27	46	18	4
<100%	73	25	44	25	1
100-200%	74	22	46	19	7
200%+	79	28	46	17	4

32. Do you think that welfare encourages women to have more children than they would have if they were not able to get welfare, or not?
(Results for total respondents)

	Yes	No	Don’t know
Total	57	36	7
<100%	47	45	8
100-200%	55	37	8
200%+	58	35	7

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Methodology
The results of this project are based on a nationwide telephone survey conducted in English and Spanish between January 4 and February 27, 2001, among a random representative sample of 1,952 respondents 18 years of age and older. There was an oversample of 546 respondents who were identified as having an income of less than 200% of the federal poverty level. Overall the sample included 294 respondents having an income of less than 100% of the federal poverty level, 613 having an income of between 100% and 200% of the federal poverty level, and 1,045 with an income above 200% of the federal poverty level. The results for all groups are weighted to reflect the actual distribution in the nation. The field work was conducted by ICR/International Communications Research. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points for total respondents, plus or minus 7.5 percentage points for those with an income of less than 100% of the federal poverty level, plus or minus 5.4 percentage points for those with an income of between 100% and 200% of the federal poverty level, and plus or minus 2.6 percentage points for those with an income above 200% of the federal poverty level. For results based on subsets of respondents the margin of error is higher.

When interpreting the data, keep in mind that because this was a telephone survey, it under-represents groups less likely to have telephones, such as people with very low incomes.