Alaska has highest rate of welfare recipients in the U.S., Census says

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http://www.adn.com/article/20140903/alaska-has-highest-rate-welfare-recipients-us-census-says

Alaska has highest rate of welfare recipients in the U.S., Census says
Kyle Hopkins
September 3, 2014

Alaska has more residents on welfare, per capita, than any other state in the nation, according to figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

An updated tally of state-by-state public assistance rates shows 6 percent to 7 percent of Alaska families receive government help to pay their bills. That's more than twice the national average. The large seasonal tourism and fishing workforce, combined with more than 140 villages that are exempt from public assistance time limits because of few job opportunities, both contribute to the outsize rate.

“We also have a lot of transient types, people who come up in tourism jobs or oil jobs,” said Health Department spokesman Clay Butcher, who suspects the state welfare figures have improved since the 2012 American Community Survey that the new census data is based on.

The figures show no significant change in welfare rates nationwide. In Alaska, the number of families or households receiving a combination of state and federal checks grew from 15,757 in 2011 to 16,535 in 2012.