One of the reasons that the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is an insufficient indicator of economic security is that it does not include, or even contemplate, the costs of childcare in its calculations — yet, as generations of working Rhode Islanders know, childcare is one of a family's biggest expenses.
Key finding No. 3 in the 2010 RISN shines a bright spotlight on this reality, and at the same time clearly exemplifies the benefit cliff effect.
A single parent with two children (a toddler and a school-aged child) who earned one dollar over the state childcare program income eligibility limit would lose that subsidy and have her childcare costs jump from $220 a month to $1,321 a month.