BY THE NUMBERS: Data on Key Programs for the Well-Being of Women, LGBTQI+ People, and Their Families 

The Advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC) is a refundable tax credit that helps people with low and moderate incomes pay insurance premiums for health insurance purchased through the Health Insurance Marketplace. In 2024, 92% of Marketplace enrollees received APTCs, with women making up the majority of Marketplace enrollments (nearly 11.2 million out of 21.4 million total enrollees). At least 9.4 million women received APTCs, though the true number may be closer to or above 10.3 million.

The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program provides grants to states for supplemental food, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum people, and for infants and children up to age 5.  

Women and caregivers face especially precarious economic circumstances as they welcome a new baby. The combination of increased unpaid caregiving responsibilities, the lack of family-friendly supports like paid leave and affordable, high-quality child care, and the increased costs associated with raising young children are squeezing families with young children especially hard. One in six children under age 5 were poor in 2023, the highest poverty rate of any age group.

• In FY 2024, WIC served over 6.7 million women, infants, and children.
• WIC served 39% of all infants in the United States in FY 2023.
• WIC is a critical support for pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women and for children birth to five:  
• In 2023, over one in three (34%) of adult women WIC recipients had incomes below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). 
• In 2023, more than six in 10 (64%) of adult women recipients were women of color. 
• In 2019, 17% of LGBTQ women living with children participated in WIC compared to 11% of non-LGBTQ women and 5% of non-LGBTQ men living with children.

WIC moved 220,000 people out of poverty as measured by the SPM in 2023, including 103,000 children and 71,000 women.

National school meals programs provide federally assisted meals in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care facilities.

Any student in a participating school can get a National School Lunch Program (NSLP) lunch regardless of the student’s household income. Free lunches are available to children who live in households with incomes at or below 130% of the FPL. Reduced-price lunches are available to children in households with incomes between 130% and 185% of the FPL. 

• The NSLP provided nutritious lunches, 73% of which were served as free or reduced-price meals, to almost 30 million children in FY 2024.
• In 2019, 39% of LGBTQ women living with children participated in the NSLP, compared to 23% of non-LGBTQ women and 12% of non-LGBTQ men living with children.

In 2023, the NSLP moved nearly 1.2 million people out of poverty as measured by the SPM, including 650,000 children and 319,000 women (85,000 of whom are Black, 144,000 of whom are Latina, and 75,000 of whom are white, non-Hispanic).

The School Breakfast Program (SBP) served breakfast to nearly 12 million children in FY 2024; 80% of those meals were free or reduced-price.

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) provides nutritious meals and snacks to children in child care centers and at home-based child care providers, afterschool programs, and homeless shelters, and to senior citizens at senior day care centers.  

• In FY 2024 the program served over 4.7 million people. Over that year, over 1.7 billion meals were served, about 96% of which were served by home-based child care providers and child care centers.
• Free and reduced-price meals accounted for 80% of all meals served through CACFP in FY 2024.

Programs administered by Federal Student Aid provide a pathway to educational opportunity for many students, particularly students from families with low incomes. These programs can also provide affordable payment options that allow borrowers to repay their student loans while managing everyday living expenses.  

• Women in undergraduate programs are more likely to take out loans for their education and they take out more money on average compared to their male peers.
• The gender pay gap contributes to a student loan repayment gap. Women with bachelor’s degrees who worked full time typically were paid 73 cents for every dollar their male peers were paid in 2023. Women take about two years longer than men to repay student loans, based on data from 2008–2012.
• One in three (34%) women repaying student loan debt experiences financial difficulties. The share is higher among Black women (57%) and Hispanic women (42%) than white women (30%) who are repaying student loan debt, based on data from 2008–2012.
• Black women are more burdened with student loan debt than any other demographic. On average, they graduate with $38,800 in federal undergraduate loans and $58,252 in student loan debt after graduate school, based on 2016–2017 data.
• Student parents, approximately 70% of whom are women, particularly struggle to afford higher education. Researchers have found that a student parent would need to work 52 hours per week (at state minimum wage) to cover the costs of child care and tuition at a four-year public college or university.
• LGBTQ adults ages 18 to 40 are more likely to have federal student loans than non-LGBTQ adults (35% vs. 23%), according to a 2021 survey.

Access to affordable student loan repayment pathways, and student loan programs with reasonable borrowing terms are important to making higher education accessible for women, particularly women with children. Relief for borrowers overwhelmed by student debt also would benefit women, especially women of color, along with other marginalized groups who are more likely to default on student loans. The Biden administration attempted to address student loan debt by proposing several student loan forgiveness plans that were challenged in the courts, and by reforming the Department of Education’s income-driven repayment program, disability discharge program, public service loan forgiveness program, and the “borrower defense” program for students who had attended predatory for-profit institutions. But the Department of Education has recently resumed collection of defaulted student loans, which will impact the incomes and wealth of millions of women and LGBTQI+ people. 

In 2023, educational assistance lifted over 1 million people out of poverty as measured by the SPM, including 497,000 adult women (131,000 of whom are Black, 109,000 of whom are Latina, 67,000 of whom are Asian, and 175,000 of whom are white, non-Hispanic).

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is a federal, partially refundable tax credit for families with children. For Tax Year 2021, the ARPA expanded the CTC, including by allowing families with low incomes to receive the full value of the credit by making it wholly refundable. These expansions reduced child poverty and helped women and their families meet basic needs, like housing, groceries, medicine, and child care. However, these expansions expired at the end of 2021. 

• In 2024, 47 million families received the CTC when they filed their tax returns for the 2023 Tax Year. The average amount was roughly $2,703.   

The refundable portion of the CTC moved 2.3 million people out of poverty as measured by the SPM in 2023, including 1.3 million children and 535,000 women (113,000 of whom are Black, 246,000 of whom are Latina, and 138,000 of whom are white, non-Hispanic women). 

The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) helps families cover the costs of out-of-pocket child and dependent care expenses incurred in order to work or look for work. For Tax Year 2021, the ARPA expanded the CDCTC, including by increasing the maximum amount of the credit and by making the credit refundable. These expansions expired at the end of 2021, so the CDCTC, which is no longer refundable, continues to provide limited assistance to families with low incomes. 

• In 2024, 7 million families received the CDCTC when they filed their tax returns for the 2023 Tax Year. The average credit amount was roughly $800.

Social Security protects workers and their families from income loss due to retirement, disability, or death. It covers nearly all workers and their families, not just those with low incomes, but keeps more people out of poverty than any other program. Social Security is especially important to women’s economic security:  

• Women made up over 55% of Social Security beneficiaries ages 62 and older and 62% of beneficiaries ages 85 and older at the end of December 2024.
• While women historically have relied more on income from Social Security than men do, because of gender inequities in employment, women, on average, receive lower benefits than men.  
• As of December 2023, the average Social Security benefit for retired women 65 and older was only about $1,739 a month or $20,866 per year. 
• In contrast, the average Social Security benefit for retired men 65 and older was about $2,136 a month or $25,637 per year.

Social Security kept more than 27.6 million people out of poverty as measured by the SPM in 2023, including 14.6 million women (1.9 million of whom are Black, 1.5 million of whom are Latina, 515,000 of whom are Asian, and 10.5 million of whom are white, non-Hispanic).  

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a core component of Social Security’s old age, survivor, and disability insurance (OASDI) program. The program insures workers who have experienced a serious and long-lasting disability, providing modest but essential income to support them and their families if they are unable to work. But applicants for SSDI benefits face significant delays in processing their claims.

• As of December 2023, SSDI served 8.5 million people, including more than 4.2 million women and girls.

• Gender inequities in employment also led to inequities in average SSDI benefits for disabled workers—about $16,657 annually for disabled women, compared to $20,232 for disabled men as of December 2023.

• In 2020, 15% of LGBTQ women and 13% of nonbinary/genderqueer individuals reported that their family received SSDI in the past year. 

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) provides income support for low-income individuals who are elderly or living with disabilities. But benefits are very low, such that the maximum benefit amount in 2022 was only three-fourths of the FPL. In addition, some of the key features of the program have not been updated in nearly 40 years and SSI benefits have not kept pace with the cost of living, meaning that rising costs push SSI recipients further into poverty every year. 

• In January 2024, 7.3 million individuals received SSI benefits averaging $672 per month.
• In 2023, more than half (55%) of adult SSI recipients were women; almost two-thirds (64%) of SSI beneficiaries ages 65 and older were women.

SSI kept over 2.5 million people out of poverty as measured by the SPM in 2023, including 1.2 million women (299,000 of whom are Black, 236,000 of whom are Latina, 48,000 of whom are Asian, and 556,000 of whom are white, non-Hispanic). 

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is a block grant to states to fund income assistance, work supports, and other services, including child care, for children and parents with low incomes. Over the years, fewer and fewer TANF dollars are spent providing direct assistance to families, and states have enacted a range of barriers to accessing this assistance, leading to a dramatic decrease in the number of poor families served by TANF over the past 25 years.

• In 2023, more than eight in 10 (82%) adults served by TANF were women.
• TANF provided assistance to over 840,000 families on average each month in FY 2024, including over 1.5 million children on average each month.
• In 2020, for every 100 families with children in poverty, only 21 families received income assistance through TANF, the lowest “TANF-to-poverty ratio” (TPR) in history.
• In 2023, 30% of adult TANF recipients were Black, 34% were Latinx, 3% were Asian, 1% were American Indian or Alaskan Native, and 28% were white.
• In 2020, 7% of LGBTQ women and 12% of nonbinary/genderqueer individuals reported receiving TANF in the past year.