CHAPTER 3. SERVICE RECIPIENTS

During 2006, an estimated 18,714,629 people received services supported, at least partially, by the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG).^[19] This chapter discusses the number of adults and children who benefited from services funded by the SSBG, by State and by service.

State agencies used various methods to count recipients of SSBG services. Some States reported all individuals who accessed a specific service in the State, regardless of the proportion of funding by the SSBG. Other States reported a proportion of total clients based on specific criteria, such as eligibility, clients of certain agencies, or programs that received SSBG funding. Despite this variation, State counts of service recipients were not adjusted, and all State recipient data were included in this report.

Recipients by State

California reported the largest number of people (3,758,336) who benefited from SSBG-funded services, while Pennsylvania was second with 3,426,428 recipients. Three other States—Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas—each reported serving more than 1,000,000 recipients and two other States—Tennessee and North Carolina—each reported serving more than 500,000 service recipients. These seven States comprised 68 percent of all SSBG recipients. California reported 20 percent of all SSBG recipients, Pennsylvania reported 18 percent of all SSBG recipients, and Texas reported 11 percent of all SSBG recipients. (See figure 3–1.)

Recipients by Service

In 2006, the largest number of service recipients was reported for child day care; in 41 States, approximately 4,797,849 children attended day care programs funded by the SSBG. These children comprised 26 percent of all reported SSBG recipients. When child day care clients were excluded from the total number of SSBG service recipients, the proportion of adults and children was 55 percent adults, 45 percent children.

Four other SSBG-funded services—case management, information and referral, child protective services, and special services for individuals with disabilities—benefited more than one million people each. (See figure 3–2.)

Age of Recipients

During 2006, 11,111,522 clients (59%) were children and 7,603,107 clients (41%) were adults. In four States—Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming—SSBG-funded services were provided entirely to children. Additionally, children accounted for more than 90 percent of the recipients in Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, and Tennessee. The States that served the most children were California (3,098,864), Pennsylvania (1,478,478), and Texas (1,072,924).

Many SSBG-supported services are designated specifically for children, such as child day care, child foster care, child protective services, adoption, and special services for youth at risk. States also reported some other service categories as provided to a large proportion of children, including health-related services (75%), pregnancy and parenting (72%), prevention and intervention (57%), residential treatment (57%), and counseling services (55%).

In addition to reporting adults and children separately, States reported the number of adults in two age categories—59 years and younger, and 60 years and older. Forty States submitted data for recipients in these categories.^[20] The analyses of recipient data by age include only these States.

Pennsylvania reported the largest number of recipients age 60 years and older (599,944). Eighty-eight percent of adults who accessed SSBG-funded services in Oklahoma were in the age category 60 years and older. More than 60 percent of adult clients in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee were in the age category of 60 years and older.

The service category with the largest proportion of adults age 60 years and older was congregate meals (97% of adults), followed by recreation services (91%) and home-delivered meals (90%). More than half of the adult clients of education and training, transportation services, and health-related services were in the age category 60 years and older.

Appendix F, tables F–5 and F–6, provide supporting data for this chapter.

Continue to Chapter 4