When you have a medical emergency you Call 911 but what happens in an economic Emergency when you have to choose Between paying your hospital bill and Groceries for your family the Wall Street Journal reports Americans are Turning to 211 a social service helpline Rachel wolf spoke to some of those who Work that Health uh that line she is a Consumer Trends reporter for the Wall Street Journal thank you so much for Joining us it was such a fascinating Story what can you tell us about 211 and Why people are turning to It people are not able to make ends meet At levels far higher than what the Federal poverty line represents these Call center operators were telling me I Got the chance to spend the day at a Call center outside Hartford and it was Really staggering to hear the types of Things that people were calling in about Just utterly unable to afford their Basic needs at a time when the federal Poverty line indicates that people Should be getting by okay the number of People under it really hasn't budged so Rachel when they were calling in what Were some of the um what were some of The the the balances they were trying to To meet or some of the challenges they Were trying to Meet so people call in to two onone About all sorts of different things
People experiencing homelessness who Need to find a Caretaker for their medical needs what I've focused on for my story though is The population of people who are calling In an increasing and very large numbers Who live above the federal poverty line Of $31,200 but under what they call this Alice line or asset limited income Constrained employed and these are People who are working but still unable To pay their rent and their car payment And everything else and still have Anything left over at the end of the Month so that's essentially what what's Sometimes called the the Working Poor uh Who are um and in what kind of a Position if you in the Working Poor what Is that how do what kind of a fix does That put you in if you are not below the Federal poverty line but um based on This this Alice threshold you're not Living a life that anybody would would Define as kind of being out of Poverty right it's hard because most People in this group are not eligible For any Services whatsoever most federal And state assistance is based on the Federal poverty line and again according To the federal poverty line there aren't More families living in poverty than There were 10 years ago there are However way more Alice families and
Again these people are not eligible for The types of services that people under The poverty line are they could be Making $1 above the poverty line or they Could be making in Connecticut the Bare minimum cost of living is as high As $126,000 for a family of four with two Young kids having to pay for child care So it's a pretty big range uh and it's Again all people who are working very Hard and just can't make it make it work And and one of the things that's so Interesting about the 211 calls is that You know navigating even if there are uh Benefits that might be available to you Navigate navigating them while you're Trying to hold down a job or or find Housing is itself a nightmare um were There for some of the callers were there Some um help that that the those who Answered the phone were able to get them To or in other words was it a lack of um Knowledge of what was out there uh or Was it mostly what you've been what We've been talking about which is really They just don't qualify because of the Income it's really that they just don't Qualify 211 is amazing they're able to Route people to thousands of different Services and providers there are 2on Ones all across the country and they Help with truly anything you can Possibly imagine including people
Calling in about tax questions identity Theft and but the people who they are Really struggling to help are those who Are not eligible for benefits where Benefits exist two inone operators are Able to connect people to them it's this Group that's calling in out of millions Of calls that they receive every year They said that this is really becoming One of the biggest shares and they're Hard pressed to help Rachel wolf Consumer Trends reporter for the Wall Street Journal thank you so much for Your reporting
