Intergenerational poverty

The 2013 phase of Utah's fight against intergenerational poverty follows up on 2012 legislation requiring the state Department of Workforce Services to create a system to track intergenerational poverty data, and promises to focus on education, income and parents.

Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, is leading the charge this year, with a plan to sponsor legislation to establish a commission to study new data on intergenerational poverty in Utah and to come up with policy and recommendations to break the cycle.

In Utah, children in poverty make up just under 16 percent of the state's child population, numbering 136,751.

According to Reid, one of the key challenges of addressing intergenerational poverty is that government agencies that serve low-income people use the same approach when dealing with people in poverty, whether it's situational or intergenerational.

A report, released in September, found that the longer adults experience poverty as a children, they longer they are likely to be in poverty as adults, and that the more impoverished a person is during childhood, the more likely that person is to receive public assistance as an adult.

The commission's recommendations won't be known for at least another year, the Deseret News reported, but Glenn Bailey of the Crossroads Urban Center said breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty would require giving parents an opportunity, through job training or education, to earn higher incomes.

Follow the Deseret News' ongoing legislative coverage to learn more about intergenerational poverty and other issues that matter to Utah families.