But there is a problem: the system of social services that has been built up over past generations isn’t designed to increase poor people’s “capacity to aspire” and pursue their goals. Social services aren’t treated as part of an integrated process of human development. Just the opposite. Services are fragmented and clients are regularly shunted from agency to agency. Caseworkers serving people who are applying for public benefits don’t have the time, or the discretion, to get to know their clients, let alone brainstorm with them about problem solving.

Many Americans struggling in poverty today need more than financial assistance; they need help figuring out how to plug into a changing economy.

LIFT’s approach is grounded in the principle that change happens through relationships.

LIFT has spent more than a decade systematizing what amounts to a social technology.

They have looked closely at the human qualities required to address poverty. Above all, LIFT looks for volunteers who have demonstrated empathy.

Advocates are trained to treat clients with courtesy, to value their time, and to listen to their stories (while maintaining clear boundaries).

“Being treated politely is for many people a new experience.”

In fact, LIFT is seeing more people in the “near poor” or “newly poor” category.

Another problem which got worse during the crisis, but was growing beforehand, is suburban poverty.

As of 2008 more than a third of America’s poor live in suburbs.

The number of poor people living in the suburbs grew 53% between 2000 and 2010

The eightfold growth in the prison population from 1970 to 2010 has turned ever more poor decisions into poor lives.

Most poor children live in single-parent homes, and most families that are poor lack married parents.

The amount the federal government spends on food stamps hit a record $75.7 billion in the 2011 fiscal year—more than double the level of 2008. Enrolment in Medicaid, through which federal and state governments provide health care to low-income Americans, has grown every year since 2008, though its 2012 growth was the slowest since the recession began, and its spending grew at a lower level than enrolment because of federal and state cost-control measures. In 2011 states disbursed $113.3 billion in unemployment benefits to 9.9m recipients, as well as roughly $16.6 billion received in block grants as part of a federal programme called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

America is unusually reluctant, compared with other rich countries, about giving cash transfers to the poor.

Its benefits skew overwhelmingly toward families: the most a single person can claim is around $500, while a married couple with three or more dependent children can receive $5,000 or more. In 2010 $55 billion was paid out through the EITC, and $23 billion for the child tax credit.