The United States welfare budget totaled $1.048 trillion in fiscal year 2024, or 16% of all federal outlays. Eight different federal agencies run welfare. This webpage pulls agency information to show a combined federal welfare budget. The welfare program makeup is shown below. State and local welfare spending is available here.
Size of Welfare Budget
When added together, the 13 federal government welfare programs have historically represented the third-largest entitlement program – larger than the Unemployment and Medicaid Programs and smaller than Medicare and Social Security. In fiscal year 2016, Medicaid spending surpassed welfare spending on the 13 programs due to the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) – see the Medicaid page.
Welfare Programs, including the Medicaid Program, represent 16% of the federal budget.
Total Federal Spending Including Welfare
The chart to the right shows total federal spending, in billions, from fiscal year 2022 through 2024.
The federal budget increased from $6.3 trillion in 2022 to $6.8 trillion in 2024. Welfare spending decreased from $1.215 to $1.048 billion. The drop in costs reflects the expiration of welfare expansion due to the CoronaVirus Pandemic.
More.
Federal Spending By Welfare Program
The welfare budget of the federal government is comprised of 13 unique programs, as shown below.
Coronavirus relief increased costs in the SNAP, Child Tax Credit, and Housing Assistance Programs in 2020 and 2021. The expiration of these benefits caused costs to drop from 2022 to 2024.
For more information, see the Coronavirus Relief Bill.
Picture of the Welfare Budget
Here is a picture of the entire welfare system from 1964 to 2024 and further information on the picture.
More on welfare growth.
Here is additional information on Entitlements, Welfare, and Poverty:
Spending numbers come from USGovernmentSpending.com. Retrieved March 13, 2023. Available here. Account descriptions for each welfare line item within USGovernmentSpending.com are shown on individual program pages, such as SNAP.