This measure represents the number of households which rely upon government support to meet their basic needs.

In 2016-20, 2.9% of Lancaster County households received public assistance income. This rate is slightly below the state rate (3.2%), and slightly above the national rate (2.4%), and is 1.1% higher than the rate in 2000.

During the same period, 6.5% of residents in the City of Lancaster received temporary assistance. This level was down slightly from 6.7% in 2000.

Lancaster County's rate in 2016-20 was similar or higher than all neighboring counties, with the exception of Dauphin, at 3.0%.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a federally funded program administered at the state level, meaning that eligibility requirements vary from state to state. ACS does not ask specifically which program provides the income, although TANF is the primary source of public assistance funds. Families are eligible for TANF benefits for up to 60 months, although most receive assistance for shorter periods of time.

Studies have found that national survey estimates (including the ACS) of enrollment in public benefit programs tend to underestimate the true rate due to underreporting by participants, when compared with state-level administrative data. Underreporting can occur for a variety of reasons, including the social stigma of program participation and participants' confusion about the source of the services they receive. For these reasons, the estimates reported above should be considered a lower bound of the true estimate.