Final answer:
Providing targeted assistance can improve children's health and help families achieve economic self-sufficiency, avoiding the poverty trap with properly structured programs like EITC and TANF. Long-term poverty alleviation involves increasing human capital and wealth accumulation.
Step-by-step explanation:
One important benefit of providing assistance to a family to maximize the support they can provide to a person is the improvement of children's health and family well-being. When support is tailored correctly, it can affect not only the economic self-sufficiency of the family but also the health and overall household consumption, especially when the mother controls a larger share of the family income.
To avoid the poverty trap, assistance programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) incentivize work, while programs like TANF limit assistance over time and require work or training. Long-term solutions include increasing human capital through education and skill development as well as encouraging savings and geographic mobility.