Child poverty in the U.S. would be significantly worse if government assistance programs weren't in place, a new report suggests. A study released on Wednesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, an advocacy group for low-income kids, found that without government support programs -- like food assistance, housing subsidies and tax credits -- the child poverty rate would swell from 18 percent to 33 percent. According to the foundation, the study, which used the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to track data, does a better job at gauging how government programs are benefiting low-income Americans than the federal government's official index -- a measure that was developed in the 1960s. As the report explains, the government's index "falls short of accurately estimating the current need" by not considering certain factors, such as varying cost of living levels across individual states. It also doesn't consider the impact of some of the government's biggest anti-poverty initiatives, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).