I have only taken a brief look at John Richards' report and I did note the conclusion you mention. I don't have a lot of comment on that. Quite frankly, I have not done a lot of work on the policy side, looking at connections between cuts or increases in various government programs and the relationship between those and poverty. I've focused a lot of my attention on measurement issues, definitional issues, and relating that to common understandings of terms, and so on.
I'll leave it at that. I wouldn't have the expertise to be able to comment any more than you have with the report by Richards.