Oh, sure...I have a sister with two kids....she doesn’t “work”...hasn’t for years....single....lives in Section 8 housing...I do know she got a bit of child support...other than that...NO INCOME...but her two kids have cell phones, and they live quite well (if you judged them by their size, you’d say lived QUITE well.) She probably is on a “disability” for all I know....So...how do we get HER to pay any taxes???
I would say that the money she receives from ANY source (including the Feds) counts as income. But the truth of the matter is that the issue you describe is a SPENDING problem, as opposed to a tax COLLECTION problem.