If you quilify for welfare do you get actual money?

No kidding!

I'm thinking I'd rethink my relationship with people like that.

I think it depends on the people you know. Our town was hit hard by an industry closing. 23% unemployment, can't sell their homes to move, etc. unemployment benefits stopped 6 months ago. Our food bank went from serving 100 a day to 500. :/ these are the people the system was set up to help. Short term, hard working folks, who have, as someone mentioned at some point, put their time and money into the system.

LOL.

I've always question where the heck people here hang out at. I volunteer in ?Camden NJ, one of the poorest towns in the USA and I've never seen all these examples of people living high on the hog, go to disney, driving esclades all off of food stamp abuse. :confused3

Personally if it was that easy and life was that great, I'm surprised everyone's not doing it. Always makes me go "hummmm" especially since human nature being what it is, folks tend to hang out with "like minded" individuals.

45.8 million folks on snap and the perception is that "I saw them all at the supermarket, with manicured nails, buying steaks driving a benz"


I totally acknowledge that there is fraud going on in our entitlement programs. I have yet to see any proof that it is anymore prevelant than the abuse going on in the Farm act bill, in the military spending or foreign aid assistance. all of which is tax payer funded.

I stand by my original comment. Along with obese people, it's still socially acceptable to blame them for all of our financial problems.
Ok, I'm done.
 
I totally acknowledge that there is fraud going on in our entitlement programs. I have yet to see any proof that it is anymore prevelant than the abuse going on in the Farm act bill, in the military spending or foreign aid assistance. all of which is tax payer funded.

:thumbsup2:thumbsup2

There is abuse in pretty much every gov program. They all need to be cleaned out.
 
My best friend hasn't worked in 15 years. She also has no bills and goes to sign her kids up for Christmas programs every year.They live really good because her boyfriend lives with her so all they money he brings into the house is free for them to spend as they like. So she's never put a dime toward raising the two children she decided to have. There's no use reporting it because there's no way to prove he lives there. His name isn't on anything and he receives no mail there. There's also no way to prove how much money someone has because you can just tell them you don't have a bank account.

First, why is this woman your "best friend" if you think these things about her? If someone was doing something I strongly disagreed with (and I knew about it) they would not be my "best friend." With a "best friend" that is going to judge you so harshly behind your back, who needs enemies?

Secondly, if the woman herself has a bank account, the state should be able to track it using her SSN (which you have to provide to both open a bank account and apply for assistance).
 
So, maybe there should be a welfare registry listing like sex offenders, and you can look up on the Internet where people live who are get any type of government assistance, and then you can do a "knock and announce" and barge into their house to see how your tax dollars are being spent?

:lmao:

Unfortunately, I would not be surprised if some on this thread see this as a good idea.
 

I think it is disgraceful that an injured soldier's family NEEDS food stamps, and I'm am damn sure I feel he "earned" them. Do I think ANYONE should be standing in the supermarket judging the content of his families cart? Hell no. It can be all steaks and Twinkies for all I care if it makes him happy.

That brings up a good point. You have NO idea what a person's situation is. I think some states give an EBT card to foster parents. In some states, many types of food and cash benefits come on ONE card. An able-bodied non-working welfare queen? EBT card. Low income children receiving death benefits from the death of a parent? EBT card. Mom receiving child support from the father via support enforcement? EBT card. I mean, if a mom is receiving child support from her child's father and it happens to be loaded on an EBT card, who are you to judge how she spends the money? And how do you tell the difference between her and the welfare queen when they are both paying with the same card?
 
I didn't want to get into this but it always amazes me that people don't think welfare and food stamp fraud are that prevalent.. I grew up around it, was briefly on it myself after I had my child, and still know lots of people on it. When I was growing up people weren't too quick to buy them and guys didn't want to use them because they were paper. They stuck together, came in many books, and were just embarrassing to use. The only thing the card did was increase food stamp fraud. Now, lots of people buy them and lots of young able bodied men go join the program. My 25 year old male cousin gets $200 a month which he sells because he lives with a girl that gets her own. They don't pay rent or utilities, get free food and cell phones. What incentive do they have to work? At tax time they charge someone to claim their kids so that's money in their pockets. This is not just one couple I'm referencing, this includes many people. My best friend hasn't worked in 15 years. She also has no bills and goes to sign her kids up for Christmas programs every year.They live really good because her boyfriend lives with her so all they money he brings into the house is free for them to spend as they like. So she's never put a dime toward raising the two children she decided to have. There's no use reporting it because there's no way to prove he lives there. His name isn't on anything and he receives no mail there. There's also no way to prove how much money someone has because you can just tell them you don't have a bank account. It's not just the lazy people getting over. A co-worker lied and said her husband had left her so that they could get WIC and stamps. She found out about that trick through word of mouth. Again,you can't prove she's lying. Finally, there are people that work in the office that hook up there friends or family by conducting phone interviews. I do think they're trying to crack down on that though. I could go on and on. This system is being exploited to the point that it's going to bankrupt us one day. These people look at it as free money. They don't realize the government has no money. Believe me, the truly needy aren't getting any assistance. Elderly people have paid into this system and are the most dependent group on healthy eating and they can't get but $15 or $20 month. They're trying to live on a set amount of money and buy medicine and the system will let them starve but reward someone for popping out multiple babies. It's crazy. And people that work but don't make enough to make ends meet aren't getting help either. There's got to be a better way.

The thing about this is that not only do people abuse it but the government works to keep people on welfare. Here's an example from a story I know of..

A single mom going to college (online) with no family and no one to watch her child. She has no money. She can't get daycare help until she has a job. She can't get a job because she has no one to watch her baby until she gets paid or until daycare goes through. This means even no one to watch the baby for an interview. So she applies for food stamps and cash assistance. She gets denied cash assistance because she hasn't gone for child support. And she hasn't gone for child support because you can't do that without going for custody first. Right now the drug idled son of a ***** father is leaving her alone but if she opens that can. He'll get the baby at least a day a week. No one can trust that. So she takes the food stamps and nothing else. Now she does get insurance for both mom and child. Now she can eat. And she's living off student loans. She is stuck because right now she can eat and take her baby to the doctor. But as soon as she gets a job all that goes away and that whole minimum wage paycheck would go to daycare and you are back to not having enough money for food and insurance. You are stuck in the system.

This is what needs to change. People stay in the system because they can't afford to go to work literally. The minimum wage needs raised and they need to give more help to single parents who don't have help to get jobs.

There is more wrong with the system than fraud.

And for the record whoever said that the OP should report her daughters friend. Don't judge. You don't have all the information. She could get the money from an uncle for manicures because she cleans his house once a week. Or something like that. It could be anything and guessing is wrong. You can't report someone and put them through hell when you don't know the whole story. Don't judge others ever. It's rude.

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Muushka said:
:thumbsup2:thumbsup2

There is abuse in pretty much every gov program. They all need to be cleaned out.

I love you. LoL. That's what I totally don't understand, why is it A ok to beat up ok the poor?
My Dh worked in the oil industry. Does anyone here have a clue how much funding and abuse the big 3 oil giants get? Yet that's not a problem as long as we get cheap gas.
 
I love you. LoL. That's what I totally don't understand, why is it A ok to beat up ok the poor? My Dh worked in the oil industry. Does anyone here have a clue how much funding and abuse the big 3 oil giants get? Yet that's not a problem as long as we get cheap gas.

Cheap gas? What's that? Oh wait I kinda have a distant memory of that lol

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First, why is this woman your "best friend" if you think these things about her? If someone was doing something I strongly disagreed with (and I knew about it) they would not be my "best friend." With a "best friend" that is going to judge you so harshly behind your back, who needs enemies?

Secondly, if the woman herself has a bank account, the state should be able to track it using her SSN (which you have to provide to both open a bank account and apply for assistance).

First of all, yes she's my best friend because I grew up with her and just like a friend I tell her all the time that she needs to get off her butt and do better for herself and kids. That she's raising her kids the same way she complained about her mom raising her. So I wouldn't be a friend if I didn't share my feelings WITH HER!! And she hasn't killed anybody or did anything but what the system allows her to do. So why would I stop being her friend for that??

Second of all, the government or at least the department that handles stamps can not check your status for bank accounts. I'm sure that they "technically" could but aren't allowed to.
 
One final point, before I clean my house and make a very healthy shopping list in case anyone is staring at me in the grocery store :rotfl:
By all standards welfare/food stamp fraud and waste are reported as low to average for any government program. But of that fraud&waste (in one study as high as 10%, in most others much lower) every report says administrative fraud/waste is the bulk of it and most of that is incompetence - not deliberate, intentional theft but basically stupid mistakes made by administrators.

That being the case perhaps we should be monitoring THEIR grocery carts, cars, and lifestyle ... if they are causing the bulk of abuse and waste in the system.

Seriously though if people can't adjust their mindset to think we should be addressing all governmental waste and the white collar fraud that really costs us as taxpayers rather than attacking our safety net systems, then shouldn't we at least be outraged by what causes most of that fraud in these systems... but you never hear comments about those food stamp administrators with their done nails and hair, who are screwing up and costing us hard working tax payer's money.
 
The thing about this is that not only do people abuse it but the government works to keep people on welfare. Here's an example from a story I know of..

A single mom going to college (online) with no family and no one to watch her child. She has no money. She can't get daycare help until she has a job. She can't get a job because she has no one to watch her baby until she gets paid or until daycare goes through. This means even no one to watch the baby for an interview. So she applies for food stamps and cash assistance. She gets denied cash assistance because she hasn't gone for child support. And she hasn't gone for child support because you can't do that without going for custody first. Right now the drug idled son of a ***** father is leaving her alone but if she opens that can. He'll get the baby at least a day a week. No one can trust that. So she takes the food stamps and nothing else. Now she does get insurance for both mom and child. Now she can eat. And she's living off student loans. She is stuck because right now she can eat and take her baby to the doctor. But as soon as she gets a job all that goes away and that whole minimum wage paycheck would go to daycare and you are back to not having enough money for food and insurance. You are stuck in the system.

This is what needs to change. People stay in the system because they can't afford to go to work literally. The minimum wage needs raised and they need to give more help to single parents who don't have help to get jobs.

There is more wrong with the system than fraud.

And for the record whoever said that the OP should report her daughters friend. Don't judge. You don't have all the information. She could get the money from an uncle for manicures because she cleans his house once a week. Or something like that. It could be anything and guessing is wrong. You can't report someone and put them through hell when you don't know the whole story. Don't judge others ever. It's rude.

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Shay you have a great point and a good heart. I certainly can sympathize with a scenario like that. That's why it's important to think before you have children. I know it's easier said than done, but it's important to be stable before you have kids. I've been in that boat. I chose to be on the system and not work while I attended school. Once I graduated college I obtained a good job and came off the programs. I have a nice salary, but I only had as many children as I could afford. I talk to my kids constantly about determining the right time to start a family and I point out the mistakes of people around us as examples. And my problem with this system is that it does make it easier to just not work at all.....help people that are trying to help themselves. I don't think minimum wage jobs should pay wages to maintain a family. If that's the case, why seek higher education? Why graduate high school? Those jobs should be for kids or second jobs. Why should someone taking orders or manning a drive-thru earn as much as someone busting their butt on an assembly line or someone with a degree?
 
mandy14 said:
I would say to do something specifically for the kids. My sister was on welfare as well as had medicare for her kids. She was getting student loans and her husband was working under the table. He was making about $50,000 per year. Her rent was $250 per month on government assistance. I know for a fact that she was getting weekly manicures and monthly hair appointments as well as tattoos. She told us that she deserved all of these things. Her kids and herself have always had cell phones and all of the latest gadgets. The welfare system is severely flawed. Her circle of friends were just like her. On a side note, I tried to get her kids gifts for Christmas feeling the same as you and they had EVERYTHING. They even made fun of the gifts we gave them. She still claims that she deserves this money from the government. On my podium--if you are getting any type of government assistance you should not be getting hair done, manicures, have cell phones. If these are gifts then sell them for food. If you are exchanging for babysitting then get a job that will pay money. I do see there are many people that need government assistance but too many get it that don't need it and that is a fact.

I havent read all 14 pages yet but this story reminded me of one that was told here in MO. I was working nights at Walmart to pay for Christmas I was there for less then 90 days. Anyways. Lots of interesting people at night. One gal I worked with her niece was receiving 2400 dollars a month on welfare. She had 5 kids and one on the way. All by the same guy but she didnt claim him or wouldnt marry him because of the money they were receiving, even though he lives with her and works. There are no check ups on these ppl... its a joke... it ruins it for the ones who really do need it...the ones who really dont want to be on it but have to because they need to feed their kids... its sad
 
LOL.

I've always question where the heck people here hang out at. I volunteer in ?Camden NJ, one of the poorest towns in the USA and I've never seen all these examples of people living high on the hog, go to disney, driving esclades all off of food stamp abuse. :confused3

Personally if it was that easy and life was that great, I'm surprised everyone's not doing it. Always makes me go "hummmm" especially since human nature being what it is, folks tend to hang out with "like minded" individuals.

First of all, I'm not like minded. I just don't allow the circumstances of others to affect my dealings with them.

Well, I don't judge people in the store because I don't know their situation. I judge based on what I know. Like I said, I grew up in a neighborhood full of it and I have friends and family members on it. Now, I come from a hard working, middle-class family. It's my younger cousins that are all learning about the loopholes in the system that are going on these programs....and they're all male. I tell them all the time that it's a shame that the state is giving them(young, healthy, strong men) food stamps. I work in a hospital with professional people, and I can't count how many purchase food stamps from somebody.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there aren't needy, poor people.....there are way too many of them. I'm saying the truly needy aren't getting what they need because of the way the program is set up and the fraud.
 
Shay you have a great point and a good heart. I certainly can sympathize with a scenario like that. That's why it's important to think before you have children. I know it's easier said than done, but it's important to be stable before you have kids. I've been in that boat. I chose to be on the system and not work while I attended school. Once I graduated college I obtained a good job and came off the programs. I have a nice salary, but I only had as many children as I could afford. I talk to my kids constantly about determining the right time to start a family and I point out the mistakes of people around us as examples. And my problem with this system is that it does make it easier to just not work at all.....help people that are trying to help themselves. I don't think minimum wage jobs should pay wages to maintain a family. If that's the case, why seek higher education? Why graduate high school? Those jobs should be for kids or second jobs. Why should someone taking orders or manning a drive-thru earn as much as someone busting their butt on an assembly line or someone with a degree?

I do agree you should try to wait to make a family until time is right but it doesn't always go like that. Look at me. I was on birth control and used a condom and I got pregnant with my DS. I was a kid 19. But I do my best. I work hard and he's in catholic school and I do whatever I can being a young single mom. I didn't plan it but that happens.

My one friend her husband works over 50 hours a week to support her family. They need food stamps until she can find a job.

I think my point is that not everything is black and white an people judge so harshly (not you) but some other comments on here.

Yes people abuse the system but not everyone one and people seem to automatically assume that whoever is on welfare automatically is a lazy piece of **** and needs to be reported for buying a snickers bar or taking there kid to see a movie or even buying themselves a manicure without knowing the whole story.

Sorry for the rant. I get emotional lol.

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Why does everyone jump on the "BUT SHE GETS MANICURES" bandwagon?????

It costs me $15 every two weeks to get my nails done. (no need to go every week). So, she could put back a grand total of $7.50 a week toward this one little thing for herself. Yep that huge amount should get her off the welfare roles :rolleyes:

I will never understand why we tell our kids "do not judge someone until you walk in their shoes" and yet we do it every day. Until you have lived on welfare/food stamps and the rest, don't judge because you have no idea what it is like.
 
Your forgetting the fact that "some" welfare recipients, dont pay into the system or that they take more then they pay into.

So explain how that is ok?

You can't write rules only to address the extremes. Most people do pay in - they pay before they have kids, they pay when times are good as a family, and they pay after the little deductions leave the nest. That's the cycle of taxation in America, not just for those low enough income to need assistance but for much of the lower middle class as well. Yes, some receive more than they ever pay in but most pay in more than they ever receive, and since you can't make a determination based on future earnings and tax rates I don't think there's any way to "fix" that. .
 
First of all, yes she's my best friend because I grew up with her and just like a friend I tell her all the time that she needs to get off her butt and do better for herself and kids. That she's raising her kids the same way she complained about her mom raising her. So I wouldn't be a friend if I didn't share my feelings WITH HER!! And she hasn't killed anybody or did anything but what the system allows her to do. So why would I stop being her friend for that??

Second of all, the government or at least the department that handles stamps can not check your status for bank accounts. I'm sure that they "technically" could but aren't allowed to.

I don't understand. You decry the fraud but you're not willing to help stop the fraud. You say it cannot be proven, but that's exactly what an investigation works to do, i.e. prove whether fraud is taking place. The system doesn't allow one to lie about your living situation, nor does it allow one to sell your food stamps, nor does it allow many other things you state are occurring. And some things, like allowing somebody else to claim your children on your taxes, is black and white fraud, as there are easy definitions to define who can claim a child. Help put an end to the fraud if you think it's an issue.
 
Why does everyone jump on the "BUT SHE GETS MANICURES" bandwagon????? It costs me $15 every two weeks to get my nails done. (no need to go every week). So, she could put back a grand total of $7.50 a week toward this one little thing for herself. Yep that huge amount should get her off the welfare roles :rolleyes: I will never understand why we tell our kids "do not judge someone until you walk in their shoes" and yet we do it every day. Until you have lived on welfare/food stamps and the rest, don't judge because you have no idea what it is like.

:thumbsup2

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I don't understand. You decry the fraud but you're not willing to help stop the fraud. You say it cannot be proven, but that's exactly what an investigation works to do, i.e. prove whether fraud is taking place. The system doesn't allow one to lie about your living situation, nor does it allow one to sell your food stamps, nor does it allow many other things you state are occurring. And some things, like allowing somebody else to claim your children on your taxes, is black and white fraud, as there are easy definitions to define who can claim a child. Help put an end to the fraud if you think it's an issue.

Let me tell you something. No it doesn't allow these things, nor does it do anything to prevent it. If someone has their boyfriend living with them, the extent of an investigation is to address it with the person receiving the stamps....of course they're going to deny it. You can't tell them they can't have guests or that the father can't come spend time with their kids. The government doesn't have the resources to stake out someone's residence 24 hours to see if additional people are living there. Once upon a time, the investigators would interview neighbors but people stopped cooperating and it became a safety concern to send these people to the homes of strangers. Not to mention manpower became a issue. So how do you combat something like that?

As for selling food stamps?? I don't know who my co-workers purchase stamps from nor do I do know who my cousins sell them to. So how could I do anything about that? They can't just cut someone's benefits off because of a random call claiming that person is selling their stamps. They can't follow them around while they make purchases. But they could do something as simple as put their photo on the card and make sure businesses make comparisons. Oh....but then they'd just start going to the store with or for the folks wanting to buy the stamps.

And the tax scam has been going on over 20 years. People claiming kids they aren't even related to. Sometimes people get caught because they claim a different child every year and some never get caught. Even the IRS is aware of how out of control this has become. Instead of making it harder, they've made it easier with online filing and you never have to see anyone that may suspect you're doing something illegal. Heck, most of these ideas came from the tax preparers themselves. These people didn't know about filing fake returns as self-employed until word of mouth from tax preparers. Again, this is something that can be fought but isn't. How can you receive benefits all year long for a child you say is your dependent and then someone else claim them that year as their dependent AND says they lived with them all year long?? How can you tell an agency you don't have any money coming in and then file a return as self-employed at the end of the year. It couldn't be done if there was a little more cross-referencing.

So what exactly am I supposed to do if the government isn't actively trying to stop this from occurring?
 
I love you. LoL. That's what I totally don't understand, why is it A ok to beat up ok the poor?
My Dh worked in the oil industry. Does anyone here have a clue how much funding and abuse the big 3 oil giants get? Yet that's not a problem as long as we get cheap gas.

I think they should stop funding all businesses. Take a look at the BILLIONS given to bogus green energy. Talk about a waste of tax payers money. Another one bit the dust the other day.

It is croney capitalism and the few get rich and the tax payer gets the bill.
 












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