Things that make you shake your head!

[marie1203]

No that is not what I said!!!!!!! I said that they are paid off of what "taxpayers contribute". It was in reference to the statement about having no right to judge or whatever because they are paid, or whatever was said, by "taxpayers' contributions". Soldier's incomes as well as the money for disabled Veterans are also from taxes paid by the taxpayers. I know all about the military as I served but thank you for all your family has also given up.

Oh and the military has every reason to complain about not getting paid enough as they don't.

Yes but the main point you are leaving out is that they WORK for it. Just like teachers, police and etc. I just don't think it really compares one to the other. People that just get money from the system and people that work for the money are two very different things.

 

[Katy Belle]

I found this on-line...it was in a table, but it didn't copy exactly... not sure of the state, I had seen it before...
Anyway...we are a family of 5, not on any sort of assistance and we budget $600 a month for groceries. It looks like we would get up to $793 on Food STamps.
------------------
Maximum Food Stamp Benefits by Household Size

Household Size
Maximum Monthly Food Stamp Benefit, 2010

1
$200

2
$367

3
$526

4
$668

5
$793

6
$952

7
$1052

Each Additional Person $150

 

[Colleen27]

I found this on-line...it was in a table, but it didn't copy exactly... not sure of the state, I had seen it before...
Anyway...we are a family of 5, not on any sort of assistance and we budget $600 a month for groceries. It looks like we would get up to $793 on Food STamps.

I'm always so impressed reading some budget boarder's grocery bills, I can't ever seem to get mine that low. Those food stamp allotments seem pretty close to in line with what we spend for our family of 5. We don't really budget by month because I try to shop locally and seasonally, and I put up a lot of things from my gardens and the farmers' markets for winter, but over a year it averages out to around $800/mo for cooking mostly from scratch, making my own jams and salsas, baking most but not all of our bread/buns/rolls, etc.

 

[ccgirl]

I found this on-line...it was in a table, but it didn't copy exactly... not sure of the state, I had seen it before...
Anyway...we are a family of 5, not on any sort of assistance and we budget $600 a month for groceries. It looks like we would get up to $793 on Food STamps.
------------------
Maximum Food Stamp Benefits by Household Size

Household Size
Maximum Monthly Food Stamp Benefit, 2010

1
$200

2
$367

3
$526

4
$668

5
$793

6
$952

7
$1052

Each Additional Person $150

WOw! That is just crazy!!!! I am not sure where it is from but I live in MA which has a pretty high cost of living. I have a family of 4, plus a dog and come nowhere close to the $668 that I could qualify if my income met it. I just don't have that much in my budget. I find a way to get by on $400 a month and we're still eating very well ...steak, organic spinach. I don't have problems with anyone that needs the help but if that is the true $$ amount, I have HUGE problem with that.

 

[Katy Belle]

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1269

Here is the link for the table I posted above. It looks like its a guideline, but each state must be different.

 

[No.17CherryTreeLane]

I found this on-line...it was in a table, but it didn't copy exactly... not sure of the state, I had seen it before...
Anyway...we are a family of 5, not on any sort of assistance and we budget $600 a month for groceries. It looks like we would get up to $793 on Food STamps.
------------------
Maximum Food Stamp Benefits by Household Size

Household Size
Maximum Monthly Food Stamp Benefit, 2010

1
$200

2
$367

3
$526

4
$668

5
$793

6
$952

7
$1052

Each Additional Person $150

So do the recipients of food stamps receive higher benefits for each new baby they add to the family?

Each time we had a baby, we had to find a way to stretch our existing grocery budget even further. A new baby certainly didn't result in an higher budget (although that would've been great).

 

[DMRick]

Unless I'm reading this wrong

The Food Stamp Program expects families receiving food stamps to spend 30 percent of their net income on food. Families with no net income receive the maximum food stamp benefit, which equals the cost of the USDA Thrifty Food Plan (a diet plan intended to provide adequate nutrition at a minimal cost). For all other households, the monthly food stamp benefit equals the maximum benefit for that household size minus the household’s expected contribution.

that isn't the amounts they get if they are working. It sounds like they have to contribute 30% of their income towards that amount. So, if someone is earning $1000, they have to put $333 towards the $668 they would get. So their food stamps would be $335 for the month. More, if they earn more, which explains why income is counted. Those in this thread who have said they were getting food stamps have said they were also working, so they would not get the max.


But again, maybe I'm reading the above wrong.

WOw! That is just crazy!!!! I am not sure where it is from but I live in MA which has a pretty high cost of living. I have a family of 4, plus a dog and come nowhere close to the $668 that I could qualify if my income met it. I just don't have that much in my budget. I find a way to get by on $400 a month and we're still eating very well ...steak, organic spinach. I don't have problems with anyone that needs the help but if that is the true $$ amount, I have HUGE problem with that.

 

[JaymeC]

So do the recipients of food stamps receive higher benefits for each new baby they add to the family?

Each time we had a baby, we had to find a way to stretch our existing grocery budget even further. A new baby certainly didn't result in an higher budget (although that would've been great).

Our babies never resulted in a higher grocery budget. But then again, I breastfed and they ate no food for 6 months or so. But I think it's insane to say that it costs the same about to feed 2 adults as it does 2 adults and 2 growing children. If it does, you weren't being as thrifty with the 2 adults. We have 4 and 5yo boys and they can easily out eat me any given day. I don't want to imagine feeding them as teens! I have no idea how you'd expect me to keep a grocery budget just as low and double the amount of food. You have to keep in mind that another person doesn't just mean another infant. For the family on foodstamps it could mean another child, or even a teenager.

 

[No.17CherryTreeLane]

Our babies never resulted in a higher grocery budget. But then again, I breastfed and they ate no food for 6 months or so. But I think it's insane to say that it costs the same about to feed 2 adults as it does 2 adults and 2 growing children. If it does, you weren't being as thrifty with the 2 adults. We have 4 and 5yo boys and they can easily out eat me any given day. I don't want to imagine feeding them as teens! I have no idea how you'd expect me to keep a grocery budget just as low and double the amount of food. You have to keep in mind that another person doesn't just mean another infant. For the family on foodstamps it could mean another child, or even a teenager.

I understand what you are saying, but what I was trying to say (not very well) was that each time we had a baby, we didn't receive an extra $150.00 or so in our paychecks just because we increased the size of our family. We had to make it work within our existing income and budget. It seems, according to that chart anyway, that having a baby results in a higher food stamp allowance.

 

[Leajess99]

The mother's grandfather is a very well-known, well-respected lawyer in this area... they have tried and tried to get full custody for 4 years, especially when she had a second kid with a convicted child molester and the first kid was to be kept 300 yards from the guy at all times and the family knew that the kid was kept in the house with him many times. She has a new boyfriend all the time, the kid comes home to dad and stepmom saying mom moved again this month because he's always waking up in a new house. Most of the time her parents pick him up and drop him off, and sometimes he never even sees his mom. But because of the name mom's grandpa has made for himself, no judge will deny him.

That is so wrong. I wish someone would get some balls and protect that child. Here, child protective services have had several people fired because they did not protect a child and that child was killed by the mom's boyfriend. He was beaten to death at 6. More needs to be done for the protection of kids. I am so sorry your friend and her stepson have to go through this.

 

[Leajess99]

And that gets into a whole 'nother can of worms... I know enough women who ended up abandoned by what everyone thought were good men, my mother included among them, to believe it is possible to be sure you're making a good choice. We do the best we can in life with the information available to us, but that information doesn't come from a crystal ball and we can't know what changes the future will bring.

Our child support system does need serious reform, and study after study shows how effective that alone would be in reducing welfare caseloads (particularly in regard to cash assistance), but no one seems to have any idea how to enforce parents' responsibility to their children.

My ex is still $4,000 in arrears but no one wants to do anything and he knows he can get away with it. He goes to the casino and last year alone he blew $10,000 there. He got mad at me in April because I left where he lives in the morning to drive home rather than in the afternoon so he took the money he had gotten for the child support he owed me that month and blew it at the casino. He thinks by withholding it from me that he is hurting me. It doesn't hurt me, if anyone is hurt it is the kids because they so could be doing more. I don't depend on his money as I know how to budget and can do for my kids. I am taking him back to court as he thinks child support for our oldest will end in Feb as the oldest turns 18 but I am requesting they make him pay while the child is still in school. Hopefully they will also make him help pay for the child while he is in college until he can get situated. I am the one providing for the child to be able to go to college not this man who was buying savings bonds for him when he was a baby but blew the savings bonds on one of his many "girlfriends". Sorry for the vent but I cannot stand deadbeats and many single moms end up dealing with them. Not that we asked to but sometimes men change. The same can be said for the deadbeat moms.

 

[Leajess99]

Yes but the main point you are leaving out is that they WORK for it. Just like teachers, police and etc. I just don't think it really compares one to the other. People that just get money from the system and people that work for the money are two very different things.

I agree but not all people getting food stamps do not work. Some work but just do not make enough. My daughter's best friends parents work but they make such a low income that they need the foodstamps to survive. I wasn't trying to compare anything just stating the fact in reference to the comment that those getting taxpayers contributions have no right to complain or whine.

 

[ajh88]

Do you disagree with the restrictions for WIC?

I'm a day behind and not really adding anything useful to the conversation - I don't know enough about WIC to comment on the restrictions. What I will say is that WIC seems to be meant as a supplemental program to ensure the health of pregnant women and young children - not designed to provide adequate nutrition to an entire household of various ages.

Do I think there should be reforms in both programs (WIC and EBT)? Absolutely. Maybe limits on questionable items - like only one 12-pack of soda a week or something - would work better than trying to decide what is and is not acceptable. Make WIC easier to use somehow. Although, at the end of it all, if the programs are more cumbersome to use, the administrative costs of running them are bound to increase so the end burden on the taxpayer may or may not decrease. At least that is my hypothesis. I mean, switching to EBT cards may have been touted as a mechanism for decreasing the stigma associated with food stamps but I believe that there was probably also significant cost savings associated with implementing this electronic system. (Not based in any research on my part - just me thinking).

There isn't an easy solution, but I don't think dictating to people what they can or cannot buy food-wise is necessarily the right route because I guarantee that everyone has a slightly different interpretation of what is "junk" or "sugary" or "unhealthy" when it comes to food. (And I was being a bit facetious in my original post).

ETA: I looked up eligibility guidelines for WIC and EBT in my state. As a family of 3, we could make nearly $34,000 a year and qualify for WIC while the yearly income cut-off for EBT is $16,600 (net). So, yes, I see why WIC is more restrictive (though perhaps too restrictive and inconsistently administered based on other posts here) and the programs aren't mutually exclusive, so if you are low income, I believe it possible to qualify and receive both - in which case, I still agree with the limitations in place for the WIC program.