If he were a minimum wage worker, working 50-60 hours a week, that would be roughly $(380-480)/week (took out 5% for basic taxes and added 1.5 pay for overtime).
That’s $19760-$24960 a year, which is pretty low so I guess it is possible for him to be working that much and be in the poverty level.
It also depends on how many kids he has.
When hubby 4 years into his army career we had two babies and we were struggling.
I left the kids at home with my mom and went to the store. (Hubs was overseas and I was staying with her to save money)
She’d given me some money and asked me to pick up a carton of cigarettes for her since I was going. (I didn’t smoke.)
At the checkout, I separated the cigs from the WIC items and those from the foodstamp items.
The lady in line behind me ripped into me with everything that she had.
When I tried to explain that I was married and that my husband did work and that the cigarettes weren’t even mine, she just kept screaming over me.
The cashier probably never worked faster in her life.
After I was checked out, I headed to the door, then stopped and turned around. I bellowed that my husband is a United States Soldier and that he worked 60-70 hours a week. If there’s ANYTHING to be ashamed of it’s that he puts his life on the line for this nation and YOU (the people at the store) wouldn’t pay him enough to keep a family of four out of the poverty level. I finished with a big “SHAME ON ALL OF YOU FOR TREATING YOUR SOLDIERS THIS WAY,” and stormed out.
There was a mixup with Tricare while I was pregnant with my daughter and I had to use Medicaid for three months until it could be fixed for prenatal care.
Once it was fixed I remember the night and day treatment that I got at my OB’s office when I gave them my new insurance card. Suddenly I was a respected married woman and not a ‘welfare mom’.
There are a lot of people who are working their way up or who are going through a bad time.
Right now my daughter’s going through it. She just lost her job and she has a baby. She’s busting her butt to get back on top. Guess how much money she gets in food stamps? $35 a month for her and the child. The only reason she’s even using the system is so that the baby has insurance.
Not everyone on welfare is a leach or a fraud. And nobody deserves to be told off by a stranger for accepting that help. To this day, E-4 and below qualify for WIC and their kids qualify for free lunches. Many also qualify for food stamps.
They both appear to be tacky Wal-Mart shoppers. She’s right, but it was inappropriate for her to personally attack him in front of her children and his child. I don’t think she helped the cause. She knows nothing about his personal situation. It infuriates me when I see women with up-do’s, fancy painted nails, jewelry and designer hand bags using food stamp cards, but it would be tacky to attack them in line. (but mainly because they would probably kill me in the parking lot)
Yes, and I do not begrudge helping someone in that circumstance. Its truly a helping hand not a hand out.
Yes, I know its probably due to poor life choices BUT: he is working and working hard.
The stories of folks with many kids and who sit around all day irk the fire outta me....