Posted on 01/16/2019 6:27:47 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
State agencies are warning food stamp recipients to carefully budget their grocery purchases once they receive their February benefits weeks earlier than normal due to the partial government shutdown.
The Department of Agriculture's backup plan for paying out Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits amid the lapse in funding means it could be 40 days — or longer, in some cases — before additional money is added to recipients' benefit cards. There is also no guarantee about when nearly 39 million low-income Americans will next receive another payment to help them buy groceries.
States that have large populations of food stamp recipients — including California, Texas and Florida — are already warning recipients that they need to make February benefits last, as the early payments are issued this week. For some recipients, the accelerated timeline will result in them getting their February benefits a full month earlier than normal.
"Unless the federal shutdown is resolved, benefits for March MAY NOT be available," read a sample message California officials sent to county welfare directors to help spread the word to recipients. "We are waiting for federal guidance and will keep you informed."
When USDA officials unveiled the backup plan last week, they did not say how they intended to fund March benefits, if the spending impasse continues.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Haha. What will really happen: food stamp recipients will spend all funds on McDonald’s and Hostess Twinkies immediately upon receipt, and then will claim starvation looms and demand more “benefits.”
States lie like a rug. Per the SecAg, SNAP has been funded through February. If states screw with that money to scare people, that’s on the states.
This is getting GOOD! MAGA!
Yes, of course I have compassion for Elderly, Disabled and Vets who NEED our help. Hate to see them harmed, but should this ‘crisis’ continue, we’ll see a clear separation of the sheep from the goats. ;)
(Matthew 25:31-46)
They might want to buy some rice & beans on their next grocery trip instead of ribs & seafood (King crab legs) and yes, I’ve seen them at the register with that & bags of high-end dog food (no ‘Old Roy’ for their pitbulls). Whatever they couldn’t buy with ‘food stamps’, they bought with wads of cash they pulled out of their pockets.
Scratch-off and blunt sales will plummet.
Those wads of cash were from the EBT cards...welfare...
They can spend that money on anything they want to...and they do...
Or, should be anyhow.
Drug dealers hardest hit!
Banks business decision
That is why food banks see spikes in demand in the last week of the month anyway.
I should have said something to the nice minority lady in front of me at the 7-11 buying 2 jumbo bags of potato chips and a big gulp with her WIC card.
This sounds like more of an anti-trump move than anything else.
You can’t have people just wake up one day and start budgeting their food.
They’ll start a riot, thats what they’ll do
How are they going to budget when steaks cost so much. The blame is on the capitalists who charge more than a Dollar a pound of T bones.
Too late - they already used those “benefits” for booze, drugs and sexual gratification....
What,no lobster for their pit bulls next month?
Right - and people are getting their Feb benefits in January, early. Some have already gotten them. I’m in a FB group that assists people down on their luck, and this is a big topic.
Notice how the Feral Gubbmint “Shutdown” affects those who Vote for a living much more than those who Work for a living?
Food stamps and budgets do not go together.
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