Posted on 10/28/2013 9:58:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Food stamp recipients face a massive benefit cut set to kick in when stimulus funds expire Friday. The nationwide cut “is equivalent to about 16 meals a month for a family of three,” according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis using the USDA’s “Thrifty Food Plan.” CBPP called the roughly $5 billion annual cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program “unprecedented” in “depth and breadth.”
“If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food,” Margarette Purvis, the president and CEO of the Food Bank for New York City, told Salon Monday. Purvis said that the looming cut would mean about 76 million meals “that will no longer be on the plates of the poorest families” in NYC alone – a figure that outstrips the total number of meals distributed each year by the Food Bank for New York City, the largest food bank in the country. “There will be an immediate impact,” she said.
“The fact that they’re going to lose what’s basically an entire week’s worth food” each month, said Purvis, “it’s pretty daunting.” She told Salon that while policymakers “are attempting to punish people for being poor,” and “people are comforted by believing that they know that a person has to have done something wrong in order to be poor,” in reality, “I can tell you that more and more folks have more than one job and are still needing help.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
My mother often spoke of the surprise inspections — how the inspectors went through everything in the house looking for some indication that the family was collecting assistance fraudulently. Once, am inspector found a new dress Grandma had made for my mother. The inspector thought it must have been bought at some high-priced store. Grandma had a heck of a time trying to explain that she had made the dress out of scraps of material and whatever she could find for buttons and accents.
The inspector didn't believe her, but he couldn't prove anything, so eventually he dropped the matter. But my mother said these inspections were humiliating. I think they scarred her in some way. When I was growing up, there were some hard times. My mother would go to great lengths to keep us afloat financially. She never wanted to have to go on government assistance ever again. I think some of her penny pinching has rubbed off on her children.
A summary statistical report indicated that an average of 46.6 million people used the program in 2012, up from 26.3 million in 2007, a 77% increase.
Annual costs of program benefits paid to recipients 2005–2012. The amount increased 20% annually from 2007-2012.
Amounts paid to program beneficiaries rose from $28.6 billion in 2005 to $74.6 billion in 2012. From 2007-2012, benefits paid to program recipients increased by approximately 20% annually. In addition to benefits paid, there were other costs of approximately $3.8 billion in 2012.
The program costs have grown much more rapidly than several other safety net programs, due to these eligibility changes. For example, Veteran’s benefits grew 49% above inflation and population growth between 2007 and 2012, while SNAP grew 110%.
The USDA only reports direct fraud and trafficking in benefits, which was officially estimated at $858 million in 2012. The Cato Institute reports that there was another $2.2 billion in erroneous payouts in 2009. The organization claims that figure makes it one of the “most frequently abused non–health care social welfare programs,”
If people, as you say, can load up one, two, three carts of food at one time, pay for it with their EBT card, how much are they getting monthly from the government?
Remember that their purchases must be food only, and nothing more. Anything you purchase at the same time, like paper products, personal items, cleaning/dish/laundry products, must be paid for by the shopper. The purchase of these items with your EBT card will not be authorized. You will receive a receipt with a separate itemization of the items you purchased on the EBT card and the amount, and then if you purchase other items not covered by the EBT card, a separate itemizing of these purchased and the total will appear at the bottom of the receipt. I know of a disabled, widowed senior citizen in Illinois who receives $31.00 per month in Link card funds, and this amount will not fill up a shopping cart of food. Interesting contrast between two EBT/Link card users in different states.
Maybe it will cut down on diabetes and heart attacks
Well this is still the US in spite of the foreign Btard Obozo. Our church has a food bank hand out every Saturday. Been going on for years. Salon is a bunch of leftist twerps who sees us as all mean cruel people, to our fellow men.
It is SUPLIMENTAL nutrition assistance. It is suplimenting the money people pay out of pocket for their own food. It is not supposed to buy every crumb of food that a family eats. Also: since they are now available to be used for fast food and other food establishments a little additional planning should make up the 5%-7% drop in cost.
The SNAP benefits are very generous. They are a gift from the upper and middle classes to the poor and working class. They are by no means a right, even if they are called ‘entitlements’. No one is entitled to other peoples money.
In March 2013, the Washington Post reported that one-third of Woonsocket, Rhode Island’s population used food stamps.
I have mustard greens & Swiss chard growing in my winter garden. Still have some watermelons left, no frost yet.
This was not a fruit year. Late frost around the 1st of May saw to that. Will begin gathering pecans pretty soon.
And guess what, I share with my neighbors.
It is how it is in small town America.
I agree Vince. I could be very wrong, but I’d bet the average food stamp user could likely cut $11 from their EVT purchases without much trouble.
Now if they’re a family that has already made the tough cuts, it might be much harder, but like most people in society, I’d bet the average EBT user has some items they buy that could be purchased cheaper (generic) or are not necessary - steak sub burger, etc.
I think it’s a matter of looking and trying. I know we’ve cut our budget by doing similar things.
Good.
Maybe some of the lazy slobs who claim they cannot find a job will find work.
I may be softer or more liberal than many but Obama has given food stamps to millions of more people than ever before in American history. Some of whom Definitely do not look like they can’t feed themselves I would not want any genuinely needy people cut off the dole, but from everything I can see there are many UN - needy or able- bodied, and apparently sane , recipients who really should be stricken from the rolls. (In the long run, I would try to transfer welfare back to the states and local governments. It is not a proper federal concern and we can all see how crappily the fed govt is administering our tax money too. Just my two cents worth.
It is 5.5% overall but an individual benefit can be cut much more than that. For a family of four getting $187 (common in my state) the $36 cut is significant. Not catastrophic, but significant.
Buying a few Subway, McDonald’s, KFC, Taco Bell or whatever type fast food meals can quickly eat up available EBT monies. I thought allowing fast food outfits to take EBT was a big mistake. Even a $4 Subway sandwich adds up by the time you add chips and a drink and all of that could be provided cheaper at home.
Hunger Games?
March 2013
Food stamp president: Enrollment up 70 percent under Obama
Enrollment in the food stamp program — officially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — has soared by 70 percent in the years since President Obama first took office, a new report finds.
The government said the recession ended in 2009, The Wall Street Journal reports, but enrollment in the food stamp program didn’t wane, as would be expected in an improving economy. Since 2008, it’s been on a steady rise, The Journal reports.
A record 47.8 million people participate in the program, as of December 2012 — a figure that translates into a 70 percent rise since 2008,
Can’t speak for other states, but in Pennsylvania, there are a number of assistance programs for the poor in addition to EBT, and I expect that many EBT recipients collect from more than one or all of these programs. Some might not qualify, but they collect anyway. These programs are administered without any concern for fraud.
Not sure about now, but some years ago, people would flock to Pennsylvania because they knew they could extract more assistance money here than they could in other states.
Just cull the herd by 7% and you’re golden.
I went to look at the new whole foods store about ten years on. I left and never returned due to its super high prices. Carrots were on offer for eight dineros per pound. That was enough fir me. Ps: it’s lovingly called “Whole Paycheck” by some of its addicts.
Let me help you out. This is what my Late Mother, a very Charitable Woman always said.
“You help people who CAN’T help themselves, not people who WON’T help themselves”.
She wasn’t talking about the Government.
When was the last time you saw videos of white people rioting and looting?
In the last few televised riots you’ve seen how many of the participants were white?
I could do this all day.
Yo hasa very smart mama!
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