Trump Administration to Stiffen Food-Stamp Work Requirement

Wall Street Journal ^ | December 4, 2019 | Jacob Bunge

[karpov]

The Trump administration is set to tighten work requirements for recipients of federal food aid, potentially rendering hundreds of thousands of people ineligible for the program by mid-2020.

The administration said Wednesday that it had completed a new rule curbing states’ ability to shield adults without dependents from federal work requirements tied to receiving assistance through the program formerly administered via food stamps. Officials say the rule, which takes effect April 1, 2020, will save the government billions of dollars and encourage more people to work at a time when jobless rates are near a 50-year low.

The rule is the first to take effect among several Trump administration proposals to restrict access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides aid to 36.4 million people. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program, separately has proposed tightening eligibility requirements for low-income households and changing how utility costs factor into eligibility.

“This rule lays the groundwork for the expectation that able-bodied Americans reenter the workforce where there are currently more job openings than people to fill them,” said USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue.

Critics, including Democratic members of Congress, have said the Trump administration’s efforts deepen hardships for poor families and circumvent congressional authority over government assistance programs.

“Putting up barriers to food assistance will not incentivize or equip people with what they need to seek and maintain work,” wrote representatives for Oxfam America, a poverty relief group, in a 2018 letter opposing the proposed tighter work requirements.

For able-bodied adults without dependents, U.S. law limits SNAP benefits to three months, unless recipients are working or in training for 20 hours a week. States can waive those limits in areas where unemployment runs 20% above the national rate, which was 3.6% in October.

[proxy_user]

I’ll bet many of them are in fact working - firewood delivered, houses painted! Cash only!

[Trumplican]

“I’ll bet many of them are in fact working - firewood delivered, houses painted! Cash only!”

Bet you are correct!

[kingu]

Seriously, we gotta fix that monthly income limit for foodstamps qualification. A family of three who gets an extra payday in a month goes from $400 in assistance to nothing and has to reapply. It’s a very messed up method of helping people, and a great way to encourage people NOT to work hard. Earn $1899, you’re golden. Earn $1900, you get nothing. It just doesn’t make sense.

[JimRed]

But, but, but...that would be RACIST!

[KC_Lion]

Orange Man Bad!

[Trump.Deplorable]

Here is how the scam works

Married couple through religion but never file for marriage certificate from state

they have 7 kids

husband owns a business or is a lawyer or good paying career, makes over 200K a year

wife files for and gets food stamps, section 8, welfare for her and her 7 kids

husband owns the family home under a LLC Holding company

husband “rents” the family home to his wife so he can collect section 8 voucher

dozen of people were caught doing this, and not a single one was punished, the worse offender was a couple that had a business making a profit of 1.3 million a year.

Public assistance is overall a scam on the tax payers and needs to be abolished.

[unread]

"I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

-Benjamin Franklin

[EnglishOnly]

Stop all Welfare, food Stamps, etc., …… ASAP

[LeonardFMason]

Agreed. Pro-rate it.

Reward effort. If someone is helping themselves that’s one thing. When people get something for NOTHING we create problem “bears”.

[mouse_35]

One of the problems with the work requirement is that it is nearly impossible to get a job if you don’t have a HS diploma or a GED. My ex-foster daughter-in-law ran up against this problem. She was putting 20-30 applications a week and could not get hired until she finished up her GED.

One of the programs she applied for required her to onsite 40 hours a week applying for jobs that she couldn’t get because of her lack of education. She dropped out of the program to finish the GED. It would be a better use of time for the applicants to spend half of their time applying for jobs and half of their time finishing up their GED if they don’t have one.

My daughter-in-law got a job the same week she finished her GED and is about to start a new job in January in the field she wants to work in. She is also starting classes at the local community college.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Obama judge staying this almost before the WSJ ink has dried.

[Mouton]

I’ve been preaching to my wife for some time about subsidies and their outcomes: She has been financing her daughter and 35yo husband to the tune of about 25K per year. She now also pays tuition for a medical technician trade designed to get him into a 50K a year job.

He currently earns about 20K a year and they get some assistance like food stamps as they have two kids. I point out to her that when he gets his job, she is dreaming about not having to continue a subsidy because when they pay taxes on a 50K job and lose their public assistance, in essence, he will be making LESS. My wife plans to retire in two years when he graduates. I say, good luck with that because she has painted herself into a corner. As soon as she says no, she is going to hear: but it is for the grand children. It is sad because he is a good kid but neither he nor my wife are realistic on this issue.

I cannot fathom how this works out for families who cannot afford to do what we can do but the problem is eventually the well runs out for even most of those who can. While we own our home outright, there are expenses that come with a money pit home. Our vehicles are over ten years old and we do not take but one short vacation a year. Yet, we are comfortable with things as they are as long as my wife continues to work.

[I want the USA back]

The left will say that Trump is starving people to death.

[Texas Eagle]

....potentially rendering hundreds of thousands of people ineligible for the program by mid-2020.

... resulting in hundreds of thousands of people becoming self- sufficient by mid-2020.

There. Fixed it.

[Mouton]

As the Rev. Ike used to preach: the best thing you can do for poor people is not become one of them.

[Texas Eagle]

Not to mention running drugs and convenience stores.

[NoKoolAidforMe]

This happens daily in the Hasidic communities of Rockland County, NY and in a town called Kiryas Joel. NYS prohibits any marriage officiator from not signing a NYS marriage license when performing a wedding. Rockland County has some of the highest percentage of Medicaid, food stamps, Section 8 and WIC recipients in NY. And the elected officials allow it to go on in exchange for block voting.

[ptsal]

Check the parking lot...
<>modern, if not, new cars
<>everyone has a cell phone

[BamaBelle]

I’m not on food stamps, but I have been job hunting for 3 months with only a temp 3 wk job to show for it. I am 65 y.o. and it seems no one wants to hire an older worker. I have good skills in Office Administration and in the training field, but can’t even get an interview for dishwasher jobs...sigh

Next is trying some of the work at home jobs but I worry about getting scammed on those. It’s not as easy out here looking for a job as some of you might imagine.