Just looked up PA’s food stamp program. It’s called SNAP (supplemental...nutrition...something!) You have to sign up for some kind of employment seeking program. Workfare.
The rule book is many, many pages.
1996 ‘Welfare Reform’ signed by Bill Clinton
Establishing a Five Year Lifetime Limit on Assistance: To address long-term welfare dependency, TANF placed a five year lifetime limit on assistance, but allowed states to exempt up to 20 percent of such cases for hardship reasons. States are allowed to reduce this lifetime limit below 5 years, and almost half of the states have done so.
Eligibility for TANF assistance is limited to pregnant women and families with children. Within these constraints, however, TANF allows states broad discretion in how they spend their federal block grant money.
House Passes Welfare Reform Reauthorization (5/16/02)
House Passes Welfare Reform Reauthorization
The House-passed bill would require states to ensure that 70 percent of welfare recipients have jobs by 2007. An estimate 58 percent of welfare recipients do not have jobs now. It would also require welfare recipients to work 40 hours per week, with at least 24 hours spent at a work site and up to 16 hours spent in training.
The bill would continue current federal spending levels on the welfare program at $16.5 billion per year and increase child care funding by $2 billion over five years. It would provide states new flexibility in implementing housing and food stamp programs. It also authorizes $300 million per year for marriage-promotion programs.
- 5/16/02