Food stamp crackdown feared amid Trump jobs push

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY LYDIA WHEELER - 03/09/18 06:10 AM EST

The Trump administration has put out a call for ideas on how to get people on food stamps back to work, but anti-hunger advocates fear it’s a first step toward a new rule that would kick thousands of unemployed people out of the program.

Federal law prohibits unemployed adults aged 18 to 49 who are not disabled or raising minor children from receiving assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for more than three months over a three-year period.

To keep the benefit, these adults must work at least 20-hours a week, participate in a state work-training program or volunteer. USDA said about 3.8 million of the 42 million people who participate in SNAP are able-bodied adults without dependents, otherwise known as “ABAWDs.” But a state can apply to have the federal government waive the work requirement if it can show there aren't enough jobs in the area.

Those waivers are an issue for the USDA. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has said too many states have asked to waive the work requirement, “abdicating their responsibility to move participants to self-sufficiency.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/regulation/377513-food-stamp-crackdown-feared-amid-trump-jobs-push

[LeonardShelby]

1. This just happened to me

I just received a letter from the Illinois Department of Human Services about this. It's called Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents or ABAWD. People who are 18-49 without children.

DuPage County, where I live, now has low enough unemployment to not qualify for the work requirement waiver. Every other county in Illinois still qualifies for the waiver.

So I received one of these letters stating that my $15 per month SNAP benefits would be cancelled next month, unless I met one of the work requirements, or one of the exemptions. If you qualify as an ABAWD, your SNAP benefits are time-limited. You are allowed 3 months of food stamps per 3 years. Once those 3 months are used up, you can't get any more. If you start working, or become disabled, you can re-apply.

I have been on Social Security Disability for five years. I am disabled. I don't understand how the Department of Human Services doesn't know that. So I have to send in a form which states that I am unable to work, with some proof that I'm on SSDI. Hopefully, the DHS office gets the form, processes it correctly, and doesn't cancel my food stamps next month. A lot of steps that could potentially go wrong, so I use certified mail with signature confirmation. That alone costs me $12, almost as much as my food stamps.

It's just another one of those examples of the saying "being disabled is a full time job". The number of hoops we have to jump through, forms we have to fill out and mail, on top of dealing with our disability...it's almost like they hope we give up or something. Republicans have no idea what it's like to be on food stamps and struggle. They think we are lazy freeloaders, but they never actually "see" us.

[not fooled]

2. Unfortunately

their goal is exactly to cut the rolls prior to destroying the program entirely. And those pushing these changes are the phony "xtians." Disgusting.

The only remedy to this cruelty--as the Parkland kids have discovered--is to vote these assholes out of office and get in legislators who actually care about their fellow humans.

Sorry to hear about your situation. That sucks.

[arithia]

3. fellow disabled on food stamps

State medicaid/snap offices can in fact verify that SSI and SSDI recipients are receiving those benefits electronically, so requiring you to send in proof does amount to a hoop meant to make you jump or get dropped from the program. A few keyclicks is all it takes to verify how much you are getting and from who. That's it.

This is the shit I was afraid of- they can't go digging through people's case files willy nilly to sort out the people on SSI and SSDI for the most part due to privacy laws, so they send out forms en masse and ask people to once again prove that yes, they are disabled and yes, they meet the public's criteria for "pathetic enough" to warrant help from the system we paid into if/when we worked.

A lot of olds and a lot of people with mental illness are going to get dropped cause of this shit. But, that was likely the plan from the get-go.

[pazzyanne]

4. I just finished filling out a re-registration form today.

It needs to be returned to the Nutrition Program site that I use ASAP. Will be waiting to see how this works out.

[riversedge]

5. I wonder how many trips to Florida would pay for food for families. This is so horrible.

Link to tweet

[Corgigal]

6. They want to steal from us blind.

My family isn't first on the list, but like all american's were on the list. Trump voters you are too, no matter your color.