Coping With Welfare Equals Losing 13 IQ Points

[daredtowork]

54. To help clarify this

I encouraged Texas to post the details of this because the work requirements for Food Stamps contradicted his need to establish he was disabled for Texas disability benefits, and of course SSI/SSDI.

There is a similar issue in California's welfare policy, at least in the Oakland area. Look at this situation:

1) You are on General Assistance Welfare. That means all the welfare "assistance" is going directly to your Landlord. The only additional resource you can get is SNAP (Food Stamps). You get no cash in pocket for any sort of necessities, or to make up the short fall if G.A. doesn't completely cover your rent.

2) The major reason for getting General Assistance on a year-round basis (as opposed to 3 months out of the year) is that you are disabled - i.e., unable to do substantial work.

3) You are in the process of applying for SSI/SSDI - a very stressful and risky process that takes years - which requires you to ESTABLISH you are unable to do substantial work.

4) If you have an advocate, they will advise you not to work.

5) You get regular notices from Social Services warning that if you do work and don't report it, you will be punished by fines, jail time etc. (but click the link in my sig to see what happens if you do report work).

6) If you try to stay work ready by enrolling with the Dept. of Rehabilitation, attending employment-related activities, or volunteering, you run the risk of this being interpreted as "ability to work". The pressure is on the side of doing these things, but the risk you are constantly taking causes stress.

7) All well-meaning people will advise you to "volunteer" to get back out in the world. I found myself offering that advice to Texas!

So these are the variables you are working with. But when push comes to shove, you need stuff like light bulbs and toilet paper and a way to pay the PG&E bill and a way to take the bus to the 1001 appointments you're required to show up at. So no matter how crappy you feel, you end up doing something that will get you those necessities. It might mean shacking up with the wrong person. It might mean doing things you'd never imagine you'd do back when you lived in the "real world" of mainstream work: mainly because that's the only way to get the stuff you need to survive.

I find it suspicious that welfare policies in both "hard ass" Texas and "liberal" California have this same contradiction that forces disabled people to either break their disability case by officially working or by getting their necessities "somehow" (probably a way beneath human dignity). The underlying assumption seems to be that disability is a "choice", and that people will "choose" to work instead of , say, prostituting themselves, sliding into homelessness, stealing, begging in the street, etc.

This tacit assumption needs to be brought into the open.