Thread: Thousands Drop off Food Stamp Rolls in Georgia After State Implements Work Requiremen

Thousands Drop off Food Stamp Rolls in Georgia After State Implements Work Requirements




by KATHERINE RODRIGUEZ
25 May 2017

Thousands of people have dropped off the food stamp rolls in Georgia as a result of the state implementing work requirements for food stamp recipients.

More than half of the 11,779 people enrolled for food stamps in 21 counties, an estimated 7,251 people, have dropped out of the food stamp program—a drop of 62 percent, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Georgia first rolled out its work requirements for the food stamp program in three counties in January 2016. Since then, the state has expanded work requirements in an additional 21 counties, giving people in those 21 counties until April 1, 2017 to find a job or lose food stamp benefits.

Those who receive benefits must work at least 20 hours a week, be enrolled in state-approved job training, or volunteer for a state-approved non-profit or charity.

State officials say the plan is to extend the work requirements to all 159 counties in Georgia by 2019 and implement work requirements in 60 more counties, starting in 2018.

“The greater good is people being employed, being productive and contributing to the state,” said Bobby Cagle, director of Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services.

Views on the work mandate are mixed in the state, with some seeing the requirement as a way to get more people into the workforce and less dependent on government handouts, while others say it is an unfair measure that targets the disabled who cannot hold down a job due to their impairments.

Brandon Hanick, who represents the progressive advocacy group Better Georgia, says people with mental health problems, limited education, and the physically disabled would have trouble trying to provide proof of their inability to meet the work requirements.

“It’s cruel,” Hanick said. “We’re talking about one of the most basic needs — the need for food.”

State Rep. Greg Morris (R-Vidalia), on the other hand, says that the decrease in food stamp recipients means that the work requirements are helping people become less dependent on government handouts.

“This is about protecting taxpayer dollars from abuse, and taking people off the cycle of dependency,” Morris said. The big drop in numbers, he added, “shows how tax dollars are abused when it comes to entitlements.”

Over the past year, the number of able-bodied food stamp recipients without children in Georgia decreased from 111,000 to 89,500, a 19 percent decrease, the AJC reported.

According to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics for FY 2017, 42,906,253 Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program—a 2.9 percent decrease from FY 2016, when 44,219,363 Americans received food stamps.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...-requirements/

In March 2017..
Oh no! Illegal immigrants are cancelling SNAP benefits to avoid deportation

POSTED AT 10:41 AM ON MARCH 17, 2017 BY JAZZ SHAW

Our latest chapter in the ongoing saga of how President Trump’s immigration policies are destroying the world is once again brought to us by the Washington Post. This time it has to do with “immigrant families” who are asking to have their food stamp benefits (SNAP) canceled to avoid scrutiny by immigration enforcement officials. This somewhat dubiously sourced story deals with a relative handful of people which the media would clearly love to paint as some sort of growing trend. But it also curiously encompasses two different categories of immigrants.
Our tale opens with an account from Luisa Fortin, a SNAP outreach coordinator in Georgia.

Since mid-January, five of Fortin’s families have withdrawn from the SNAP program. One, the single mother of three citizen daughters, had fled to Georgia to escape an abusive husband. Another, two green-card holders with four young children, were thinking of taking on third jobs to compensate for the lost benefits. These families represent a small fraction of Fortin’s caseload — she estimates she has signed 200 immigrant families up for SNAP over the past six months — but based on the calls she gets from other clients, she fears more cancellations are imminent.

“I get calls from concerned parents all the time: ‘should I take my kids out of the program?’” Fortin said. “They’re risking hunger out of fear … and my heart just breaks for them.”

The reason I specified “two different categories” of immigrants can be found right in that first paragraph. Notice how the author describes a “single mother of three citizen children.” Why would anyone go to the trouble of specifying that the children are citizens unless the underlying assumption is that the mother is not? It is, as the article helpfully notes, against the law for illegal immigrants to collect SNAP benefits. (And I’m sure we’re all quite positive that that never happens. Perish the thought.) But the children most certainly can qualify if the family is in financial distress. The reality, of course, is that everyone in the family is realizing those benefits even if they are only being awarded in the names of the children.

The other stories being told by Ms. Fortin involve families of legal immigrants including green card holders. This certainly provides cause for more than a little confusion when considering this report.

If you are in the country legally and are eligible for supplemental food benefits, why would you have anything to fear? These people are either getting some terribly bad information from government officials and outreach coordinators like Fortin or there is more to the story which we are not being told. If the desire to “escape scrutiny” stems from the fact that there are others in the household of, shall we say, more dubious legal status, then things begin to make a bit more sense.

In the end, this brings up the question of precisely how this turns out to be “bad news.” People who enter the country illegally are not supposed to be draining resources out of the system which should be designated for those who follow the rules, not to mention all of the actual citizens who may require them. And I’m not going to expend any sympathy on someone who is “fearful of scrutiny” if they are breaking the law and aren’t supposed to be here in the first place, or if they are here legally but are violating another federal statute by harboring illegal immigrants. The one area where we certainly can have a soft spot in our hearts is for the citizen children of illegal immigrants because no one wants to see them going hungry. But whose fault is that? To play the bad guy here and just rip the Band-Aid off, the fault lies with the mother who made the decision to jump the border illegally and then bring children into the world because she was placing them in peril herself.

The last thing I would note in this report is the fact that the Washington Post freely admits that the story is essentially impossible to verify. They were “unable” to speak to any of the immigrant families in question who had supposedly decided to drop out of the program. They attempt to bolster their claim by citing statistics showing that there has been a recent marked drop off in eligible immigrants applying for supplemental assistance. But given the scenarios I laid out above, might that not also be a factor accounted for by the fact that illegal immigration rapidly dropped off in the last month as well? We actually have nothing more to go on than the story provided by Ms. Fortin. I’m willing to take her at her word, but even then we don’t know if this is actually a trend or a few isolated incidents.

http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/17/oh-no-illegal-immigrants-are-cancelling-snap-benefits-to-avoid-deportation/

That doesn't even make any sense. You go on food stamps because you can't find any work and Georgia says you can't get food stamps because you can't find any work.

If Georgia wanted to make a little sense, they might insist on evidence of looking for work, like copies of job applications. If people are applying for jobs and not getting them, then Georgia has some means to confronting the unemployment that drives need for public assistance.

Those who receive benefits must work at least 20 hours a week, be enrolled in state-approved job training, or volunteer for a state-approved non-profit or charity.

Here is more trouble. How do you get to be a state-approved non-profit or charity? And what about job training? Why are you training for a job, if you can't get a job? If you are training for a job, then a job must be out there that you are training for. What if you train for the job, apply for it and don't get the job? Many states have tried this and see it is an exercise in futility, and also it inflames the bureaucracy that provides public assistance. Some bureaucrat has to spend time going over this information to insure compliance. It cost money for no good reason.

It is inevitable that when employment depends on a labor market, that some people are excluded from benefiting from the market. That's why the market is supposed to benefit employers and employees alike. The best employees get the jobs and the employers get the best workers. Those who don't make the cut for whatever reason wind up with no means to support themselves.

This is what public assistance is for, to help provide the needs for those who cannot sustain themselves from the labor market.

Over the past year, the number of able-bodied food stamp recipients without children in Georgia decreased from 111,000 to 89,500, a 19 percent decrease, the AJC reported.

The people targeted are "able-bodied food stamp recipients without children". "Without children" So what about child bearing under public assistance? Is Georgia doing anything about that? Of those individuals who are without children, is anything being done to discourage them from having children? We need to reward those on public assistance who do not have children and take measures not to have children. And what about those who do have children, is anything being done to discourage them from having any more children?

E-verify ALL government taxpayer funded programs including healthcare and school.

Boot the illegal aliens off these programs.

Make them self deport.

Originally Posted by pkskyali

Here is more trouble. How do you get to be a state-approved non-profit or charity? And what about job training? Why are you training for a job, if you can't get a job? If you are training for a job, then a job must be out there that you are training for. What if you train for the job, apply for it and don't get the job? Many states have tried this and see it is an exercise in futility, and also it inflames the bureaucracy that provides public assistance. Some bureaucrat has to spend time going over this information to insure compliance. It cost money for no good reason.

It is inevitable that when employment depends on a labor market, that some people are excluded from benefiting from the market. That's why the market is supposed to benefit employers and employees alike. The best employees get the jobs and the employers get the best workers. Those who don't make the cut for whatever reason wind up with no means to support themselves.

This is what public assistance is for, to help provide the needs for those who cannot sustain themselves from the labor market.

You don't have to start a charity, you can volunteer for an existing one. They're all over the place, a dime a dozen, like churches. You can volunteer to help your church do stuff, too. They're 501 C 3's and most of them need all types of volunteers to do stuff.

Originally Posted by pkskyali

The people targeted are "able-bodied food stamp recipients without children". "Without children" So what about child bearing under public assistance? Is Georgia doing anything about that? Of those individuals who are without children, is anything being done to discourage them from having children? We need to reward those on public assistance who do not have children and take measures not to have children. And what about those who do have children, is anything being done to discourage them from having any more children?

I agree. There should be no breeding funded by the state under Medicaid or Food Stamps or WIC or TANF or any other program. Zero. I've long admonished maternity benefits under Medicaid unless you were pregnant at the time you lost your job and had to sign up for Medicaid in the meantime. I've no problem paying for that one. But any pregnancy originating while you're on Medicaid needs to be terminated or fulfilled at your own expense, home birth or whatever.

Originally Posted by pkskyali

The people targeted are "able-bodied food stamp recipients without children". "Without children" So what about child bearing under public assistance? Is Georgia doing anything about that? Of those individuals who are without children, is anything being done to discourage them from having children? We need to reward those on public assistance who do not have children and take measures not to have children. And what about those who do have children, is anything being done to discourage them from having any more children?

You're right. A lot of people are having children only so they can take advantage of the system. It's only exacerbating the situation.

When people who can't support themselves are told that if they have children, they will be given a free place to live, free food, free spending money, a free cellphone, etc., and that the more children they have the more of this free stuff they will receive (be rewarded with), then of course they're going to start breeding as much as they can.

And here's the other important point about this poverty breeding at government expense. Families who are not in poverty, upper lower and middle class families who support themselves control the size of their families, often waiting years to have children, because they can't afford to have them. Meanwhile their earnings are taxed to pay for the unfettered breeding of people on Medicaid. This isn't right. This is so wrong. It's robbing those who sustain themselves, depriving them of the families many want, because they are forced by our government to fund the breeding of those who not only can't sustain themselves but breed for more poverty money at someone else's expense, so these middle income families are cheated out of their own families because they're forced to pay for someone else's and thus can't pay for their own. It's a national disgrace.