the most widely abused programs is probably SSDI
Widely abused? There's
some abuse, but yer required to prove that yer unable to work. I can barely walk, and that makes my job very difficult at times. I may be forced to file an SSDI claim if I can't survive financially for another two years to get to 62 when I can file for OASI benefits.
>>there are a variety of programs that those who want to live largely or entirely at public expense can do use.
Can you name some?
Maine put in a work requirement for able-bodied adults with no children
They reinstated a federal rule that states have been allowed to waive if the labor market was in really bad shape.
>>many chose not to meet those requirements. It wasn't worth it to them to get a job, do volunteer work, etc.
What about those who are unable to find work? In some cases, finding even a qualifying
volunteer position can be difficult.
Warren Bailey, 40, has been unable to find work in towing or fast food and so has signed up as a pantry volunteer. But there is concern in the state that there is not enough volunteering or job-training capacity for food stamp recipients who cannot find jobs, especially in rural parts.
"If you're not lucky like me and found this place, the food pantry, I don’t even know where else I would go," Mr. Bailey said. (
source)
when they were told they would have to put forth minimal effort, many chose instead to leave the program, providing significant savings to the government.
Last year, the average monthly SNAP benefit for a Mainiac was $116. If that was collected all twelve months, the annual total was $1392. With around 9,500 ABAWDs being dumped, that's something like thirteen million dollars from a state budget of $6.7B — less than two-tenths of one percent. Not all that significant.
It was their decisions that caused them to lose the program, their decision not to meet the minimal requirement of showing up for six hours a week for community service.
Is this always true?
>>those who can work, and who refuse to do so
What about those who can't find work?
[Terry] Work's 27-year-old deaf son recently was denied disability payments, meaning he is considered able-bodied. Now he stands to lose his food stamps, even though he has trouble keeping a job because of his deafness, she says. (
source)
Things may be more complicated than you seem to think.
"It means life gets tougher for those childless adults who face barriers already getting back into work," said Ed Bolen, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
He said those adults tended to have limited education and faced a postrecession labor market in which many people who want to work still cannot find jobs. According to the federal Agriculture Department, the households of able-bodied adults receiving food stamps in 2013 had average gross incomes of $308 per month — or less than 30 percent of the federal poverty guideline.
The re-emergence of the work requirements has stoked discontent among advocates for the poor and hungry who say the law is unfair because states are not required to offer food stamp recipients a work assignment before cutting them off, and because searching for a job does not necessarily count. The Agriculture Department makes money available to states willing to pledge work assignments to food stamp recipients, but many states do not take advantage of it. Recently the department announced that it had provided $200 million to 10 states for pilot programs that would help people find jobs and move them off food stamps.
"If the job situation in the area is a really a tough situation, this is an incredibly harsh provision," said Ellen Vollinger, the legal and food stamp director for the Food Research and Action Center. "There's going to be harm, and it's going to show up in greater hunger, probably in greater instances of health problems and could show up in greater instances of homelessness."
Around the country, food pantry directors are girding for an influx of hungry adults as the work requirement re-emerges. In Wisconsin, the time limit kicked in statewide on April 1, and the independent Legislative Fiscal Bureau there has estimated that 31,000 people could lose their food stamps.
"We're going to run out of food," said Sherrie Tussler, the executive director of the Hunger Task Force Milwaukee. "It's going to cause wide-scale hunger here in Milwaukee, and we're in trouble."
