I have needed assistance from government welfare programs several times in my life. I received food stamps and medical for my children. While I was grateful for the help it was easy to see why the system fails to be a helping hand and instead becomes a way of life. The program itself is set up to keep you at the receiving end.
Its first major flaw is the fact that there is no transition program in place. Let me explain because this is huge! The income guidelines are set up so that if you make only $5 more than the limit set, you lose your benefits. That extra five dollars does not make up for the hundreds of dollars of assistance you are receiving. It’s not rocket science- take the pay raise by being promoted and lose all your benefits or stay in the dead end position and keep them? I would like to see a transition type program in place. As the income increased gradually so would the benefits decrease gradually in equal proportion. Not only would this be fair- it doesn’t kill incentive.
Not only is the program set up to destroy any incentive or problem solving, it is set up to make you lie. Yes, I know we choose to lie but the system is set up in a way that punishes those who tell the truth. Here are two true stories from my experience: my young family is limping along trying to put dad through school as well as his working fulltime. His daily commute was a three hour round trip. We were receiving food stamps. We planned to be off them as soon as he had the better job promised him as soon as school was over.
Our very old commuter car died on us. Our only other vehicle was a 15 passenger gas guzzling van. He drove that for a week and we were broke. So we went car shopping that weekend. We looked at everything available. At the time, interest on new cars was extremely low while interest on used cars was high. Buying a new car (last years model) was going to cost us nothing down and half the monthly payment of any of the used cars. We bought a Geo Metro (remember them?) a three cylinder no frills, commuter car. Problem solved or so we thought.
This choice lost us our food stamps because the car was too new making it too valuable. I argued that we lost 1/3 of the value when we drove off the lot, that it was impossible to sell it for what we owed and that we didn’t even own it- the bank did. Nope!
When I was getting divorced I applied for help. My income from child support was $500 a month. I had no job and due to the lack of work experience (I had been a stay at home mother for 25 years) it didn’t look like I was going to be getting one. I started my own cleaning business. This disqualified me for assistance because I had no way to prove my income. Bank statements are not acceptable.
In both cases if I had stuck to the time honored method of using the system by lying I would have been alright. But that’s not who I am. I did begin to understand why others do however.
The third obstacle is the fact that benefits are easy, free money. I had more cash money when I was on benefits than at any other time in my life. Medical coverage with no co-pays, food stamps that at one point were $800 a month, (I had never, ever had that much to spend on food before or since I might add) and other added perks. How does someone say no to that, especially when they have had the benefits for an extended period of time? It can be addictive and as with any addiction a clean break is what is needed. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
Its first major flaw is the fact that there is no transition program in place. Let me explain because this is huge! The income guidelines are set up so that if you make only $5 more than the limit set, you lose your benefits. That extra five dollars does not make up for the hundreds of dollars of assistance you are receiving. It’s not rocket science- take the pay raise by being promoted and lose all your benefits or stay in the dead end position and keep them? I would like to see a transition type program in place. As the income increased gradually so would the benefits decrease gradually in equal proportion. Not only would this be fair- it doesn’t kill incentive.
Not only is the program set up to destroy any incentive or problem solving, it is set up to make you lie. Yes, I know we choose to lie but the system is set up in a way that punishes those who tell the truth. Here are two true stories from my experience: my young family is limping along trying to put dad through school as well as his working fulltime. His daily commute was a three hour round trip. We were receiving food stamps. We planned to be off them as soon as he had the better job promised him as soon as school was over.
Our very old commuter car died on us. Our only other vehicle was a 15 passenger gas guzzling van. He drove that for a week and we were broke. So we went car shopping that weekend. We looked at everything available. At the time, interest on new cars was extremely low while interest on used cars was high. Buying a new car (last years model) was going to cost us nothing down and half the monthly payment of any of the used cars. We bought a Geo Metro (remember them?) a three cylinder no frills, commuter car. Problem solved or so we thought.
This choice lost us our food stamps because the car was too new making it too valuable. I argued that we lost 1/3 of the value when we drove off the lot, that it was impossible to sell it for what we owed and that we didn’t even own it- the bank did. Nope!
When I was getting divorced I applied for help. My income from child support was $500 a month. I had no job and due to the lack of work experience (I had been a stay at home mother for 25 years) it didn’t look like I was going to be getting one. I started my own cleaning business. This disqualified me for assistance because I had no way to prove my income. Bank statements are not acceptable.
In both cases if I had stuck to the time honored method of using the system by lying I would have been alright. But that’s not who I am. I did begin to understand why others do however.
The third obstacle is the fact that benefits are easy, free money. I had more cash money when I was on benefits than at any other time in my life. Medical coverage with no co-pays, food stamps that at one point were $800 a month, (I had never, ever had that much to spend on food before or since I might add) and other added perks. How does someone say no to that, especially when they have had the benefits for an extended period of time? It can be addictive and as with any addiction a clean break is what is needed. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
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