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Post your abuses that you've seen/heard about of food stamps and other welfare.


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2012 Oct 9, 5:24pm   11,048 views  24 comments

by American in Japan   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

I read about stories here and there, but how bad is this problem, really? Please post your anecdotes here. I hope to limit this to first or secondhand, and not stories read "somewhere on he internet".

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1   freak80   2012 Oct 11, 7:30am  

chirp...chirp...chirp...chirp...

2   Scagnetti   2012 Oct 11, 8:19am  

There is one guy I know at work. His girlfriend who he lives with, who has HIS children, gets food stamps, and a section 8 allowance. Keep in mind, this man I know makes at least 60k a year. More with overtime. In southwest Ohio, that's enough to support a family.

Women have been encouraged to do this ever since LBJ changed the program AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children). Before the change, only single mothers who had lost their husband (normally the breadwinner) would qualify for benefits. After the change, ANY single mother qualified for benefits. This made it much more lucrative to be single with children. So the message was, if you're married, get divorced! If you're not married, don't even think about it!

3   Scagnetti   2012 Oct 11, 8:22am  

How bad is the problem? I don't know, but if this video clip is any indication, well....you guys draw your own conclusions.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/xTjEwuuBRBE

4   Danaseb   2012 Oct 11, 8:28am  

Lottery is the key word, sorry but for every leech getting more than their fair share there are hundreds in this country in dire need and not getting a dime.

5   American in Japan   2012 Oct 11, 6:25pm  

I appreciate the comments.

6   TechGromit   2012 Oct 11, 11:16pm  

I personally know some scumbag who makes over 100k a year and gets a $780 check from the state every month, free daycare, free baby food and free medical care for their child. Can you believe this crap?!

Source: me and my wife, we have a foster child.

7   LarryPatrickMaloney   2012 Oct 12, 12:49am  

In downtown Oakland, there is a Domino's Pizza, that advertises on it's sign : "EBT Accepted Here" and the rest of the sign says "We deliver".

So, you can get not just free food, but have Fresh Hot Pizza delivered at home, paid for by the American Tax Payer.

Also in Los Angeles, North Hollywood, I saw an "We take EBT" on a liquor store sign.

8   elliemae   2012 Oct 12, 12:57am  

Scagnetti says

His girlfriend who he lives with, who has HIS children, gets food stamps, and a section 8 allowance.

Sounds like fraud. Call the housing authority and report them if you feel like it.

TechGromit says

$780 check from the state every month, free daycare, free baby food and free medical care for their child.

Sounds like the child is disabled. That's SSI $.

LarryPatrickMaloney says

In downtown Oakland, there is a Domino's Pizza, that advertises on it's sign : "EBT Accepted Here" and the rest of the sign says "We deliver".

If I get $200 food stamps and am stupid enough to spend some of it on a pizza, isn't that my problem? My money won't go as far. It's not a crime to eat pizza. (or is it, in Oakland?)

LarryPatrickMaloney says

Also in Los Angeles, North Hollywood, I saw an "We take EBT" on a liquor store sign.

They aren't supposed to be able to buy non-food items with ebt. But there will always be abuses. However, it's doubtful that you can buy alcohol there with ebt. They have other items.

9   TechGromit   2012 Oct 12, 3:33am  

elliemae says

TechGromit says

$780 check from the state every month, free daycare, free baby food and free medical care for their child.

Sounds like the child is disabled. That's SSI $.

She's not. Every child in the New Jersey foster care system is entitled to these benefits. Can't afford to feed your kids? Just call DYFS and tell you beat your children. They will take them away and give them to a relative, state will cover all there medical expenses, child care, a good portion of what they eat and pay the relative to do it. Just take your children home and make sure you have them back to the relative when they pick them up for your "visitation" day.

10   finehoe   2012 Oct 12, 3:36am  

How 'bout this one: Well Fargo got $25 billion in welfare via TARP and now look:

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2012/2012-155.htm

11   Ceffer   2012 Oct 12, 3:56am  

Any open ended resource distribution system will create con artists, black markets, and inappropriate incentives.

The problem in CA is that the distribution system has created a permanent class of voting, multi generational takers, black markets and inappropriate incentives that has grown to absorb the resources and demand more. These dominate and overwhelm the system, itself.

More money, more con artists and prisoners/welfare knock ups making more prisoners/welfare knock ups. Bring em on, the more the merrier. The idea of the "deserving" welfare recipient has become a joke, the money is mainly re-cycled into the vice economy.

In CA it is the sight of Taliban SUV's with black out windows and $5000 hubcaps pulling up to the store, kids and mom's falling out with iphones in hand, using state issued credit cards to buy food or trade/sell for cash to buy whatever they want.

12   Honest Abe   2012 Oct 12, 8:10am  

A relative of mine got paid for not growing crops on a farm he purchased when he had no intention of growing crops in the first place. He wanted the farm for his horses.

He laughed all the way to the bank, every month, with a check funded by tax-payer dollars, to deposit into his own personal bank account.

I say thats theft under the color of law.

13   TechGromit   2012 Oct 13, 10:45am  

Honest Abe says

A relative of mine got paid for not growing crops on a farm he purchased when he had no intention of growing crops in the first place. He wanted the farm for his horses.

The original intent of that law was to encourage farmers to give there fields a break so they don't plant every season and drain the land of all it's crop growing potential (over farming destroys land), but I believe they normally grow plants that put nurtures back into the soil that year (a non-edible crop) . While it's a well meaning idea, it's more efficient to do crop rotation and companion planting then to let the field turn into weeds one season.

14   elliemae   2012 Oct 13, 12:09pm  

I'm a social worker - I've seen so much abuse of the system it's crazy! And the reason is non-partisan. I don't blame Repubs, or Dems... I do blame the system, the layers of fat (administrators) and the ingenuity of the recipients. Many are in the past, but some are present (and some I've mentioned in the past, please excuse the redundance). A few examples:

California contributes to the SSI system, while many other states don't. This means that California SSI recipients receive several hundred more dollars more each month than do recipients in other states. (the problem is that they also qualify for MediCal, meaning that they have only emergency medical care in the other states - for general care they have to go to California). The way that people get away with it is to use a Calif address, and use direct deposit accounts which can be accessed anywhere in the world. It's fraud.

I've seen so many cases of hidden assets in order to qualify, I can't count them.

Public housing and Section 8 recipients who hide income & assets. Happens all the time.

TANF (aka AFDC): all you have to do is list "unknown" on the birth certificate and you're eligible.

Institutional examples: My most recent nursing home (skilled nursing facility) experience had a rogue administrator who forced her staff to lie about the amounts and types of therapies provided, billing ever patient at the highest rate of reimbursement. She also refused to allow patients to discharge without a fight, either requiring a discharge planning meeting (held weeks away) or insisting that the doctor see the patient first (and not telling him). This provided weeks more reimbursement and violated patient's rights. She also had her staff members send patients to psychiatric wards in order to get them the coveted 3-day Medicare requirement, then providing therapies the patients didn't need or couldn't perform.

I've seen patients receive therapies they didn't want after being talked into it. Patients being referred for home care or hospice, even though they didn't want or need it. Equipment that patients don't need, such as scooters and electric wheelchairs, delivered and billed for.

Trust me - the institutional fraud is greater than the single incidents.

15   Eliza   2012 Oct 13, 2:37pm  

I worked with a woman who lived with her boyfriend and their daughter. They pretended he did not live there so that she could get Section 8 housing and possibly some other benefits. It was the ordinary way for her and also for her sister.

16   curious2   2012 Oct 13, 2:49pm  

The government spends FIVE TIMES more money on medical than on welfare and food stamps combined, and a substantial percentage of medical spending is outright waste, fraud, and abuse. The medical-industrial complex maximizes revenues by victimizing patients. Rather than borrowing $1T/year to fund medical "benefits," I would rather see the government send everyone a national income and let people decide for themselves how to waste their own money.

17   Michael Cooke   2012 Oct 13, 3:01pm  

$30,000.00 after taxes is what? $24,000.00 a year?

I bet someone who has mastered the welfare game receives the equivalent of at LEAST $18,000.00/yr tax free.

Would you give up $5,000.00 per year not to have to work? Be honest.

18   American in Japan   2012 Oct 13, 3:01pm  

It is interesting when you compare the waste fraud here, with that of the amount spent on the military. At least even most of the "conservatives" on Patrick.net agree that there is too much spent here (and that the Iraq War was a major waste).

19   elliemae   2012 Oct 14, 4:25am  

Michael Cooke says

I bet someone who has mastered the welfare game receives the equivalent of at LEAST $18,000.00/yr tax free.

Welfare amounts are figured on family size. A single person qualifies for $220 in Placer County, and it ain't easy to get.

http://www.placer.ca.gov/Departments/hhs/public_assistance/GeneralRelief.aspx

A family receives more, when you figure in the amounts paid into Medicaid (for the children - Mom usually isn't covered after the birth), WIC, housing subsidies, etc. But it's not easy to qualify for the benefits and to get them often takes long waiting times.

A military contractor receives a lot more and isn't viewed as a piece of shit living off the government. But they are, just the same.

American in Japan says

It is interesting when you compare the waste fraud here, with that of the amount spent on the military.

Absolutely. That's corporate & government welfare at its greatest.

20   mell   2012 Oct 29, 3:03pm  

Ceffer says

In CA it is the sight of Taliban SUV's with black out windows and $5000 hubcaps pulling up to the store, kids and mom's falling out with iphones in hand, using state issued credit cards to buy food or trade/sell for cash to buy whatever they want.

Haha - epic! And so true..

21   MsBennet   2012 Oct 29, 3:15pm  

Our next door neighbors who rented the house under Section 8 got evicted, thank god. The one woman who had the benefit had various members of her family living there and they had the cops called routinely for disputes. We could hardly keep track of the comings and goings of so many different people.

Anyway, we asked her where she was moving to, and she said LA to live with her daughter so she could pursue her singing career. Glad taxpayers can provide her Section 8 so she is free to pursue her dreams. (She's 40 years old and about 300 pounds and she is a so-so singer!)

Previous to her "singing" career she told us she was going to law school. That was probably on someone's dime, too. I guess she gave that up.

Also a friend of a friend gets 1,000 some odd dollars a month in disability because she has an auto immune disease. But her husband of 20 years is a very successful engineer who works on Branson's space station. They own two homes and she has five pedigree dogs and is a shopaholic. It's not that she doesn't have the disease but her husband is certainly able to take care of her. She probably wouldn't work anyway, even if she wasn't sick.

22   upisdown   2012 Oct 29, 11:53pm  

The subsidized rent(or tenant)isn't the real problem, it's the boyfriend and his friends of the single mother that is the tenant. Then, because of the high turnover rate of that type of housing, the LL gouges the government for damges that most times didn't actually happen. They can take a run-down shack and turn it into a cash cow because of the turnover rate and the government pays without any confirmation of damage or repairs.

23   Tenpoundbass   2012 Oct 30, 12:38am  

When my first daughter was born in 1995 I was a carpet installer, and the economy was horrible. I was sporadically working just enough to keep the lights on, and pay the rent late. My wife applied for medical assistance, and not only were we approved but the social worker started the paper work on Food stamps, Light bill assistance, and a monthly welfare check of about $500 a month.

I told the social worker that all we really wanted was help with the prenatal and delivery expenses, while things are tight we are managing our other bills. She informed me, that they were not an alacarte buffet where we get to pick and choose, we either had to take it all or nothing.

24   elliemae   2012 Nov 11, 1:37am  

MsBennet says

Also a friend of a friend gets 1,000 some odd dollars a month in disability because she has an auto immune disease. But her husband of 20 years is a very successful engineer who works on Branson's space station. They own two homes and she has five pedigree dogs and is a shopaholic. It's not that she doesn't have the disease but her husband is certainly able to take care of her. She probably wouldn't work anyway, even if she wasn't sick.

This is not welfare. This is disability, a Social Security program that you pay into and you can draw if you are disabled. The $ aren't as important as the fact that you can begin getting Medicare after 2 years. That, too, is a program that you pay into and isn't welfare.

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