How does public assistance (welfare) work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My mom thought I wouldn't have a grocery bill since I receive WIC benefits. She was shocked to see what it really provides. I appreciate it, for sure, but it's basically only milk, cheese (16oz), eggs (2 cartons), cereal (2 boxes), bread (2loaves), juice, a small jar of peanut butter, and a small allotment for fruit and veg ($6). I don't have my checks in front of me, but this sounds right.

I still have to put a lot (for me) of money towards groceries. I've heard that food stamps are better because there's more latitude in what you can get. On WIC, you can only get the specific things listed. I wish, for example, that I could get yogurt or more cheese instead of all of the milk I'm offered through WIC. Evidently, you can't transfer the $$ to a similar food.

PP -- Did you know that you can make your own yogurt from all that milk? It is really easy.

http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2009/10/how-to-make-homemade-yogurt-2/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[

Yes as a matter of fact, I have been to the continent of Africa. It is a big continent with many different countries. There are usually only two economic classes of people in most of the countries. Those that have and those that do not. There is very little middle class. I have found that the poorest of the lot (people, not governments) have been the most charitable. Go figure.

You are correct. I found the same. However they don't use the public's money to be irresponsible with and they appreciate the smallest gestures. They also don't have the," I'm poor so it's your job to take care of my every needs" mentality. They also value their children a whole lot more than those who get public assistance and find it more important to purchase a coach bag or buy alcohol, than to make sure there is food in the fridge for the children. In Africa parents will go without meals but make sure their children always eat first if there is food.

You are making. Sweeping generalization about an continent full of people with many different countries, tribes, religions, cultures, languages, resources. There is no one standard that fits AFRICA. We aRe not taping about Ghana, Liberia, Congo, Ethiopia, senegal etc, In many African countries there are drug problems. Have you heard of kat (sic) in Ethiopia and Eritrea. How about the cocaine addiction they are now having in the Gambia.

As far as receiving assistance from individual governments, no such assistance exist. NGO's are there to help because most of the governments do not or will not. The governments are for the financially well-off. They don't value their children any more than any other mother value their children. Your statement is a bullshit statement. Btw. The poor don't have refrigerators. In regards to making sure the children eat first, again it depends on the culture and/or the country. Usually the father is fed first, then the eldest male child down to the youngest.

[Anonymous]

The issue isn't about not helping the poor. The problem is when assistance is misused and/or abused. Those that don't live in a cave have seen it, been part of it or have a family member who does it. It's just wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The issue isn't about not helping the poor. The problem is when assistance is misused and/or abused. have a family member who does it.

The issue is indeed "not helping the poor". It doesn't make sense for people who can't make it on $200,000 to complain about how other people manage their $20,000-odd income. It doesn't make sense to expect the very poor to be better at managing their budgets than the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue isn't about not helping the poor. The problem is when assistance is misused and/or abused. have a family member who does it.

The issue is indeed "not helping the poor". It doesn't make sense for people who can't make it on $200,000 to complain about how other people manage their $20,000-odd income. It doesn't make sense to expect the very poor to be better at managing their budgets than the rest of us.

PP, you are responding to. I don't make anywhere close to $200k, not even a fourth of that. When public assistance comes from the public and is misused it is our business. Lucky to make what I make but I worked my ass off to get here with no help at all cause I'm from a poor family. My mother made yogurt from milk.

[Anonymous]

Oh OP, who couldn't even keep her relationship together after getting knocked up, please come and tell us how your baby daddy went from being a deadbeat to being dead.

[Anonymous]

To answer the original OP's question, the way the mom manages to have all the money to spend is that several in the family receive disability. This, coupled with food stamps and the housing assistance provide enough for a family to do pretty well. Its also likely they have money coming in on the side - either legal (maybe she does hair or nails on the side or babysits) or something illegal.

I have a friend with 7 kids and a husband. She lives in a nice townhome. She homeschools her kids and her DH does not work. She has one child with true special needs and receives disability, her husband has a "bad knee" and is on disability and she herself has her paperwork in for disability for "chronic migraines" and I think a bad back. She also tried to get it for her 16 yr old daughter for the same reason but it didn't work. They found out how to work the disability angle for themselves from a client of their side business - they do translation - the client said you do some translations for me and I will line you up with the right doc and tell you how to navigate the process, etc.

They also receive food stamps and housing assistance.
They go on several nice vacations a year and their kids always have nice clothes and nice electronics.

There is little incentive for either adult to truly become gainfully employed at this point.

[Anonymous]

Disability benefits are earned.

I understand that your point is that you think this family is cheating, but you have no way of knowing. Many people hire lawyers to help them with the complexity of the SSA disability system, but that doesn't mean they aren't disabled. People who are receiving SSDI are allowed, even encouraged, to earn a bit from work or self-employment. The limits are pretty low.

MIL and FIL thought a neighbor who was receiving SSDI was cheating the system until he died of the disabling illness. It didn't show.

[Anonymous]

One doctor claiming you have an illness is not enough to be approved for disability. There are doctors employed by the SSA who do exams and review applications. There also has to be a provable history of being somehow impaired by the illness. They want the doctor's records, hospital records, records of any and all medical procedures, stacks of forms filled out by several doctors, etc. It takes some people with legitimate disabilities 1-2 years to get their application approved. The only person I know who was approved on the first application was a child with profound mental retardation, autism and rapidly declining vision, expected to be blind before reaching adulthood.

It's just foolish and uninformed to believe it can all be magically approved by one shady physician's word.

[Anonymous]

"It's just foolish and uninformed to believe it can all be magically approved by one shady physician's word. "

Yup. More evidence that there are lots of dummies on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One doctor claiming you have an illness is not enough to be approved for disability. There are doctors employed by the SSA who do exams and review applications. There also has to be a provable history of being somehow impaired by the illness. They want the doctor's records, hospital records, records of any and all medical procedures, stacks of forms filled out by several doctors, etc. It takes some people with legitimate disabilities 1-2 years to get their application approved. The only person I know who was approved on the first application was a child with profound mental retardation, autism and rapidly declining vision, expected to be blind before reaching adulthood.

It's just foolish and uninformed to believe it can all be magically approved by one shady physician's word.

I can only go by what my friend told me...I am not personally looking in to it myself.

It did take them a couple years to get the husband approved and then once he was approved they submitted for her and then the daughter. Apparently, my friend was denied but appealed and feels confident this time she will be successful.

Really, both my friend and her husband are completely capable of working. My friend has a college degree - she just doesn't want to work but needed income. Thousands of people scam disability and they are just two of thousands. Its just like any other type of assistance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One doctor claiming you have an illness is not enough to be approved for disability. There are doctors employed by the SSA who do exams and review applications. There also has to be a provable history of being somehow impaired by the illness. They want the doctor's records, hospital records, records of any and all medical procedures, stacks of forms filled out by several doctors, etc. It takes some people with legitimate disabilities 1-2 years to get their application approved. The only person I know who was approved on the first application was a child with profound mental retardation, autism and rapidly declining vision, expected to be blind before reaching adulthood.

It's just foolish and uninformed to believe it can all be magically approved by one shady physician's word.

I can only go by what my friend told me...I am not personally looking in to it myself.

You choose to be uninformed when there is a world of information at your fingertips. Got it. Why are you supposed to be taken seriously in a conversation where you know basically nothing about the topic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One doctor claiming you have an illness is not enough to be approved for disability. There are doctors employed by the SSA who do exams and review applications. There also has to be a provable history of being somehow impaired by the illness. They want the doctor's records, hospital records, records of any and all medical procedures, stacks of forms filled out by several doctors, etc. It takes some people with legitimate disabilities 1-2 years to get their application approved. The only person I know who was approved on the first application was a child with profound mental retardation, autism and rapidly declining vision, expected to be blind before reaching adulthood.

It's just foolish and uninformed to believe it can all be magically approved by one shady physician's word.

I can only go by what my friend told me...I am not personally looking in to it myself.

It did take them a couple years to get the husband approved and then once he was approved they submitted for her and then the daughter. Apparently, my friend was denied but appealed and feels confident this time she will be successful.

Really, both my friend and her husband are completely capable of working. My friend has a college degree - she just doesn't want to work but needed income. Thousands of people scam disability and they are just two of thousands. Its just like any other type of assistance.

This!

[Anonymous]

Those of you calling posters "dummies and uniformed" are blind to the fact that there are people who receive public assistand or disability and don't deserve it. It's called scamming the system. Yes, there are doctors and lawyers that know just how to go about getting one approved. Do you all think this a perfect little world and nothing like this ever happens?

[Anonymous]

No, what I think is that given how thorough the investigation process is before people receive public assistance or SSDI, it wouldn't be cost-effective to intensify it. I'd rather look at fraud in banking and finance, not to mention tax avoidance/tax evasion.