Why it is fairly easy to get food stamps...

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

...food stamps are an agricultural price support program. (That's why they are a Department of Agriculture program.)

The program was always conceived as as helping poor people have food while supporting food prices by, in a roundabout way, paying farmers for food that would be price-depressing surplus if folks couldn't afford to buy it.

And that's fine.

What is striking is that the program would probably not exist if the only effect was giving poor people food to eat.

When it comes to poverty we always seem to need more than one reason.

"This childhood nutrition program will prevent a host of neurological developmental disorders in helpless children... Oh, and did I mention that children with nutrition related developmental disorders are likelier to later steal your car? So there's an upside to it."

____________________

Some background thrown in, since I was talking about the history of the program as a means of absorbing agricultural surplus:


The First Food Stamp Program (FSP) - May 16, 1939-Spring 1943
The idea for the first FSP has been credited to various people, most notably U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and the program's first administrator, Milo Perkins. Of the program, Perkins said, "We got a picture of a gorge, with farm surpluses on one cliff and under-nourished city folks with outstretched hands on the other. We set out to find a practical way to build a bridge across that chasm." The program operated by permitting people on relief to buy orange stamps equal to their normal food expenditures; for every US$1 worth of orange stamps purchased, fifty-cents' worth of blue stamps were received. Orange stamps could be used to buy any food; blue stamps could be used only to buy food determined by the Department to be surplus.


Food Stamp Act of 1964 - August 31, 1964:

President Lyndon B. Johnson hailed food stamps as "a realistic and responsible step toward the fuller and wiser use of an agricultural abundance."...

The law was intended to strengthen the agricultural economy and provide improved levels of nutrition among low-income households...

Etc.

(Bob Dole (Kansas) was always a big booster of food-stamps because they meant a lot of money for Kansas even though Kansas got very little of the direct food stamp money. The agricultural states like food stamps the way they like ethanol.)

[RandomThoughts]

1. On the possibility that someone steals.

You know how easy it would be for someone to take something and then use it for there own reasons without credit or opportunity to hear what the author thinks about it.

It would be easy to censor some idea so nobody hears it.

:shrug:

If someone wanted to steal some idea, or vehicle for getting something done, might as well give them a bus also. No reason to let it offend you, that might be the intent.

[Erose999]

2. That might have been true during the years that welfare used commodity giveaways like the famous

"government cheese" and "commodity meat". The Gov't basically paid agribusiness to overproduce and foisted the excesses on the poor. School Lunch and WIC programs continue to follow that model.

But now "food stamps" is basically a debit card where you can go buy whatever food you want. And it was pretty hard to get them when I had to get them, they required all sorts of documentation of my income, bills, expenses, etc. But thats because I was a broke college boy at the time and GA has laws that specifically make it hard for college students to get food stamps.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. I added some stuff to the OP

The food stamp program was always conceived and promoted as reducing agricultural surpluses that depress prices paid to farmers.

Which is fine.

Anything that feeds people is fine by me.

It is, however, noteworthy that our most effective anti-poverty program grew out of farmers frustrations with being unable to sell surplus food at full price.

The point being that farmers have a much better lobby than the poor.

I hear you on availability for college students.

A a general rule, though, if you have a dependent child and walk into a crisis-center type operation they will usually make you fill out a lot of paperwork to get into the system for other programs but will physically hand you some food-stamps for the moment.

"Easy to get" is a relative term. I was using it to mean much easier to get than any other form of government poverty assistance.

[Coyote_Bandit]

4. Easy?

In some states to qualify for food stamps there are resources limitations as well as income limitations.

One can be long-term unemployed with an income well below the poverty limit and still not qualify for food stamps.

You don't qualify here until you liquidate and consume virtually all your assets. Unless you are elderly or disabled you won't qualify if you have more than $2,000 in assets and resources. That means you have to sell the house and consume the equity before you have any hope of getting food stamps. Then a single person will get a $200 monthly allotment. A family of 4 gets the generous allotment of $668 per month.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. easier than other federal poverty assistance

I don't know what state you are in. It is the states that administer the program and I would not doubt that some states have tight rules. Other states have looser rules.

But either way, the rules for food stamps will always be--within a local system--looser than for getting actual money.

[Raschel]

17. Thanks for the post. It makes sense to me now.

[Coyote_Bandit]

21. No doubt

a voucher is easier to get than actual cash money.

However, that is small comfort if you are long-term unemployed with an income well below the poverty line and the only reason you can't get food stamps is because you own your primary residence. Happened to me.

[Gormy Cuss]

15. One does not need to sell the house (if primary residence) to qualify

but may be required to sell cars and will be required to spend down other assets until the amount available is under 2K in countable assets and resources before being eligible for SNAP/Food Stamp assistance.

[Coyote_Bandit]

19. Depends on the state

Here they consider all resources - including the primary residence. I'm long-term unemployed and do not qualify because I own my home.

[Gormy Cuss]

22. Home and lot are not countable -- that's straight from the Federal FAQs on SNAP

The states need to operate within Federal rules for programs and can't be MORE restrictive than the Federal rule unless there's a special situation such as a demonstration project so I'd be curious to know which state is telling applicants that they have to sell their homes before becoming eligible.


reference here, with bolding added by me:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/applicant_recipients/eligibility.htm#Resources

What Resources Can I Have (and Still Get SNAP Benefits)?

Households may have $2,000 in countable resources, such as a bank account, or $3,000 in countable resources if at least one person is age 60 or older, or is disabled. However, certain resources are NOT counted, such as a home and lot, most retirement (pension) plans, the resources of people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the resources of people who receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) (formerly AFDC), and, up to $4,650 of the fair market value of one car per adult household member (and one car per teen-aged household member if the teenager is using it to go to work, look for work, or prepare for work). If a vehicle is needed to transport a physically disabled household member, its value is not counted. The resources of people who get SSI and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are not counted at all. An important exception to this is that in the State of California SSI recipients are not eligible for SNAP benefits, because they receive a State supplement to their SSI benefits in lieu of SNAP benefits.

[kestrel91316]

6. It's NOT easy. If you have two nickels to rub together or own anything other than

the clothes on your back, you don't qualify. And you can only get them for, what, 2 or 3 months and then NEVER AGAIN AS LONG AS YOU LIVE??

WTF sort of assistance is THAT?

[burnsei sensei]

8. It's a sort of assistance that says

that your life is worth something for a short while.
And then it's worth nothing.
It's a system in which the individual in himself possesses no value at all. An anti-democratic system and anti-nationalistic.
Because the less you receive in a country, the less stake you have in it.
If this government wants patriotism and allegiance, it should earn it by serving the people instead of forcing the people to serve it.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Three months in a 36 month period, and that's only for "able-bodied" workers who aren't seeking work

or participating in a training program. It's also been suspended since last year in recognition of just how bad it is out there.

It is a stupid stipulation but like TANF it makes some people who have never been poor feel better about the way the government is spending their money. No matter that defense department WASTE alone chews up more of their tax dollars than all food and welfare programs combined.

[uncommon]

11. Is this the case for people without children? Because I did not find this to be the case when

I needed assistance. I couldn't qualify for most of it since I was working (but very underemployed) but I was able to get food stamps and there was no time limit on them. I got them for about 6 months and then stopped because I got a good job and didn't need them anymore.

[Gormy Cuss]

13. IIRC, the 3-month rule still applies only to those without dependents

but I'm not current on all of the rules of the program. The 3 month/36 month stipulation came in as part of the Clinton-era welfare "reform."

[uncommon]

16. Ah, okay.

[burnsei sensei]

7. Most of the world's people have not had the moral

courage to see poverty as an evil in itself.
But that's what poverty is, and we need to act as though it were.

[2 Much Tribulation]

10. If so, we might expect them to close the organic food "loophole" (allows buying non-industrial food)

[Bluenorthwest]

14. What is this 'loophole'?

How does it impact recipients?

[uncommon]

20. When I got food stamps, I was able to use them to buy whatever food items I wanted --

including organic. I was able to shop at non-mainstream food stores as well...

???

[Poll_Blind]

12. Interesting. I didn't realize about the subsidy thing.

Thanks for the info!

PB

[Ramulux]

18. What?

I have been unemployed for over 2 years and I cant get an EBT card because I live with someone who makes over 1600 a month. I know a few people like myself who are in serious economic trouble but are unable to get on it because of other random bullshit reasons.

However, my mother works at a health food store and she tells me about these obviously extremely wealthy people who drive mercedes who come in and use an EBT card. The program realy needs to be reformed because there are a lot of rich assholes who are abusing the system and making it difficult for people who really need it to get into the program.

[Roon]

23. Including the territories

colorado comes in dead LAST in processing food stamp applications.I have been eating off of food banks since Jan. because my stamps were cut off and I don't want to deal with the all day affair that it is to apply for food stamps.

This is all thanks to a computer that was being utilized that hasn't had all the bugs worked out. Everytime you apply for anything, AnD,food stamps, medicare savings.etc...for about 3-5 days in a row the computer will bomb your mailbox with acceptance and denial notices. You get denied first for EVERYTHING!! Then if you do indeed qualify, they will approve you. Then the next day you will get another denial letter. I have known case workers that have QUIT because of this human services computer that no one can figure out. They got sick of dealing with people who got denial letters even though they ended up being approved. It's bullshit. We can thank former gov.owens for insisting that this computer be brought online way too early.

Applying for food stamps in colorado is VERY painful!!