More than 500,000 Americans receiving food stamp benefits will no longer qualify for them beginning on April 1. This is a result of government requirements linking the assistance to an individual’s ability to find a job and work. (emphasis added)In order to keep their access to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) for more than three months, able-bodied adults ages 18-49 who don’t have children or other dependents must work, volunteer, or enroll in a job-training program for 20 hours a week or more.
Back in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, the work requirements for SNAP were waived due to cratering job prospects and an unstable global economy. As economic indicators improved, lawmakers began debating whether to reinstate the requirements, with conservatives arguing that the rule encourages people to find work and liberals saying it would harm those still struggling with poverty.
The requirements came back on the books in […]
Stephan, I don’t follow your logic here. Your introduction to this story makes a point that “17 million American children have hunger issues, and 2.5 million of them are forced to live on the street in a Dickensian world of child prostitution, minor thefts, drug addiction, and begging. We have elders who have to eat dog food because it is all they can afford,” which indeed is a woeful situation.
But the story itself specifically states in the second paragraph, and subsequently, that the cuts in question are not directed at those people: “In order to keep their access to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) for more than three months, able-bodied adults ages 18-49 who don’t have children or other dependents must work, volunteer, or enroll in a job-training program for 20 hours a week or more.”
I believe Stephan refers to the meta-trend that is occurring in this country, of which all people of low income are affected by the “trickle-down” nonsense of the right which is making more paupers than a realistic “we-are-all-in-this-together” policy would produce.
Perhaps I should have made it clearer, Damien. This is in addition to the children and elderly. I can tell you from being involved with a food program — my wife bakes five dozen organic “treats” that go to people on the island who are part of a program friends of ours started — that no one is willingly reduced to food charity. If you are between 18-49 and you rely on food programs something else is radically wrong in your life, and you need help. Cutting off your food support is not the solution, it just makes matters worse. As a result not only that individual, but society as a whole has its wellness degraded.