Thursday, September 16, 2010

Demonizing the Poor: Welfare Myths (and Facts)

¡Hola! Everybody…
Note: I got this from a new friend, Jamie Roads (
click here). I definitely appreciate her efforts, especially now, as the right wing sets to reply the same crap they put out there in the 80s and 90s. I haven’t done the research since before Clinton’s Welfare Deform, so I’m grateful for the updates.

* * *

-=[ Don't Believe the Hype ]=-

Or: Beating Up On The Poor


TANF: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

Average Payment/Benefit: Poverty Guidelines for most of the U.S. (-Alaska, Hawaii) is for 1, $10,830; for 2, $14,570; and for 3, $18,310. The average payment or benefit for Welfare Recipients averages NO MORE THAN 25% of poverty guidelines for a family of 3... That is $4577.50 (Per Year for a family of 3!!!) or approximately $381.46 per month (again, for 3 people!). One state (CA) does better by just under 50% of poverty levels (click here: pgs 9-11 ~ Map on page 11 is best breakdown!).

So this is an attractive, alluring way to survive how? Who is being lazy on this per month?

Can you collect forever? No (45/50 states). There is a 60 month lifetime limitation. Very few exceptions. Some states (8), like Connecticut have set their limitations lower (in their case, 21 months). This is regardless of the dollar amount you received (for example, if you collect $1.00, then that is 1/60 months). Some (12) are intermittent (i.e. 24 months on, then time required before can utilize again). Some states (only 5 -- Massachusetts, Michigan, NY, Oregon, Vermont) have no lifetime limits and move to state plans after federal has ended. Only 12 allow for assistance to children after that 5 year period (after adult has reached 5 year limits)

Would someone CHOOSE to be on welfare: Likely not, when you consider the average monthly payment for a family of 3 is under $400.00 and the average monthly cost of living is $1050.00 For the simple essentials (Based pretty low on $400.00 Rent, $147.00 Utilities, $249.00 Food, and $254.00 Transportation... per link above, pg 15). Most people WITH jobs struggle to maintain expenses month to month.

Qualifications: Must be a citizen and in most states, a resident. SS# must be provided, Proof of ages of ALL people in home, Income is based on state and specifics. In general if net income - expenses is less than Local Min. Income Figure in your area you may qualify. (I know locally, it doesn't take very much money at all to lose these benefits... unemployment will do it!

Additional Requirements on TANF: Depending on the age of the child, Recipients are required to attend classes, job seek, etc. 20-40 hours each week. They are required to show proof of job search (etc) and this is also followed up on (workers call and verify they are doing this, or expect documentation!)

Makes sitting 'on your butt' kinda difficult right?!

Who deserves Credit for much of these time limitations and added requirements: Bill Clinton.

Resources

Don’t Trash Talk the Poor: Clearing Up Misconceptions About “Welfare” (click here)

Policy (click here)

The Misconception About Welfare (click here )

TANF: Failing America's Poorest Children (click here)

THE HHS POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2010 (click here )

Consumer Expenditures 2007 (click here)

Cash Assistance from TANF (click here)


10 comments:

  1. You mean you really arent aware of the many forms of welfare other then TANF such as food stamps, pre-natal care, nutrition programs, housing assistance, energy assistance, job training programs, child care services, free or reduced school lunch, public shelters, health clinics and  Medicaid. Who needs a ton of cash when you have all these other things paid for. That is just beer money.  Not at all bad when you havent earned one cent of it and it is just taken from someone else.

    Also, you asked so I will tell you. SSI. Supplemental income for those with children under 18 are supported with a monthly check until they are 18. Also, young grandmothers who have 4 kids they are taking care of becaue of their teen daughter still out their banging away and looking for more baby daddies are given a primary caregiver credit, then they follow this with grandma getting disabled as she is too fat to walk at 40 and the kids are given the primary healthcare credit and check while grandma collects disability for life.

    Who you tryin to kid. This is why there are people on generational welfare, this is why 70% of Blacks are from broken homes and this is why so many kids have so many kids and why they will always and forever be eternal victims of their own making.   How can you know about welfare then suddenly forget all of this to paint a false picture?  Why is a latino lying to make false reality for Blacks? Are you an outcast?

    What you should be asking yourself, is what will happen to these people when the checks stop coming? What will happen when the economy completely fails?   Who will take care of them as they do not have a clue how to creat but only to take? 

    ReplyDelete
  2. Are you REALLY THAT stupid?

    Only an idiot would compile the wide array of social services you mention and lump them all together is factually-challenged diatribe against the poor.

    Any FOOl (except you, apparrently) knows that TANF, SSI, and the rest serve totally different populations. this is a comjmon logicval faallacy uused by feeble-minded consiervatives intent on demonizing the poor.

    My question to you is do you know that the largest governmental give-aways go to the rich? do YOU know that corporate welfare dwarfs TANF in terms of federal outlays? What you should be asking yourself is why you're adamant on defending the ones that are REALLY getting gov't. handouts and not earning on cent of it. HINT: It isn't the poor.

    fuckin idiot

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm glad a dumb-fuck goober responded to my post in the way he did. never mind the gramaticcally-challenged aspects of his posts -- the important issue is not his educational attainment (or lack thereof), but his factually-challenged assertions.

    For one, he framed the discussion of welfare in racial terms. IOW, he frames the duiscussion of welfare (and poverty) in explictly BLACK terms. The assertion isn't merely untrue, it's racist.

    Welfare is 1% of the budget (two cents for every dollar at $10 billion across the nation); the average family size is two people, one adult, one child. contrary to this muthafucka's calim regarding generational wel;fare dependency,  average length of stay on welfare is less than two years, typically most welfare families are not using it forever because of time limits; welfare is not generational; welfare is mostly made up of single-parent’s who are WHITE women.

    We can’t talk about welfare without pointing out corporate welfare. In "Media Magic: Making Class Invisible," sociologist Gregory Mantsios points out that often “we learn to resent welfare, which accounts for only two cents out of every dollar in the federal budget (approximately $10 billion) and provides financial relief to low income families, but learn little about the $11 billion the federal government spends on individuals with incomes in the excess of $1,000,000 (not low income), or the $17 billion in farm subsidies, or the $214 billion (twenty times the cost of welfare) in interest payments to financial institutions.”

    This goober mother fucker here, and others like him, like to pathologize poor people (people they assume are mostly black or other people of color), but fail to see that the overwhelming percentage of the government's welfare handouts (OUR tax dollars) go to the rich.

    I have NO patience for such people, nor do I countenence their ignorance easily. I call them dumb-fuck twat goober motherfuckers because that's what they are.

    ReplyDelete
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