Food Stamp Reforms Are Ruining Christmas

[n2doc]

By the time Maria Melo went to the state social services office to apply for food stamps, things had been going badly for months. She'd lost her job as director of nursing at a rehab facility. Then, longstanding problems with anxiety, depression, and an eating disorder shut her body down and she ended up hospitalized for two weeks. Between unemployment checks and her husband's work as a self-employed electrician, they might still have been able to squeak by OK and even get some decent Christmas gifts for the kids. But the unpaid hospital bills made that impossible now.

Food stamps, Melo figured, would reduce the monthly grocery bill, giving her a little breathing room in the family budget. But, sitting in the crowded waiting room at an office of the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance near her home in Lowell, she was more embarrassed than hopeful.

"I was like, I can't believe I'm doing this," she said. "Here I am, a registered nurse, sitting there, just hoping for help."

more

http://www.vice.com/read/food-stamp-reforms-are-ruining-christmas-1218

[KingCharlemagne]

1. In the words of the ever-immortal Emma Goldman, "Ask

for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.”

Anarchism and Other Essays (1910)

[Frustratedlady]

2. ...and they'll arrest you for that, throw you in prison where you will be fed.

Crazy system we have, right?

[NewDeal_Dem]

11. You'll be fed crap food & forced to work for it to profit the system.

[jwirr]

3. I suspect that is a feeling that most when waiting in any of the government offices. Often the

receptionist is so over whelmed that she/he is very abrupt. That is the first thing that makes you feel harassed as you walk in.

As to how this woman felt, she should know that the goal of Food Stamps etc. is to help you through the bad times and everyone has bad times.

[Prophet 451]

6. The goal of food stamps is to dehumanize the receipient

If they were genuinely to help through hard times, the needy would just be given cash as they are in every other country.

[jwirr]

7. Since they started issuing the EBT cards it is no different than where I get the rest of my money.

Off of a debit card. No embarrassment.

[Prophet 451]

14. Point, I'd forgotten about the EBT cards

[DLevine]

18. In some states the EBT cards are very obvious.

Here in PA, not only are they easily identifiable, you have to tell the cashier you're using Food Stamps (called Access cards here). Of course, busybodies hear this and explode. I live in a very red area, & it can be humiliating. I was once berated by the woman behind me for being a freeloader. She made quite a scene. Sucks.

[jwirr]

22. Didn't know that. Sorry that happens.

[meow2u3]

27. Another problem w/Access cards: they easily demagnetize

so you can't swipe them through the card reader. If you have a PA Access card that doesn't swipe, that's double the humiliation becaue you have to hand the card to the cashier, who punches the number in manually--and some cashiers look down their noses at you.

[helpmetohelpyou]

10. She didn't have to go in there

[niyad]

15. wow, could you have made a more clueless response?

[helpmetohelpyou]

20. huh ?

[Quantess]

36. Nobody HAS to do ANYTHING.

But she felt she needed help feeding her family, and figured she needed food stamps. What other options did she have?

[daredtowork]

4. Pictures of Starving Children Need to Start Going Up

That's the only thing that actually gets the political attention of the affluent classes that can do something.

No one is going to care about the starving adults: the underlying prejudice is, no matter what their circumstances or disability, they "should have made better decisions" - and thus now they should be punished by the denial of food - and that will also motivate them to "get a job".

By the way, the "crackdown on fraud" led Oakland's Social Services to announce to roomfull's of people that they were being surveilled by investigators (including interviews with neighbors, etc.). This came at a time when there is massive civil unrest and protest in the streets over police misconduct. Also, it has come out that the State of California is resisting prison reform because they will lose their source of cheap/free labor (including the deadly job of fighting forest fires).

You do the math over how this is going to play out.

Ps. I tried to let local/State politicians know that Oakland's welfare office was doing this at a recent Town Hall, but I was blocked by the very County Supervisor who is in charge of Social Services!!!

[jwirr]

8. I was thinking last night that it would help if doctors whould organize to oppose the cuts to food

stamps and other health care situations. They see the effects in this when their patients can no longer heat the foods they need to stay healthy.

Teachers/Schools also see the results of these cuts.

We need help from these groups. At least in the next two years I hope that President Obama stops them with his veto. Unfortunately most of these things end up in spending bills that he is reluctant to veto.

[daredtowork]

17. Doctors don't understand welfare

Doctors, like most people in the upper middle class, are busy with their own lives and don't have time to understand the conditions their poor patients live under - even if they want to empathize.

I have a good doctor right now, and when I see her she encourages me to buy over-the-counter vitamins to improve my health. I then try to encourage her to prescribe them and briefly try to explain that "welfare" these days doesn't involve direct cash. She then proposes that I put vitamins "in my budget". Budget? What budget? Was that something that was once part of welfare? It's not in there now.

Well she didn't prescribe the vitamins, probably because Medi-Cal won't let doctors prescribe anything that can be bought over the counter.

Next appointment, she brought up that I should be taking vitamins again! lol!

Anyway, it would be AWESOME if doctors understood welfare. It would be awesome if they wrote their medical records in a way that jived with the patient's other bureaucratic needs (Dept. of Rehab, SSI, other services). It would be awesome if they realized what patients lacked and helped fight for them.

But I doubt doctors will do this, but it would require doctors bothering to learn about the conditions patients live under first - and that would take up there valuable time. And it would probably be a demoralizing bummer for them as well. (What - that's why the "lifestyle" speech instantly destroys the doctor/patient relationship? I had no idea!)

[jwirr]

19. Unfortunately you are most likely correct. By the way all insurance companies do not prescribe

meds that can be bought over the counter. That was one of Ralph Nader's suggestions way back in the 70s. It was promptly taken up and turned into a law. I have never been able to forgive him for that slam to the poor and elderly.

[daredtowork]

23. It makes no sense where there is no direct cash welfare

It means people on welfare can't get vitamins (including iron supplements for anemia), aspirin/tylenol (while the doctor continually lectures on inflammation), cough medicine, medicine for stomach upsets, etc.

[jwirr]

32. Exactly. It also hurts Seniors who use a lot of those items and if that Senior is on Medicaid which

means they are poor then they are in need of this extra help.

[daredtowork]

39. This is why it drives me nuts wealthy people know nothing about welfare

Where I live there are abundant wealthy people - many of whom are generous people who would love to contribute to social change. They are so considerate for the needs of the poor here that they are actually going to make medical marijuana free! So a person on welfare could potentially get medical marijuana, but not aspirin!!!

It's just a matter of wealthy people not understanding what is needed.

One thing that might help is a sort of free pharmacy for people on welfare or who meet certain income qualifications. Berkeley already has a free clinic: basic vitamins and pharmacy items could be distributed through there.

[jwirr]

42. I know. It really is frustrating.

[greatlaurel]

38. I know someone in medical school. I plan on showing this post to them. They need this information.

The people who get into medical school are pretty much all from the solid middle to upper middle class. The application process weeds out anyone who does not know how to play the game, so most who are accepted are either doctor's kids or have a good family friend who has good medical connections.

One thing I found out is that medical schools will not look at an applicant who has not done significant amounts of time job shadowing doctors. If you do not know a doctor personally, it is almost impossible to get them to let you shadow them. Just one of the little ways that the lower classes are kept in their place. It is truly insidious.

Which is a long winded way of saying your doctor has no idea how expensive vitamins are when you are on a limited budget. They think they had it tough as a med student or resident, but they never had to go without basic necessities, because mom and dad would be able to help them out if things got too tight and their loans for living expenses are generous. Their personal experiences have immunized them from understanding what poverty really means.

[daredtowork]

40. Yet they think they know what poverty means

because they are under great stress from enormous student loans (and probably little sleep). Doctors in training have it hard. And they seem to project that on their patients, whom they blame for not complying with lifestyle instructions.

Anyway, thank you for doing something to try to "educate up" a doctor-in-training you know!

[greatlaurel]

41. Residents are under great stress and med school is demanding, but it is not the same as poverty.

The middle classes (which includes doctors, since doctors still work for a living even if they are well paid) have been so fooled by the right wing propaganda about poverty. Most grew up in comfortable suburbs where they never interact with people from different backgrounds. The suburbanization of the US has been a boon to the right wing propagandists, by segregating people by resources.

It is worth a shot. Hopefully, this student will talk about it with other students. It is worth a try.

Happy Holidays to you and I hope you have a good New Year, too.

Take care.

[daredtowork]

43. Please pass along this, too, while you're at it

This was my response to another post about chronic pain:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5985067

[greatlaurel]

46. You bet! Glad to do it. Good post, by the way.

[meow2u3]

30. Do you think the affluent classes gives a damn about starving children?

Everybody knows that in order to develop a sound moral character, you have to punish children by denying them food. That way, their parents won't go to jail for food stamp fraud

The rethug Koch whores see food stamp fraud where it isn't there because they're the worst offenders of fraud.

[daredtowork]

37. Putting up posters of children to shame people

must be working on somehow. The "for the children" tactic seems to be the sole remaining political appeal to get anything done these days. Who is it aimed at?

[Prophet 451]

5. All to make people even more desperate

The aim of the PtB is to get the populace so desperate that they'll work for pennies, or a meal, or a dosshouse bed for the night. That's why they cut welfare. They dehumanize those who need welfare both because they honestly think everyone incapable of finding a job is a useless eater who should die and so that the genpop will be brainwashed into hating those on welfare. That means less protests when they shrink welfare or abolish it entirely.

[Horse with no Name]

52. yes yes yes yes yes! Thank you for this.

This is exactly what they do...in every aspect.

Make you GLAD that you have that minimum wage job and make you HATE anyone that wants that job.

[helpmetohelpyou]

9. She can do everything on line without ever going into an office

It's just a phone interview now .

[NewDeal_Dem]

13. In my state (WA) I gave up trying to get on the phone. It was always busy no matter

when I called and there was no alternative but email in which you had to email your personal information.

I can't help think the goal is to cut costs -- cut state personnel obviously, but also cut the number of people who are able to access the system.

Kill people. IOW.

[helpmetohelpyou]

16. I know my state is easy

You open an account with the dept of social services on line.
Fill out a fairly simple application and they call you within 1 day

They give you a phone interview and they send you your debt card with in 5 days.

With the debt card there could be a letter asking for proof of certain things you wrote on your application .
All you have to do is mail it but the money is already in your account the day you receive the card.

[NewDeal_Dem]

21. I get stalled at the initial online questions because I was out of work for more than three months

due to a rare illness -- hospitalized, nursing home, etc.

They don't call us -- we're supposed to call them. Worksource has a dedicated line at their building, but none of the people there can help you -- you have to call and they're laying off the worksource people because the economy's so fucking great, you know.

What state are you in?

[helpmetohelpyou]

24. I'm sorry to hear that , I live in CT

Our social service dept is really good here.

[daredtowork]

29. Automated is great until you have a question

then no one returns your call, and the works get all gummed up, and there are delays, and your paperwork defaults to benefits stoppage. Also you start to get spammed with reams of mail that make no sense because the letters were based on rules/policies from 3 years ago, and you are supposed to ignore them (but you don't know that, and you can't call your worker to ask). Every letter says call your worker if you have questions, but the number goes to a phone tree with infinite options which after 20 minutes of dicking around just hangs up on you.

So from month to month you are walking on eggshells just hoping nothing is wrong with your documentation, and you become afraid of the mailbox and what might be in the weekly arcane letters you get from Social Services. Some you should ignore, some you should return within 2 days even though they require you to get together documentation (how to document ebanking when you don't have a printer?).

Automation is to improve document processing for an over-burdened State, but this process adds to the stress "bandwidth" of the already over-burdened individual at the bottom of the heap.

Why does the good of the bureaucracy still come before the good of people?

[True Blue Door]

12. All other options exhausted, steal.

If you get caught and the state dares to prosecute, make a circus of it.

That's the bargain the elites in this country need to learn: Give the bread, or there will be circuses.

[NewDeal_Dem]

25. Yeah, that's great advice. Just what poor people need is a record. No one's going to

stand behind the poor and most poor people aren't equipped to "make a circus" that anyone's going to think about or care about except to chalk it up to another example of how disgusting and unfit poor people are.

[True Blue Door]

33. What they need is food.

If they can't get it by means allowed to them by the state, they must reject the authority of the state in that instance.

And if the state is a dick about it, they must either themselves or with the help of others make sure the state is held accountable at trial.

[NewDeal_Dem]

44. It's relatively easy to get food: the state, soup kitchens, churches, subsidized school

lunches, etc.

It's much harder to meet other needs, like stable and safe housing.

What's needed is MLK's poor people's movement redux. Which would mean middle class people like yourself, instead of telling poor people to risk their lives for prison on their own, would become part of a real movement to push for such things.

[True Blue Door]

45. I don't think the subjects of this post agree that it's easy to get food.

[NewDeal_Dem]

47. I'm one of the "subjects" you speak so knowingly about. Telling poor people to

steal food in isolation from a larger movement is criminal.

Yeah, so they can become $1 a day labor for the machine that's already destroyed their lives.

[True Blue Door]

48. You act as if the poor are mindless children.

Like they depend on your spiritual guidance to know right from wrong. They don't.

They will decide like any other person.

[NewDeal_Dem]

50. No, I "act like" I'm one of the poor you so carelessly advise to rob and risk jail --

with no one bigger than themselves at their back -- because I AM one of them.

Nothing to do with right v. wrong. Something to do with productive v. counterproductive actions.

You go rob a grocery if you think it's so helpful.

[hughee99]

26. It's those god damn republicans that are running Massachusetts and are pushing

legislation designed to make the system worse on purpose... oh wait, never mind.

[helpmetohelpyou]

28. No not at all

https://service.hhs.state.ma.us/ierhome/LandingPage.do?method=displayConsumerHomePage&pageSwitch=HOME

They allow you in MA to apply from home without waiting in line or having to go into an office.

Just open an account and fill out the application

[hughee99]

31. The article is largely about how changes in state legislation has maded it more unpleasant

to USE these benefits, not about how it's too difficult to get them in the first place.

[greatlaurel]

34. This is a really important OP. Thank you for posting.

One of the resident trolls already posted their usual drivel attacking the working class. For anyone with less than about 3 million dollars in the bank, the specter of loosing everything is there. Most people in the comfortable middle class refuse to recognize how precarious their financial situations really are in the US. A divorce, illness, or loss of a job can be financially devastating in a very short amount of time. The massive rips torn in the US safety net are causing the degradation and shortening of millions of peoples lives.

I have a relative who works in finance. We were discussing this very thing at our family Christmas party. She made the point the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US is medical costs, including for people with health insurance. We have been propagandized by the John Birch Society nuts that anyone who needs a little assistance are moochers and thieves for decades. They have marketed their repulsive ideas brilliantly to the detriment of everyone.

[madamesilverspurs]

35. She's hoping for breathing room.

Problem is, if you're on assistance and experience a moment of unlabored breathing the next thing that happens is an agency accusing you of breathing and your benefits will be cut accordingly.

While I was going through the disability application process, some caseworker would decide I was capable of performing certain tasks; then he would decide that his assessment would make that job magically appear and would deny benefits.

Like medical workers, caseworkers are advised to remain detached; problem is, they confuse detachment with indifference. I've taken complaints upchain following rude comments from a worker, only to have the supervisor hang up on me. Our social services offices are overseen by the county commissioners (all far right GOP), and their sneering indifference is palpable and very nearly visible.

The way the poor are treated in this country should serve to remove all questions about how we can allow such things as torture.

[Warpy]

49. Temporarily low gas prices are helping some families cope with the cuts

but we all know what gas prices will eventually do, shoot up to five bucks a gallon so the middlemen can recoup their losses after playing geopolitics with oil has run its course.

[Horse with no Name]

51. I think so many people do not understand the stress and strain on nurses

it wears your body down and your mind down. You unwillingly become part of the corporate healthcare where saving money is king--despite what it does to the patients.

It is a high stress job. There are more on the job injuries in nursing than there is construction.

I would rather a fellow caregiver take a time out when she reaches her breaking point rather than to continue to practice nursing.