These 13 Counties Started Work Requirements for Food Stamps. Here’s What Happened.

[rangerrebew]

These 13 Counties Started Work Requirements for Food Stamps. Here’s What Happened.

Christine Roe / June 07, 2017 / comments



Participation in the food stamp program plunged by 85 percent in 13 counties in Alabama after officials required that recipients must work, look for work, or get approved job training, a state agency says.

In those 13 counties, enrollment in food stamps dropped over four months from 5,538 able-bodied adults without dependents to 831 such recipients.

http://dailysignal.com/2017/06/07/these-13-counties-started-work-requirements-for-food-stamps-heres-what-happened/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Top5&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTUdOaFptWm1Zek0xT1dVeCIsInQiOiJKVzBoTCtwQUZEMWVuNUZjZnVZZkRTS3B5K0JzREprSHpBQlVsd3dhTTI5ZTVQZ3VnQTVRQVJsXC9LazdIa0NyXC84anVoVTJTVW1jTzlHMmxwTWRtT0dWKzVRS1RiNXlObFJvSjN0dTBsek5HZ3Q4V2RXXC9oMkREeXNFTUExSVBmNyJ9

[Oceander]

So what happened to all those who dropped off the rolls?

[Gideon300]

These 13 Counties Started Work Requirements for Food Stamps. Here’s What Happened.

Christine Roe / June 07, 2017 / comments



Participation in the food stamp program plunged by 85 percent in 13 counties in Alabama after officials required that recipients must work, look for work, or get approved job training, a state agency says.

In those 13 counties, enrollment in food stamps dropped over four months from 5,538 able-bodied adults without dependents to 831 such recipients.

As Paul McCartney once said: "Maybe I'm Amazed!"   But I'm not...

My concern is where they will be showing up next to suck off the gubmint dole.  Just because they dropped off the role in one place doesn't mean they are out working.  They will either find another way to freeload, or move to another state or county and re-apply.  This means neither a drop in total welfare expenditures, nor a rise in the employment rate.  If they drop out because they can't do six hours work a week, they aren't about to go get a full time job. 

[Frank Cannon]

So what happened to all those who dropped off the rolls?

They died.

[Doug Loss]

So what happened to all those who dropped off the rolls?

Doesn't matter, it's their own business not ours, and who cares?

[Oceander]

Doesn't matter, it's their own business not ours, and who cares?

It does matter if they turned to crime and not to productive work.

[Frank Cannon]

It does matter if they turned to crime and not to productive work.

WTF? Really? You think people should be payed off, otherwise known as bribed, so they will not commit crimes? Holly shit.

[Oceander]

WTF? Really? You think people should be payed off, otherwise known as bribed, so they will not commit crimes? Holly shit.

That would be "holy shit", not "holly shit", unless of course you enjoy passing little red berries. 

[Gideon300]

It does matter if they turned to crime and not to productive work.

I agree.  4707 men unaccustomed to working for a living suddenly on the street with no means of income definitely matters. 

I think they're over in the next county or state plying their same old "profession". 

[Oceander]

I agree.  4707 men unaccustomed to working for a living suddenly on the street with no means of income definitely matters. 

I think they're over in the next county or state plying their same old "profession". 

Possibly.  At any rate, it's a data point that should be known. 

[Sanguine]

Thirteen of Alabama’s 67 counties—Greene, Hale, Perry, Dallas, Lowndes, Wilcox, Monroe, Conecuh, Clarke, Washington, Choctaw, Sumter, and Barbour—previously were exempt from enforcement of the federal work requirement for those participating in food stamps. That exemption ended as of Jan. 1 under the administration of Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican.

Because of reforms to the welfare program in 1996, able-bodied adults ages 18 to 49 without dependents are limited to three months of food stamp benefits without working in a 36-month period, unless they find employment or are involved in a work program part time.

A state could waive the requirement in areas it can demonstrate have job shortages or higher unemployment rates than other areas.

However, in 2009, with passage by Congress of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama administration allowed all states to waive the work requirements for food stamp enrollment.

This expansion of waivers led to a dramatic increase in the number of able-bodied adults without dependents who went on food stamps, from 1.9 million in fiscal year 2008 to almost 4 million by fiscal year 2010, and 4.9 million by fiscal 2013.

Just throwing some facts into the discussion.

[dfwgator]

It does matter if they turned to crime and not to productive work.

Then they go to jail.

[Oceander]

Then they go to jail.

Great, and now they're going to be substantially more expensive for us to maintain.  Pretty piss-poor swap:  a few thousand in food stamps for twenty or thirty thousand in prison costs. 

[Sanguine]

Great, and now they're going to be substantially more expensive for us to maintain.  Pretty piss-poor swap:  a few thousand in food stamps for twenty or thirty thousand in prison costs.

So, your contention is that giving people food stamps keeps them from committing crimes? 

[Joe Wooten]

It does matter if they turned to crime and not to productive work.

If they did, they soon will either be in jail or get shot........

[thackney]

Great, and now they're going to be substantially more expensive for us to maintain.  Pretty piss-poor swap:  a few thousand in food stamps for twenty or thirty thousand in prison costs.

Since its creation in 2010, the Smith County Jail’s garden has produced more than 150,000 pounds of produce for the East Texas Food Bank — nearly enough to fill four 18-wheeler trucks. The project was the brainchild of former Sheriff J. B. Smith, who started the garden with the help of Judge Sam Griffith of the Court of Appeals for the 12th District and a former Smith County agriculture extension agent.

“Matthew 25 says you’re supposed to feed the hungry,” Griffith said. “We took him serious about it.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2013/07/22/garden-fresh-produce-poor-thanks-inmates/

[Joe Wooten]

The Texas prison system saves a LOT of money by having every prison located in rural areas where they grow a lot (if not all) of their own food. There have been lawsuits over this in the past and the state has won every one of them.