Posted on 05/26/2017 10:44:10 AM PDT by spintreebob
More than half of food stamp recipients in 21 Georgia counties have been dropped from the program after the state instituted work requirements.
State figures released this week revealed that 11,779 people considered able-bodied without children were required to find work by April 1 to continue receiving food stamps, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Sixty-two percent were dropped after the deadline, whittling the number of recipients to 4,528.
State officials began enforcing the work mandate in 2016, and plan to expand work requirements to all 159 counties by 2019.
About 1.6 million Georgia residents use food stamps, which are funded with federal dollars managed by the state Department of Family and Children Services. The number of food stamp recipients deemed able-bodied and without children in Georgia has dropped from 111,000 to 89,500 in a year, a drop that state officials believe is attributed to a statewide review of the population.
Reactions to the expansion of work requirements largely divide on political lines. Conservatives, nationally, have pushed for more welfare-to-work initiatives after the Great Recession put the federal mandate on hold.
Benita Dodd, the vice president of the fiscally conservative Georgia Public Policy Foundation, said the work mandate pushes people into jobs.
"It does show that if you give people an incentive to help themselves, they can become productive citizens," Dodd said.
Progressives have criticized the policy as cruel for targeting access to food.
Melissa Johnson, a senior policy analyst for the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, says food stamps are "a meager benefit" as is, at about $129 a month in Georgia, and said time limits will inflict more harm on the assistance-seeking population.
The state also has drawn criticism for improperly deeming those with physical and mental limitation as able-bodied.
The state first implemented the work requirements in Cobb, Gwinnett and Hall counties, giving recipients three months' notice. State officials later acknowledged that hundreds of people in the three counties who were classified as able-bodied were actually unable to work. Several had already lost their food stamps.
DCFS spokeswoman Mary Beth Lukich said the department, which has a $505,706 contract with Goodwill of North Georgia for employment assistance services, has offered help with job search and training to affected recipients.
"The agency has many services to offer (them), but many have chosen not to respond to multiple notices," Lukich said.
DO NOT FORGET.... as the Left starts howling that Food Stamp recipient numbers are getting slashed in half... that Obama doubled their numbers in his 8 short years. He did not hand out food to the neediest 26 million Americans, they were already on the program. He took the NEXT 22 million Americans, and started the on the Dependency Track... and THAT’S who is going to be removed (and howling) over the next 8 years: the people who always fed themselves before, but did not have to for some of the last 8 years.
And in 2017 they get 129.00? Food must be dirt cheap in Georgia.☺
It's 0.375% of the total.
When I was a kid, a family man in the U.S. could buy a new home on one income. One income. Try that today.☺
Wrap your head around this.
What many of our parents paid for the total cost of their homes, say in the early 60s, equals what many are now paying every few months just in mortgage payments alone. My folks bought a brand new home on 1 income for about 18k.
Millions are now paying that much every 6, 7 or 8 months in mortgage payments alone.☺
“If you’re buying real food, like eggs, chicken, vegetables, etc., $129 buys a lot. If you’re buying soda, sugary cold cereals, cake - garbage “food”, $129 doesn’t buy much.”
Or if you’re using Food Stamps to buy staples, then the EBT cash to by that “needed bottle of Chivas Regal!” I’ve see Black women here in NorCal dressed The American Taxpayer is the chump for the world. NATO, and The UN, right on down to his own worthless lay about non-working minority “brothers and sisters.”
“I’ve see Black women here in NorCal dressed
Sorry, too many keys: Should have said: I’ve seen Black women here in NorCal dressed to the nines with a bunch of well-dressed “crumb grabbers in tow, doing exactly what I said in the first sentence.
If the FEDS purpose was to protect the value of the dollar, how does “One Dollar is now 1 CENT” 100 years after the FED came to be !!
Did someone say — AUDIT THE FED ???
I concur. Everything in D.C. needs an independent audit including the federal reserve. People are still being paid incomes from the late 1980s.
There are a whole lot of folks being paid incomes today, which many were earning nearly the same about 30 years ago. And some people wonder why so many young adults are still living at home with the folks?
Fascinating...
Remember this guy?
Lobster-Buying CA Musician on Food Stamps: My Lifestyle ‘Looks Like a Good Time, Man’
That’s just more corrupt government. They never cared if anyone was investigating for checking for fraud because they just billed the tax paying suckers for everything, so it didn’t matter if anyone was ginning the system.
Ga. should give ‘em one way nonstop plane tickets to San Francisco, Portland or Seattle where the welfare is better.
When I....a very good friend of mine... got out of the service in 1974 he was offered a bonus of $100 a month for every month he was in. He moved to Ohio while this bonus was in the works the paperwork he put in alerted Ohio officials he was a VN Veteran and Ohio sent paperwork telling him he was eligible for a $100 a month bonus for every month he spent in country. I.....HE filled out paperwork and entered a letter that said he had applied for this program in PA and wasn’t sure if he was eligible for Ohio. PA gave him the bonus and he was happy. Three weeks later, Ohio paid him the bonus and he got confused. He wrote PA and told them of the mix-up and asked whether he was entitled to the PA or Ohio check? He did the same to Ohio. A month later or more he got identical letters from both agencies apologizing for the mix-up and here enclosed is your bonus check. Unbelieving, he sent ANOTHER letter to each organization, explaining the situation. Bigger than shit, 90 days later he got letters from each states apologizing for the mix-up and please find enclosed your bonus check. He put the last four checks in a savings account awaiting a call from the Gov. to return the money. In 2010 he used the money and interest to spend a week in Cabo San Lucas fishing.
LOLOL!!!
Did your “friend” accompany you on the Cabo trip?
I...myself...wasn’t there.
Everything is better in Georgia.
You do know that salaries are, at a minimum 10X what they were in the ‘60s as well?
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