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Thread: Woman with 2 kids, abandoned by husband, struggles to survive on welfare.

  1. #1

    Woman with 2 kids, abandoned by husband, struggles to survive on welfare.

    'I Am a Welfare Mom and I Can Tell You: It's a Nightmare Come True'

    What I learned from this article is that although there may be substantial benefits nominally available to poor families, it is very difficult to actually obtain these benefits.

    Three years ago, my husband abandoned my two young children and me. As a stay-at-home mom, my grief was pushed to the side by the overwhelming realization that I had absolutely no way to provide for my kids. With no family to help me, an empty bank account, no job of my own, and two kids relying on me, I was terrified that we were going to end up homeless and hungry on the streets.
    ...
    It was a Tuesday morning when I gathered up the courage to walk into the Department of Human Services looking for help. I got there right when the office opened, not realizing that people routinely show up hours before then to get in line. I waited six hours with a crying baby in my arms and a restless toddler clinging to my leg before I finally saw a social worker.

    With my house in foreclosure and no money for an apartment, I was devastated to learn that the housing assistance program, known as section 8, had a waiting list that was more than five years long and was closed to new applicants. There was nothing the social worker could do except give me information for a shelter that offered up to six weeks of residency — when they had room.

    If I made less than $400 a month, I was eligible for a small amount of cash assistance — less than $100 a week for a family of three — but I was also required to volunteer 20 hours a week or participate in job training. While I was not against that, with two young kids I was unable to do either as the waiting list for a daycare assistance program was six months long.

    There were also hurdles to getting food stamps (also known as SNAP), thanks to an in-office paperwork delay of six months for new applicants, so I signed up for the "Women, Infant, and Children" program (WIC), which gives low income mothers vouchers to buy specific food items. But I soon abandoned that completely because I didn't have childcare for the time-consuming classes the program required, and it proved too difficult to find the WIC-approved food items in the end. While I'm in no position to be complaining, if I wanted to keep a job, I couldn't spend two full days a month sitting in a WIC office with my children, only to find out that none of my local stores carried the very specific items that WIC approves.
    ....
    The first big stepping stone in truly building a better future came when we were finally approved for subsidized daycare and I was able to begin working in what amounts to a minimum wage job. But even though I was only making $8.50 an hour, I was now disqualified from cash assistance.
    ...
    We may have "free" health insurance, but the Affordable Healthcare Act has flooded the system with so many Medicaid patients that there simply aren't enough doctors to see us. With two young kids who get sick often, I was crushed to learn that the pediatrician Medicaid assigned to us is based several hours from our home. Recently, even our local hospital was moved out-of-network. My son is in desperate need of specialized care, but has been on the waiting list to see a specialist for 18 months now — a list the office receptionist told me he would probably never make it to the top of because privately insured patients would be moved ahead of him.

    We have free health insurance, but that doesn't mean we have healthcare. In a country as developed as America, it sickens me to know that medical care is often unavailable to my children.

    http://news.yahoo.com/i-am-a-welfare...351882294.html

  2. #2
    Baloney, I was on WIC for a few months, the "time consuming class" was an hour long once a month and you could bring your children with you. There are no "specific" foods, just milk, formula, low sugar cereals, cheese and beans. I also applied for daycare, I called the social services office and made an appointment, no sitting in the office for six hours, though my appointment was an hour late. Although in the end, I didn't end up finishing the application, it was not nearly as onerous as she made it sound. Her misrepresentation of those program, makes me doubt her account is not at the very least, exaggerated.

    That being said, where is the church? The church could provide much more specialized services, for example, ladies to watch her kids while she looks for a job, food from the pantry when she needs it. Emotional support and love from the community.

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  4. #3
    Senior Member Romans828's Avatar
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    I agree Susan - Something about this account smells fishy to me.

    This woman writes as though she is an intelligent, educated person, and if she is indeed having this much difficulty navigating "The System," then Lord have mercy on the uneducated, unmotivated, sometimes depressed women with no transportation, no family support and no job skills.

    I see WIC-approved items on the grocery store shelves all the time, and I'm not even actively looking for them, I just notice the WIC designation - Why was it so hard for her to find them?

    I dunno - My discernment antennae just went haywire on this one.

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  6. #4
    Ya'll have to remember. The progressive left only sees two classes of people: victims and victimizers. Their worldview is not indicative of reality, for the most part. And who pays? The taxpayer, that's who. It's always a narrative about keeping someone's "dignity" intact and how we have to bow to every emotional whim they aspire to during a tumultuous life experience.....and we have to take their word that their perception of reality is the right one, in all instances, even if it sounds implausible if not impossible to believe.

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  8. #5
    Super Moderator Quest's Avatar
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    I agree with you ladies...this story smells of victim mentality. Yes it's hard to get up and out but it is doable if someone wants to...we were on Section 8 housing at one point and a small raise in income caused us to have to pay rent on an apartment we now could not afford..we had to find a cheap place to live that we could afford and determine to get out of there as soon as possible...and we did..it was a process that took several years but we made it..

    Anyone willing to find a way to live in their means and then increase their means can find that way and God will gladly light the path as He did for us..

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  10. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Susan View Post
    Baloney, I was on WIC for a few months, the "time consuming class" was an hour long once a month and you could bring your children with you. There are no "specific" foods, just milk, formula, low sugar cereals, cheese and beans. I also applied for daycare, I called the social services office and made an appointment, no sitting in the office for six hours, though my appointment was an hour late. Although in the end, I didn't end up finishing the application, it was not nearly as onerous as she made it sound. Her misrepresentation of those program, makes me doubt her account is not at the very least, exaggerated.

    That being said, where is the church? The church could provide much more specialized services, for example, ladies to watch her kids while she looks for a job, food from the pantry when she needs it. Emotional support and love from the community.
    Thanks for conveying your experiences in relation to this article, Susan.

    As to the discrepancies between her report and your experience, perhaps the rules have changed since you were on the program, or perhaps there are differences between jurisdictions? These are state-run programs, and different states have different rules; also, some states may have had to implement cutbacks to satisfy budget constraints. (I'm not doubting what you're saying, just thinking about possible explanations.)

    I think the following points that she made are significant:
    1) 5 year wait for section 8 housing.
    2) 6 month wait for food stamps (SNAP).
    3) Long wait (unspecified duration) for subsidized day care.
    4) Medicaid-assigned primary care physician several hours away from home.
    5) 18 month wait to see specialist physician willing to take Medicaid. (Medicaid reimbursement rates are lower than those for Medicare and private insurance, and many doctors refuse to treat Medicaid patients. The ACA has exacerbated the problem by increasing the number on Medicaid without raising physician reimbursement rates, so: more patients, same number of doctors)

    Whereas the following points seem more like inconveniences:
    1) 6 hour wait at social services office.
    2) 2 days per month for WIC class
    3) Difficulty finding WIC items in stores. (Perhaps the stores in her area don't carry WIC items? There's no law saying that every store has to carry WIC items, so if there's insufficient demand for them, stores might not carry them? Don't know; just speculating.)

    It is worth noting that this is not a woman who wanted to sit home and watch television. She took a minimum wage job as soon as she found daycare for her kids.

    On the last point cited, I completely agree: In a country as developed as America, it is sickening to know that medical care is often unavailable to children.

  11. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Romans828 View Post
    I agree Susan - Something about this account smells fishy to me.

    This woman writes as though she is an intelligent, educated person, and if she is indeed having this much difficulty navigating "The System," then Lord have mercy on the uneducated, unmotivated, sometimes depressed women with no transportation, no family support and no job skills.

    I see WIC-approved items on the grocery store shelves all the time, and I'm not even actively looking for them, I just notice the WIC designation - Why was it so hard for her to find them?

    I dunno - My discernment antennae just went haywire on this one.
    Yes, she does seem to be intelligent and educated. (But I wouldn't be surprised if the reporter edited the account a bit.)

    And yes, having no education, no transportation, or depression could easily convert a difficult but manageable situation into an unmanageable one. (I guess that's why there are so many homeless people on the streets.)

    As to whether the account is accurate, I can't really say, as I've never had the misfortune of needing to be on any of these programs. Regarding the point about not being able to find WIC-approved items, I've never heard that before. (It may depend on location.) But the point about having difficulty finding specialist physicians who take Medicaid, I have heard that many times before.

  12. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Quest View Post
    I agree with you ladies...this story smells of victim mentality. Yes it's hard to get up and out but it is doable if someone wants to...we were on Section 8 housing at one point and a small raise in income caused us to have to pay rent on an apartment we now could not afford..we had to find a cheap place to live that we could afford and determine to get out of there as soon as possible...and we did..it was a process that took several years but we made it..

    Anyone willing to find a way to live in their means and then increase their means can find that way and God will gladly light the path as He did for us..
    One thing to note is that this woman did eventually find a way of sorts - after obtaining daycare for her kids, she was able to get and hold a minimum wage job. She's not sitting at home sulking; she's actively striving to improve her situation. But she's still waiting (over 18 months) for a specialist physician willing to accept Medicaid to see her son.

    She would like to increase her income and start getting off of government assistance. She says a $100 increase in monthly income would cause her to lose her section 8 housing, child care, and Medicaid. Perhaps these benefits are being cut off too abruptly, at least where she lives? Seems to me that it would make more sense for the benefits to be incrementally reduced, not cut off entirely, as the person's income rises; that would enable the person to gradually move up the income ladder.

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  14. #9
    The only assistance I'm familiar with is disabled folks waiting to get SS Disability. We all know that takes forever. It takes a while for this age group to get all the assistance going. My cousin lost her home during such a wait. However, I'm not sure she could have afforded to live there anyway on disability income. She is now living in a very modest home in the back of beyond with no running water in the house. She was carrying it from the well, last time I heard from her.

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  16. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by njtom View Post
    Yes, she does seem to be intelligent and educated. (But I wouldn't be surprised if the reporter edited the account a bit.)

    And yes, having no education, no transportation, or depression could easily convert a difficult but manageable situation into an unmanageable one. (I guess that's why there are so many homeless people on the streets.)

    As to whether the account is accurate, I can't really say, as I've never had the misfortune of needing to be on any of these programs. Regarding the point about not being able to find WIC-approved items, I've never heard that before. (It may depend on location.) But the point about having difficulty finding specialist physicians who take Medicaid, I have heard that many times before.
    After I posted here, I went back to the article and read the comments. The majority said the same thing I did. I can't speak to Medicaid. I work at a inner city University Hospital. All physicians here take medicaid/medicare. When you need a specialist, they find one for you. I've seem plenty of people with less than a sixth grade education navigate the programs quite well. I noticed in her article she didn't mention working with a social worker, that would have made all the difference for her.

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