Why is WIC so Damned Complicated?

[MineralMan]

A couple of days ago, I found myself in a checkout line at my local supermarket. The person in front of me was involved in a very long, complicated process of checking out a basket of groceries. That process involved separating out various groceries into individual groupings, and then paying for each group of items with a separate check-like document taken from a folder. The process seemed to go on and on, with each check having to be rung up separately, along with the items it paid for. I was fascinated by this.

Others in the line, however, did not appear to share my fascination. One-by-one, they muttered something under their breath and backed their shopping carts up and moved to a different line. I stuck with the line, since my stuff was already on the belt.

When it was finally my turn, I asked the checker what that had been all about. "WIC," she said. "It's a program to help Women, Infants and Children. It's really complicated."

OK. I checked out and went home, where I looked WIC up. Now I understand how it works. But, why does it need to be so complicated. Why isn't it as simple as an EBT card? Is it set up the way it is to shame people who use it by making it hugely obvious that they are receiving assistance? That's how it seemed to me. The disgust evidenced by the people who grumbled and backed out of that line also seems to indicate that the complexity is designed to shame recipients and anger people who don't qualify for such benefits.

Surely we can do better than such a complex system. Surely. I felt terrible for the person ahead of me in line. And she looked embarrassed for holding up the line, too. I don't care. I can wait, but what a sad way to treat the people we're helping, I think.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Because many of our direct assistance programs are designed to keep people off them.

Even when they have an excellent ROI, as WIC does.

[TheyAreDeplorble]

2. ALL government programs to help those in need are purposely complicated and confusing. You don't

think they actually want to help people, do you?

On the other hand, the "Business Class" citizen petitioning the government for assistance only needs to pass a note to their Congressional Bagman and the millions/billions come rolling in on a tidal wave with no pesky regulatory burdens.


The issue is not what they are doing.

The issue is how to stop them.

[unblock]

3. you can use wic ebt to reduce the paperwork.

there are a lot of rules. gotta make sure them poor people using gubmint funds are buying the right things!




which is only fair, because there is a mountain of restrictions on what rich people can use their tax cuts for!





as if!

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. Not to worry, trump and team want to do away with ALL assistance to the poor, old, etc.

Wont be complicated then; get hungry, die.

[nadine_mn]

5. Hated WIC as a cashier

Such a miserable experience for the mothers who needed it. Heaven forbid if English wasn’t their first language - it is so complicated and you to buy everything on the check at once (at least you did). 5 gallons of milk - wtf. Maybe freeze it, but who has the space.

Oftentimes a couple of women would come together because you can’t lug all that on the bus and they would be so organized and so efficient. But it was still a pain for the cashier (no cashier I worked with ever blamed the mother - just the ridiculousness of the process).

It is a process that is so needlessly complicated and implemented in a way that causes maximum embarrassment to a mother already going through too much.

[MineralMan]

7. Thank you for your insight.

As I watched, I figured out that it was some kind of assistance program, but what a moronic way to handle it! And the woman I saw clearly was not a native English speaker. The cashier had to help her pick out the right papers, and reminded her about some items she could have purchased to have gotten more food. She actually called someone over to run to get those additional items.

And all the while, the customer at the store looked embarrassed at all of this. All I could to was to smile at her when she looked apologetically at me.

Somehow, I hadn't encountered this system before. I was saddened by the experience.

[Hortensis]

15. 5 gallons of milk at once? Really hope that is an "at least you did."

Thanks for your view into this. Shaming people for what they can't help is a sin. We know many good conservatives--among each other and us because we're friends, but those who should never be trusted with power have taken over the right like an evil spirit.

[dawg]

6. You have the right .... to food money, provided ...

you don't mind a little investigation, humiliation ...

[melm00se]

8. WIC is an example of a government program

whose execution at the supermarket level relies on 1980's processes in a 21st century world.

[AJT]

9. The simplification will be to end the program.

They are terrible people.

[MineralMan]

10. Ugh! We really need to GOTV in November.

We must stop this wholesale destruction.

[sarah FAILIN]

11. It doesn't have to be complicated

I believe the way it works is you get a voucher for certain things from what I've heard people say that were on it. It sounds like that person didn't buy her items weekly and had a lot of vouchers built up. I was behind someone like that once and they were trying to use up the vouchers before they expired. They also get different items for each child, so that could have something to do with it too.

This is a list of what they get. It is a supplement, not a full diet.

https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-food-packages-maximum-monthly-allowances

[Binkie The Clown]

12. Here in Oregon it's much simpler.

I get in line behind WIC recipients at my grocery store and they just check out like everyone else. The computer separates items into categories and at the end they insert their "Oregon Trails" card into the credit card machine and the cashier tells them what thier balance is after WIC, which they then pay in cash or with their personal debit card. No fuss, no muss, no delay.

[MineralMan]

13. That sounds much better. I think I'll talk to

my state senator and district representative about this and see if they can't work on a simpler method.

[logosoco]

14. WIC helped my family very much in the 90s when I was having kids.

It was complicated at the grocery store. Items that were on the list would change from time to time. You had to get the EXACT item on the list. Sometimes those sizes were hard to figure when you had little ones in tow.

The OTHER side of it: getting the vouchers! The county would set up a brief time to get them, and everyone in the county had to be there at that time. At times you had to verify income, which took time to get the papers together and then have the clerks process them. When my kids were little, they had nutrition lectures to listen to while the clerks were doing the paper work (this was before computers were so prevalent). When I went with my daughter when my grandsons were babies it was just sitting around waiting and not much for the little ones to do.

My daughter soon quit the program even though it would have helped her then. When she was in it, she put me down as one of the people who could cash in the vouchers because she did not want to be the one holding up the line!

[MineralMan]

17. Thanks for your account!

[handmade34]

16. years ago in Vermont

they used to just deliver the WIC foods... now this is WIC in Vermont... one reason Vermont is tied #1 for "well-being" status of states

[Hoyt]

18. 40 years ago, I worked for a state Department of Human Resources and did WIC financial reports

from the state to the feds. Those reports were used to get federal money.

Even the financial end of it was a mess. Every month the feds would change how we were supposed to report expenditures, the number of people helped, etc. They'd make a change, then go back to the old method two months down the road. Then change again.

One month I got fed up and sent them 4 different reports and said, "here take you pick". It worked. Never had a problem with them again.

[marked50]

19. Right now the response to this question from the Repukes

is to propose a simple- "here's your canned goods and some peanut butter". Simplifies things greatly. We need to be sure that we don't undermine WIC's intent with such simplicity and that serious thought is put into making it so that recipients are not the focus of our disdain and that they get the nutrition that they really need without scorn.

[MineralMan]

20. It seems to me that the complexity is deliberate,

Though. The process makes no sense at all. I'd think it is very difficult to navigate for the recipients. That seems to me to be by design.

[blogslut]

21. All social assistance programs are complicated and designed to demean the recipients.

And the different agencies do not work together to make it any easier.

[Cairycat]

22. Don't know what it is now, but it used to be that WIC saved the gov't $3 for every $1 spent

WIC was a godsend for my family too, when my children were small. I would always put my WIC items in the front of the cart, and know exactly what the check covered, to save time. But if English was not my first language? Yeah, that would make it a lot more difficult.

I took care of my children fulltime at that point, but if I had been working, even part time? That would have made it a lot more difficult to get the checks. There weren't nutrition lectures, per se, but more individual counseling, which was really nice.

Googling tells me that 53% of US babies are on WIC. The great majority of those are in it to get infant formula, which is quite expensive. But WIC has also done a lot through the years, to promote breastfeeding, to encourage moms to breastfeed, to connect moms with support be it through peer counseling or local La Leche League or Nursing Mothers Council or whatever. No, they haven't been perfect, but often they have been a supportive island in a not-very-breastfeeding-friendly culture.