WP: Poverty Up as Welfare Enrollment Declines

[kskiska]

Nation's Social Safety Net in Tatters As More People Lose Their Jobs

Tina Taylor was a model of what welfare reform was supposed to do.

Taylor, 44, a single mother, had spent six years on public assistance. After 1996, when changes were made in welfare law to push people into work, she got a job that paid $400 a week and allowed her family to live independently. For the first time in a long time, she could afford to clothe and feed her two children, and even rent a duplex on the beach in Norfolk.

After losing her job last year, however, Taylor has been unable to find full-time work in an economy that still has a million fewer jobs than it did at the start of a brief recession more than three years ago.

She is back in poverty. But she hasn't gone back on welfare.

(snip)

In Taylor's case, she mistakenly thought that if she enrolled in welfare, she would have to give up her child-support payments. No one at the social services office told her about a recent policy change that would entitle her to welfare benefits and child support, she said. For more than a year, her family lived in what the census defines as "deep" poverty -- earning less than half the poverty level of $14,824 for an adult supporting two children. In Taylor's case, she was getting by on about $217 a month in child support and $274 in food stamps.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49955-2004Sep25?language=printer

[Child_Of_Isis]

1. Boy, that's a sad story!

I don't even know how she managed to feed, clothe, and house three people on 400.00 a week!

[FlemingsGhost]

2. Don't anybody blame Bush. "Welform Reform" was all Clinton.

It's true.

[sadiesworld]

3. However, under Clinton she found a job, an ability to support

her children, and a sense of independence that she enjoyed.

Under * she lost all of that.

[Carla in Ca]

9. Bingo...that is exactl right.

This administration and repug congress care nothing about poor prople. The Statue of Liberty says 'give us your poor, your huddles masses'. Repugs say 'not on our watch'!

[sonicx]

4. poverty was 11.3 percent under clinton (and on a downward trend)

it's 12.5 percent under bush (and on an upward trend). wonder how that happened...

[PROGRESSIVE1]

5. This sad reality is what Bushler wants.

He wants a Rich/Poor Society where his ENRON Cronies have everything.

:grr:

[hyphenate]

6. I'm surviving

on nothing--literally. I'm getting $141 a month in food stamps, no income, except for the $200-$300 my mom sends me a month, and living in the house of a friend. I've been trying to get my disability, and it's been hell since the beginning of the year. Before that, a year ago, I lost my unemployment of $273 a week because they didn't pass the extension. Try living on NOTHING. It's not much fun. Last winter, I almost froze to death, and that was WITH fuel assistance. They cut the budget for fuel by 1/3 which meant one fill all winter long, and that was in Massachusetts. I ended up being the customer of St. Vincent de Paul charity, as well as trying every other means I had to get enough to last me for the whole winter. Another winter like last year, and I'm a goner.

[sadiesworld]

8. Please stick with the disability case, continue to appeal if they deny.

I used to do some work in this area and it's as much a perseverance test as anything else. Good luck and please keep us apprised of your situation as the winter nears. :hug:

[hyphenate]

12. Thanks

I will. I hired Binder and Binder to work the case for me. I survived a major depression since this time last year in addition to everything else, and only now am I seeing a little of the light at the end of the tunnel.

[Flammable Materials]

7. Doubleplusgood.

Oldthinkers untrust Minitrue.

[Robert Oak]

10. wish they had spelled out the big picture better

Reality is people who need help are being denied..
so while poverty increases, people are just royally screwed...
no help, no assistance or training/support for a skilled trade
(which of course was outsourced) and this is a very bad sign
for America overall.

[UpInArms]

11. well written editorial

addressing the gap between the richest and poorest

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=40033148

excerpt:

If, however, we take the Waltons, five of whom own the mega-chain-retailer Wal-Mart, and are together worth US$100 billion, the true story of why the rich-poor gap is widening can be easily understood. That they (Alice, Helen, Jim, John and S Robson) are the focus of some attention in this year's presidential campaign, suggests all is not kosher with this giant-of-a-company. John Kerry has hammered Wal-Mart for paying "abysmally low wages" to its tens of thousands of employees. Dick Cheney has praised its "spirit of enterprise, fair dealing and integrity". What is the truth about this family built business that, by the year 2000, had overtaken General Motors in worth, and is richer than Switzerland?

Wal-Mart opens an average of two new stores every week somewhere in the world, and it buys up around US$1 billion in real estate at the same pace. Yet, in America, where the Waltons started out in the 1950s, and where it employs over 600,000 persons, the latter cannot afford to buy many products they sell because they are paid dog-low wages. More than half its staff cannot afford to be part of the company's health insurance plan. The bulk of them are paid minimum wages, there is nothing like "overtime", and the mighty Waltons are known for encouraging their employees to apply for food stamps and welfare. Most take a second job anyway, since they can barely afford to survive on their wages.

<snip>

In this unimaginable world of the super-rich, there is no thought about trying to close the rich-poor gap, of bringing about some form of social equity. In the USA, the gap continues to widen and the poor to suffer. In the UK, Rowling can now avoid having to look at those who eke out an existence in that country. The egalitarian goals of some of Europe's progressive states have given way to "only-the-strong-will-survive" policies. And in Third World countries, in places like Haiti, we are talking about not persistent poverty, but permanent misery.

...more...

[pop goes the weasel]

13. interesting article

So the richest people in the world collectively are worth $41 trillion? That's over $350 per person in the world. I know that may not seem like a lot, but in many nations, $350 is more than many folks worldwide see in a year.

[catmandu57]

14. Permanent misery

is what the repugs want, and need. When all there is is rich/poor, no comfy middle, when we're living in Dicksonian England again, then maybe the wheel will turn again, and, people will take back what the rich have stolen.
In the continuing cycle of have v havenot the pendulum has swung too far to the have side, years of plotting to bring down the progressive movement, new deal, and great society are about to come to fruition.
The sad thing is is going to come about with our permission and have us asking for another whack, while the chimp* and it's base get fat.
I hope I last long enough to see it blow up in their face.

[Massacure]

15. $216 in food stamps? We have 2 adults and 2 teenagers and dont use $200.