Welfare shouldn't include cash benefits

[Anonymous]

My theory is that if someone needs public assistance for necessities (clothes, food, shelter, medical) because they fell on hard times, we should help them.  We are a compassionate society.

We should NOT give them cash or FS though.  

• We should provide assistance finding a free shelter.  
• We should have a food bank that is stocked by the government where they can come for nutricious food for their family (selected by the food bank staff).  
• We should have clean, used clothing they can receive if they need clothes (selected by the clothes bank staff)
• We should provide medical help if they need it.

We need to help with necessities:  Food, clothes, shelter, medical assistance, but we should not provide for "wants":  cable, cell phone, entertainment, stylish clothes, hair cuts, etc.  If they want the extras, they should work for it.

[DieselsMom]

I agree completely!!!

[Yuriko_chan]

I do think that if foodstamps are given, only healthy foods should be allowed. Not crap like gum and stuff. Now that's just not right.

[AprilDJC]

I completely agree with you. Especially if someone is half way through paying off a 15 year mortgage when disaster strikes, why in the world would we want to force them into a homeless shelter, that is ridiculous! Whay, so then they have to start all over? Lol right.

Quoting fullxbusymom:

People aren't going to give up their homes to move to a shelter that is just plain STUPID!!

Sorry no one should tell ANYONE else what they can or can't eat.  If they qualify and want to spend it all on healthy food great, if they qualify and spend it stupidly they still don't get any more and will have to figure out what to do till next month.

Clothes they already have clothes banks that isn't anything they don't already do.

Medical definitely. 

Also they don't pay for Cable, entertainment, stylish clothes or hair cuts.  If you have your own money then you can purchase those things.  People often have jobs and still qualify for FS or Medicaid and any other bills or wants are paid for by their pay checks.

[Anonymous]

That's extra work for the government and extra taxes. Would you like to pay more in taxes just to assist others how you described? 

[heresjohnny]

I've told this story before. DH got out of the military back in '03 and had one hell of a time finding a job. We lived with my MIL because we were flat broke. We were denied food stamps (even though we were married and had a child) because we were young and lived with our parents. We would have had to apply as dependants of MIL, but she made too much and had bills of her own. Thankfully we qualified for cash aid, which is what we used to make our car payment. If it hadn't been for cash aid, we would have lost our only means of transportation and wouldn't have been able to find a job or work (no public transportation in our Podunk town). We were on welfare for a WHOPPING four months. DH found a job, we got off welfare, and lived happily ever after. If it hadn't been for those 4 months of cash aid (which, BTW, was only a couple hundred dollars), we could have easily spiraled into a pit of poverty that would have been difficult, if not impossible to get out of.

[Anonymous]

The goal is to get people into a home or apartment, not take them out and throw them in the already overcrowded and dangerous homeless shelters.

[mommytotwonow]

You sound like an uptight snob. If you only knew anything about the real world it could help.

[Anonymous]

Entitled, worthless poor people suck!! Never met one worth the air they breathe let alone the food and items of value.

[Anonymous]

There was no reason to sell when it only took a month or two to get back on our feet. It takes twice as long to sell a house. Our house is small to begin with, and the rent is actually pretty low. We fell on hard times, and obviously we worked our asses off trying to get back on our feet if it happened in about two months. There was no reason to uproot our family, live in a shelter for 6 months or more, when we took care of it in two.

Anyway, the help was there, so, yes we took it. Did we want to take GOV help, no. Did we feel like low life scum because of people like you, yes. In the meantime, we've given back to those in need. We don't ask them why they think the GOV should help them, we show them compassion, it goes a long way.

Quoting Anonymous:

I CAN read, I read that for a time, you couldn't afford your home. Why should the government help? If you can't afford your home, sell and find somewhere else,

Quoting Anonymous:

Can you read, it was temporary. Hopefully you won't ever need help.

Quoting Anonymous:

So? I'm sorry but it's not the government's job to keep you in your home

Quoting Anonymous:

Wow, screw you! It was a temporary situation.

Quoting Anonymous:

If you can't afford to stay in the home you shouldn't have been able to keep it.

Quoting Anonymous:

Sorry, but we needed cash assistance one time. We used it for bills, so we could keep our home. We weren't moving to a shelter.

[Anonymous - Original Poster]

Beggars shouldn't be choosers.  And if you are on PA, you are a beggar in the most literal sense of the word.

You wouldn't "give up your home in order to move to a shelter".  You would give up your home because you can't pay for it.  It's not your home if you can't pay for it.

If you want to PAY for your food, you can eat whatever you want.  If you want to beg for food because you cannot provide for your family, then you need to accept what you get that provides nutrional feed in your belly.  We don't need to support the food you LIKE, just the food to keep you alive.

People who get PA definitely spend it on cable TV, high-speed internet, fashionable clothes, haircuts, entertainment, etc.  What rock have you been living under?  It's not our job to give beggars fashionable clothes.  If they want them, they need to work for money and buy them.

Quoting fullxbusymom:

People aren't going to give up their homes to move to a shelter that is just plain STUPID!!

Sorry no one should tell ANYONE else what they can or can't eat.  If they qualify and want to spend it all on healthy food great, if they qualify and spend it stupidly they still don't get any more and will have to figure out what to do till next month.

Clothes they already have clothes banks that isn't anything they don't already do.

Medical definitely. 

Also they don't pay for Cable, entertainment, stylish clothes or hair cuts.  If you have your own money then you can purchase those things.  People often have jobs and still qualify for FS or Medicaid and any other bills or wants are paid for by their pay checks.