Should they be making more than the working man?/"Poor" Households Getting $168 in Welfare Per Day from Taxpayers

[gammie]

• 
  
• Katie Pavlich
  News Editor, Townhall

Dec 07, 2012 03:19 PM EST

It's official. Taxpayers are no longer simply helping the poor, they're subsidizing the lives of welfare recipients at a better rate than their own. The Senate Budget Committee has released a report showing households living below the poverty line and receiving welfare payments are raking in the equivalent of $168 per day in benefits which come in the form of food stamps, housing, childcare, healthcare and more. The median household income in 2011 was $50,054, totaling $137.13 per day. The worst part? Welfare payments are equivalent to making $30 per hour for 40 hours a week. The median wage for non-welfare recipients is $25 per hour but because they pay taxes, unlike welfare recipients, the wage is bumped down to $21 per hour. From the report:

[smalltowngal]

Quoting katzmeow726:

I find that hard.to believe. I have family member on welfare (she is in school full time to be a nurse and is almost done) and her amount comes out to about 10k a year for her and her two kids. She gets some monthly help from a lawsuit (wrongful death for.her dh). But not much... Where is it that people get 50k in welfare....she must be in the wrong state

It says it includes adminstrative costs. Also, if you have someone getting housing benefits, dayare benefits, healthcare benefits, foodstamps, etc, then it adds up quickly. 

[jaxTheMomm]

So far, this is all I can find:

http://budget.senate.gov/republican/public/index.cfm/files/serve/?File_id=34919307-6286-47ab-b114-2fd5bcedfeb5

Look at the list of services they examined -they surely didn't include ALL of these??

A list of all 83 federal welfare programs examined by CRS follows:
 Family Planning
 Consolidated Health Centers
 Transitional Cash and Medical Services
for Refugees
 State Children’s Health Insurance
Program (CHIP)
 Voluntary Medicare Prescription Drug
Benefit—Low-Income Subsidy
 Medicaid
 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
 Breast/Cervical Cancer Early Detection
 Maternal and Child Health Block Grant
 Indian Health Service
 Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) (cash aid)
 Supplemental Security Income
 Additional Child Tax Credit
 Earned Income Tax Credit (refundable
component)
 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP)
 School Breakfast Program (free/reduced
price components)
 National School Lunch Program
(free/reduced price components)
 Special Supplemental Nutrition Program
for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
 Child and Adult Care Food Program
(lower income components)
 Summer Food Service Program
 Commodity Supplemental
 Food Program Nutrition Assistance for
Puerto Rico
 The Emergency Food Assistance
Program (TEFAP)
 Nutrition Program for the Elderly
 Indian Education
 Adult Basic Education Grants to States
 Federal Supplemental Educational
Opportunity Grant
 Education for the Disadvantaged—
Grants to Local Educational Agencies
(Title I-A)
 Title I Migrant Education Program
 Higher Education—Institutional Aid and
Developing Institutions
 Federal Work-Study
 Federal TRIO Programs
 Federal Pell Grants
 Education for Homeless Children and
Youth
 21st Century Community Learning
Centers
 Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness
for Undergraduate Programs (GEARUP)
 Reading First and Early Reading First
 Rural Education Achievement Program
 Mathematics and Science Partnerships
 Improving Teacher Quality State Grants
 Academic Competitiveness and Smart Grant Program
 Single-Family Rural Housing Loans
 Rural Rental Assistance Program
 Water and Waste Disposal for Rural Communities
 Public Works and Economic Development
 Supportive Housing for the Elderly
 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities
 Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance
 Community Development Block Grants
 Homeless Assistance Grants
 Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME)
 Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)
 Public Housing
 Indian Housing Block Grants
 Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers
 Neighborhood Stabilization Program-1
 Grants to States for Low-Income Housing in Lieu of Low-Income Housing Credit Allocations
 Tax Credit Assistance Program
 Indian Human Services
 Older Americans Act Grants for Supportive Services and Senior Centers
 Older Americans Act Family Caregiver Program
 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (social services)
 Child Support Enforcement
 Community Services Block Grant
 Child Care and Development Fund
 Head Start HHS
 Developmental Disabilities Support and Advocacy Grants
 Foster Care
 Adoption Assistance
 Social Services Block Grant
 Chafee Foster Care Independence Program
 Emergency Food and Shelter Program
 Legal Services Corporation
 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (employment and training component)
 Community Service Employment for Older Americans
 Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult Activities
 Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Youth Activities
 Social Services and Targeted Assistance for Refugees
 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (employment and training)
 Foster Grandparents
 Job Corps
 Weatherization Assistance Program
 Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

[brookiecookie87]

Someone mentioned the Administrative cost. I think that is where the discrepancy comes from. That seems kind of silly to add on.

Especially since adding it to every welfare recipient paints a completely inaccurate picture. Well depending on how they do the math. But since the Data is missing it is hard to really say.

Quoting jaxTheMomm:

So far the only source I can find for this is the original Weekly Standard piece.

I can't find where it got this data. 

Quoting brookiecookie87:

I am curious to see how these numbers were put together myself.

Because I have seen people who make so little they can afford nearly every PA program out there and I know people who make 50K-So strange the author doesn't link to the Data.

Quoting jaxTheMomm:

I have yet to see the actual data behind this claim.  Anybody find it?

I also think they are lumping in medicaide.

[Friday]

I guess for the few that qualify for and receive every single type of assistance this might be true but I promise we get nowhere near that much and I'm disabled. Plus DH does work and is looking at a promotion pretty soon.

We get FS and cash aid and Medicaid. We can barely survive and keep the house running each month. Sec 8 is closed but had a 2-3 year waiting list before they closed it to new applications. We don't have any Fed phones either.

The apparent assumption that everyone on any kind of PA gets the max of every kind of PA is ignorant.

I can agree that reform might be needed in some states but here anyone on cash aid who is able bodied has to be working or active in the GAIN program which includes community service and classes/workshops to help you find work or better work than what you have. You can't just sit on the couch, pop out babies and get more money.

[gammie]

she is honest I do know people who lie to get as much as they can. Like I said when you live in a area (LA) with government slaves you see a lot of shit.

Quoting katzmeow726:

I find that hard.to believe. I have family member on welfare (she is in school full time to be a nurse and is almost done) and her amount comes out to about 10k a year for her and her two kids. She gets some monthly help from a lawsuit (wrongful death for.her dh). But not much... Where is it that people get 50k in welfare....she must be in the wrong state

[mustbeGRACE]

Quoting brookiecookie87:

Someone mentioned the Administrative cost. I think that is where the discrepancy comes from. That seems kind of silly to add on.

Especially since adding it to every welfare recipient paints a completely inaccurate picture. Well depending on how they do the math. But since the Data is missing it is hard to really say.

Quoting jaxTheMomm:

So far the only source I can find for this is the original Weekly Standard piece.

I can't find where it got this data. 

Quoting brookiecookie87:

I am curious to see how these numbers were put together myself.

Because I have seen people who make so little they can afford nearly every PA program out there and I know people who make 50K-So strange the author doesn't link to the Data.

Quoting jaxTheMomm:

I have yet to see the actual data behind this claim.  Anybody find it?

I also think they are lumping in medicaide.

................because their are no administrative costs.....................          

[gammie]

No the honest people do not get that much.

Quoting Friday:

I guess for the few that qualify for and receive every single type of assistance this might be true but I promise we get nowhere near that much and I'm disabled. Plus DH does work and is looking at a promotion pretty soon.

We get FS and cash aid and Medicaid. We can barely survive and keep the house running each month. Sec 8 is closed but had a 2-3 year waiting list before they closed it to new applications. We don't have any Fed phones either.

The apparent assumption that everyone on any kind of PA gets the max of every kind of PA is ignorant.

I can agree that reform might be needed in some states but here anyone on cash aid who is able bodied has to be working or active in the GAIN program which includes community service and classes/workshops to help you find work or better work than what you have. You can't just sit on the couch, pop out babies and get more money.

[jaxTheMomm]

Ok, so I think this is a little misleading.

They looked at 83 different programs - there's nobody that would use each and ever service.  There is no way that a person on welfare, below the poverty line, "earns" $168 a day in services.

[Friday]

Quoting gammie:

No the honest people do not get that much.

Quoting Friday:

I guess for the few that qualify for and receive every single type of assistance this might be true but I promise we get nowhere near that much and I'm disabled. Plus DH does work and is looking at a promotion pretty soon.

We get FS and cash aid and Medicaid. We can barely survive and keep the house running each month. Sec 8 is closed but had a 2-3 year waiting list before they closed it to new applications. We don't have any Fed phones either.

The apparent assumption that everyone on any kind of PA gets the max of every kind of PA is ignorant.

I can agree that reform might be needed in some states but here anyone on cash aid who is able bodied has to be working or active in the GAIN program which includes community service and classes/workshops to help you find work or better work than what you have. You can't just sit on the couch, pop out babies and get more money.

There's no reason to assume that the majority aren't honest. The op tries to make it sound like everyone on PA gets all this.

[katzmeow726]

She doesn't get housing benefits or daycare benefits, since her kids are in school and she is done with classes by the time they are home, or her dad watches hem.  Her insurance is a student and dependent program through school, and the amount I stated a year included her stamp amount.  Also, before anyone asks, I only know how much she gets because i helped her set up a budget.  I do one that helps me plan about a year in advance, and helped her make a similar one.

So that amount I quoted you included everything she gets. 

Quoting smalltowngal:

Quoting katzmeow726:

I find that hard.to believe. I have family member on welfare (she is in school full time to be a nurse and is almost done) and her amount comes out to about 10k a year for her and her two kids. She gets some monthly help from a lawsuit (wrongful death for.her dh). But not much... Where is it that people get 50k in welfare....she must be in the wrong state

It says it includes adminstrative costs. Also, if you have someone getting housing benefits, dayare benefits, healthcare benefits, foodstamps, etc, then it adds up quickly.