A relative who has never accepted public assistance has finally decided to apply for food stamps.
She’s 61, single, no dependents, good health, unemployed for over two years, no income. She can’t afford health insurance. She’s been living on savings and mutual funds, and excluding 401k and IRA, she has about $35k remaining in savings and mutual funds.
If I’m reading the info correctly, she does ***not ***qualify for food stamps because she has cash assets over $3,250. Is this correct? I’ve searched thru tons of info on various web sites, looking for some exception/exemption/qualification to this max cash assets=$3,250 requirement, but have found nothing.
It’s difficult to believe that a responsible 61-yr-old person who has never accepted public assistance has to spend themselves into near-bankruptcy before qualifying for food stamps. Any info I might be missing?
I think the info you’re missing is that public assistance is not set up to keep you from having to use your savings. It’s for people who don’t have any savings.
Pretty much. The Republican fantasy that food stamps are easy to get and hard to lose and that there are hordes of lazy frauds getting them is false. They’re actually…gasp…regulated and you WILL be denied if you don’t meet the stringent criteria.
Lots of people have no income, but that does not qualify them for food stamps. She has money, she can feed herself. Food stamps are for people who cannot, or fraudulently appear that way.
Edit : I now see
Bolding mine. So, in addition to her 35 grand, she has IRA / 401k? And you’re surprised at the denial of public fucking assistance?
Yes Virginia, there are limits to the welfare state. Having 35K AND an IRA/401k means that your relative has way more resources than a good lot of people in this country.
I hate that she’s unemployed and not pulling any retirement, and I understand that she doesn’t want to be in her late 90s and broke after having spent all her money on healthcare and on food, but that’s the way it works.
Perhaps she could spend some of her resources on talking with a financial planner who can help her set up a budget and investing plan to maximize the time and money that she’ll have available to her.
And keep in mind that even when you do qualify, it’s not that much. I helped one relative get food stamps. She was 72 years old, and had nothing - no savings, no 401K, no house, no car. She lived on her $900/month social security check. Rent and utilities were something like $600/month, no other monthly bills. She qualified for something like $75/month worth of food stamps. It helped, but it certainly didn’t raise her out of poverty or anything like that.
I had a thread in GQ recently with the same sort of question. I had virtually no savings, was working 40+ hours a week, and I was still bleeding money every month. But I was making far too much for government assistance. I could have quit my job or taken fewer hours to qualify, but then I would still be bleeding money and I would have even less income to make ends meet.
Food stamps, if you don’t have any dependents, are currently reserved for folks in the most dire situations. If your relative wants those stamp, I suggest she starts making babies and hitting the casino on a regular basis.
I’m getting angrier and angrier. She’s 61. What are we saving for when we save for retirement? Ferraris? No, we are saving so that when we are old and cannot work, we can still be warm and cozy at night, with a full belly. If she’s not retired, if she just can’t find work right now, well then, it’s a good thing she has thirty five thousand mother fucking dollars in mutual funds, in addition to her retirement fund.
Food stamps aren’t for people who don’t want to dip into their 401K and IRA. They are for people who have no other way to put enough food on the table.
The person who suggested a financial planner for your relative was correct. Assuming she will not be able to get another job before her earliest retirement age, she needs to plan her finances to last until she can retire at the earliest possible age.
I’m not sure what the OP thinks the requirements should be. Food stamps and welfare are a LAST RESORT, a safety net. Your relative is not at the end of her rope. She still has non-exempt assets she can live on. The average FS recipient has almost NOTHING in assets. A lot of them work, but they get paid something close to minimum wage and live from paycheck to paycheck because even with food stamps they don’t make enough to save any.
Compared to the average food stamp recipient, your relative is unimaginably wealthy. These people have never had $35K to call their own in their lives.
Aside from the strawman thing…buying (raw) lobster and (raw) steak with your food stamps is not cheating. It’s extremely unwise, but it’s perfectly legal. It’s also pretty bloody rare (excuse the pun), because the average FS recipient is well aware how long their monthly allowance has to stretch and they’re not going to blow it all on two days worth of food. I won’t say it never happens, but it’s not happening with the vast majority of FS recipients.
hrhomer, General Questions is for factual information, not for your personal opinions on the matter. If you want to discuss the appropriateness of the question in the OP, take it to Great Debates; if you want to exclaim about how angry you are, take it to the Pit. No warning issued, but dial it way back.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Moderator Note
We don’t need these kinds of comments either. No warning issued, but let’s stay on topic.