# The Welfare Queen, Redux **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 22, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796 "2017-03-22T23:10:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/101 "2017-03-25T17:38:54Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Yeah, that Eugene is a bastard. Thought of him when sterilization of the poor was first brought up in this thread. You got to have Eyuge genes. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/102 "2017-03-25T17:54:29Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > But see, that is the problem. A lot of people, including myself, feel that you are hypothetically working “off the books” to avoid losing your disability payments. While I can’t empathize with your situation, I understand it. But 7 years and you couldn’t find a real job? It’s hard for people to swallow. Therein lies the rub. What happens when somebody on disability finds a job which pays too much for them to remain on disability, then gets worse and has to quit? They’re screwed until they’re approved for disability again, that’s what. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/103 "2017-03-25T18:21:14Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Therein lies the rub. What happens when somebody on disability finds a job which pays too much for them to remain on disability, then gets worse and has to quit? They’re screwed until they’re approved for disability again, that’s what. [SSDI Ticket To Work](https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10095.pdf)(PDF) > [@](#): > > \*\*Trial work period — \*\* > The trial work > period allows you to test your ability to > work for at least nine months. During > 3 > your trial work period, you’ll receive your > full Social Security benefits regardless > of how much you’re earning as long as > you report your work, and you continue > to have a disability. In 2017, a trial work > month is any month your total earnings > are over $840. If you’re self-employed, > you have a trial work month when you > earn more than $840 (after expenses) > or work more than 80 hours in your own > business. The trial work period continues > until you have worked nine months > within a 60-month period. > > \*\*Extended period of eligibility — \*\* > After > your trial work period, you have 36 > months during which you can work and > still receive benefits for any month your > earnings aren’t “substantial.” In 2017, we > consider earnings over $1,170 ($1,950 > if you’re blind) to be substantial. During > a trial work period, a new application or > disability decision aren’t necessary to get > your Social Security disability benefit. > > \*\*Expedited reinstatement — \*\* > If your > benefits stop because of substantial > earnings, you have five years to ask us > to restart your benefits if you’re unable to > keep working because of your condition. > You won’t have to file a new application > or wait for your benefits to restart while > we review your medical condition. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/104 "2017-03-25T18:32:14Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > [SSDI Ticket To Work](https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10095.pdf)(PDF) I’ve been part of my area’s mental health community for nearly 25 years don’t recall ever hearing of that. When did it start? More importantly, is it going to change under this administration? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/105 "2017-03-25T18:36:14Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I’ve been part of my area’s mental health community for nearly 25 years don’t recall ever hearing of that. When did it start? No idea. I’ve been on SSDI since 2005 and it was going then. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/106 "2017-03-25T18:42:43Z")
Change the name and the tale is told about you. If you think you’ll never to be welfare, think again. I had to go on it in my recent past after an accident left me unable to work for a year, and unable to find a job for two years. The system did nothing to help me find work, or even to encourage me to work. THIRTEEN different people told me to "go on disability.’ Finally, I took a temporary part-time holiday job as a store cashier in 2013. I am still there, working full time. I’m glad I had the chutzpah to tell 13 people “FUCK YOU.” ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/107 "2017-03-25T20:36:32Z")
I was under the impression that most forms of assistance actually discourage you from going to work, because your job income exactly offsets the benefit. If you get $1000/month assistance, then you get a part-time job that yields around $600, your assistance drops to $400, while you incur the overhead costs of having a job. I assume the offset is based on gross income, so the situation might even be worse than just the basic offset. But, you know, if people are poor, they deserve it because of their poor choices. Everyone should make a concerted effort to not be born in the slums. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bruce\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/108 "2017-03-25T21:17:09Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > No, it’s really not. You wouldn’t think so if he was living in your basement. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/109 "2020-02-17T08:30:26Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > This thread is as good a place as any I guess. > > I’m giving up my Straight Dope membership and will no longer read the board. I keep getting sucked into the childishness, stupidity and rigid adherence to belief no matter what, and I really no longer have time for that bullshit. > > So farewell. I hope I don’t live long enough for you all to take everything from the middle class. Do you promise? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/110 "2020-02-17T09:29:30Z")
> [@spinky](#): > > Do you promise? You haven’t posted in nine months, so you revive a 3-year-old thread for this little bit of spite? What’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/111 "2020-02-17T09:59:41Z")
More importantly, did **curlcoat** keep his/her promise? ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/112 "2020-02-17T12:54:27Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > More importantly, did **curlcoat** keep his/her promise? Sort of? Last activity is listed as of February 2019, so hasn’t been back for over a year but obviously did not leave in 2017. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/113 "2020-02-17T15:22:24Z")
curlcoat posted three times in February 2019 about his/her cat. Those are their only posts since the last post to this thread in 2017. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/114 "2020-02-18T03:21:08Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > It’s somewhat unusual for working families to be poor - three quarters of the poor in America do not have a full-time, year-round worker. Your (uncited) stat there, if accurate, isn’t actually evidence that “it’s somewhat unusual for working families to be poor”: it’s evidence of the converse, namely, that it’s unusual for poor families to be working (that is, to include someone who’s working full-time and year-round). But AFAICT your stat isn’t accurate, unless perhaps it’s counting all poor **individuals** instead of poor **families** , or defining “poor” differently? According to [this source](https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/52086/900832-low-income-working-families-facts-and-figures.pdf), 6 out of 10 children in low-income families had at least one full-time year-round working parent. > [@Roderick Femm](#): > > 3-year-old thread Oh yeah. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/115 "2020-02-18T03:55:05Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > What’s all this about fish? Thanks, for all of them. So long! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/116 "2020-02-18T14:54:18Z")
Update: I recently had to go into a homeless shelter for six weeks. In order to get any help finding a place there, you had to meet with Social Services. I had a full time job for the past five years, but I had to meet with Social Services? Fortunately, I’d worked enough with Welfare to know they want to get people on welfare in order to get them off welfare, thus improving the numbers. Fuck that. I got a place on my own. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/117 "2020-02-18T15:35:33Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I built computers for a charity where we took donated computers, and rebuilt them, the gave them to non-profit agencies and low-income families. Basically, anyone who gave us a computer less than ten years old, we accepted (we took the ones more than ten years old ans stripped them down as well, but less was usable, and most ended up getting hauled to the recycling center on our dime, so we charged $5 to take computers more than 10 years old. We also took working printers, monitors, etc. It was during the switch to 3-in-ones, and flat screens, so we got lots of perfectly good printers and monitors, and keyboards and mouses. > > Anyway, we’d strip them down, and combine parts, and get two working computers for every three, approximately, and usually managed to put a writable CD drive, and DVD-ROM player in each one. This was 2004, so that was pretty good for a free computer. we installed WINXPpro in the all, and equipped each with dial-up and ethernet capability. They all had 512MB RAM and 20-60 MB hard drive. > > Our criteria for “low income” was anyone who qualified for anything else: EBT, SSD, SSI, WIC, AFDC, Housing Assistance, anything, including unemployment assistance, and we’d be happy to give you a computer. Non-profits could get up to two. We gave away about 20 a month. We had three computer stores that would also occasionally donate parts to us, but our overhead was pretty much out rent, phone, electricity, and dial-up internet. > > We probably gave away twenty computers a month, and got a little money from recycling the part and cases we didn’t use. > > Very infrequently, we got really good stuff donated, and we’d build something funky, and sell it on consignment through one of the computer shops in town with a note that the profits went to charity. Somebody would get a really nice computer, with the plexiglass sides, and the LED strings and such, for 100 bucks (they were really in on campuses around 2004). > > Back then, you could get AOL for about $10/month, and if you wanted broadband and already had cable, it was about $25/month extra, but there were introductory plans where you’d get it free for three months. > > We put lots of good programs on the computer. We put Office 2003 and some games on them, and a few other things. We downloaded Java and iTunes for the end user, because they usually were people without much computer experience. > > Anyway, we were in S. Indiana, and I know there was another group like us in North Indianapolis, because we swapped parts sometimes. > > TL;DR: there are charities that give computers to poor people. I was very, very close to being able to donate an old car of mine to a charity that does the exact same thing (but with cars. Obviously). My old Dodge Stratus was on its last legs, and I desperate to find a new car. Supposedly this place would take pretty much any car, so long as it still ran, and fix it up as best they could and sell it for cheap to needy people. Unfortunately, in the couple weeks between getting my replacement car and working things out with the charity, the Stratus stopped running, so it couldn’t be donated. I was really bummed, as I was going to miss my very first car, and wanted it to go on to someone who could appreciate it as I had. Hopefully the next time I’m in the market, I’ll have more leeway to find a new car, and this one won’t be on its very last legs while I’m shopping around. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/118 "2020-02-18T15:47:53Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Exactly. “You’re poor because you’re bad and deserve to be poor. Stop being bad and you’ll not be poor any more. But we’re not going to subsidize your badness.” > > A century ago, this was driven by certain malignant strains of Calvinism, which went like “If you’re a good God-fearing person, God will prosper you. If you don’t prosper, it’s because you’re not good or God-fearing.” > > Now just peel the religious trappings off and you get what we’re describing. I’m from a pretty conservative family, and have never once heard that sentiment. More along the lines of, “it’s shitty this happened, but now is the time to pull yourself up on your bootstraps and work 110% harder to get out of this shitty place.” I realize that this doesn’t make conservatives out to be hateful monsters though, so it’ll likely get completely disregarded :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/119 "2020-02-18T17:36:28Z")
It’s very very hard to have any self-respect or initiative when every government agency is telling you to get welfare and/or disability. They just beat you down until you agree to go their way and get paid for not working. My city Social Services worked with us to set up a program that would pay all the rent of anyone agreeing to put in 4 hours a _month_ doing volunteer work. We had to kick ass to get most of the tenants to do so, and the complaints. One person I remember objected to being told to put up the litterin the park because “the grass is wet.” ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796/120 "2020-02-18T17:47:57Z")
> [@Kovitlac](#): > > I’m from a pretty conservative family, and have never once heard that sentiment. More along the lines of, “it’s shitty this happened, but now is the time to pull yourself up on your bootstraps and work 110% harder to get out of this shitty place.” I realize that this doesn’t make conservatives out to be hateful monsters though, so it’ll likely get completely disregarded :rolleyes: With the subtext being that if you aren’t able to do so its because you are lazy. Potayto, potahto. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-welfare-queen-redux/782796.md?page=7)