California Shows Why Congress Needs to Eliminate Food Stamp Work Requirement Loophole

Clementine

Platinum Member
Dec 18, 2011
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Leftists don't even want able-bodied people with no children to work. Why do they want so many dependents? Oh yea, so they can condition them to solely rely on government and ensure votes for nanny government.


"Despite a booming economy and a record-low unemployment rate nationally, at least one state has been working overtime to ensure its work-capable food stamp recipients don’t have to work.

Current law requires non-elderly, able-bodied adults without dependent children to work or participate in work-related activities, such as education and job training programs, for at least 20 hours per week in exchange for food stamp benefits.

Yet the state of California took advantage of loopholes to exempt more than 800,000 such recipients from the work requirement.

One loophole allows states to waive the work requirement in geographic areas where the unemployment rate is more than 10 percent or where the two-year average unemployment rate is at least 20 percent above the national average.

Those waivers are ripe for abuse because states have considerable latitude to create a waiver-eligible “area” that maximizes the number of food stamp recipients whose work requirements are waived.

For example, states might combine neighboring areas with relatively high unemployment rates with those that have low unemployment—so long as the average unemployment rate across the areas is at least 20 percent higher than the national average.

California did just that.

It created a massive geographic area—comprising 55 of its 58 counties—which included only two counties with unemployment rates above 10 percent, as well as some counties with very low unemployment rates, the lowest being Marin County’s 2.7 percent.

Using this mechanism in tandem with other loopholes, California was able to artificially generate an unemployment rate high enough to exempt 800,000 food stamp recipients from the work requirement.

Unfortunately, the California example is not a mere anomaly. It is indicative of a broader, national problem.

Recent research by The Heritage Foundation finds that “all eight of the statewide waivers and 1,109 of the 1,125 partial waivers in effect” are based on the problematic provision used by California. The result: “3 million work-capable adults without dependents are not working and are not required to look for work in order to receive benefits.”

Indeed, the widespread use of these waivers actively hollows out the work requirement on work-capable food stamp recipients at a time when the economy is relatively well-suited to incorporate them.

Congress has a prime opportunity to reform the food stamp program by adopting reforms proposed by the House that would require work or work activities for about 29 percent of work-capable, nonemployed adults."

California Shows Why Congress Needs to Eliminate Food Stamp Work Requirement Loophole
 

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