13 Alabama counties saw 85 percent drop in food stamp participation

13 Alabama counties saw 85 percent drop in food stamp participation after work requirements restarted

Article says it all.

Some Counties in Alabama have re-instated a "work requirement" in their Food Stamp programs.

All of a sudden since January, they saw a miracle big drop in "participation" !!

I wonder how "work requirement" policies work in other places ?

Thirteen previously exempted Alabama counties saw an 85 percent drop in food stamp participation after work requirements were put in place on Jan. 1, according to the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

The counties - Greene, Hale, Perry, Dallas, Lowndes, Wilcox, Monroe, Conecuh, Clarke, Washington, Choctaw, Sumter and Barbour - had been exempt from a change that limited able-bodied adults without dependents to three months of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits within a three-year time frame unless they were working or participating in an approved training program.

During the economic downturn of 2011-2013, several states - including Alabama - waived the SNAP work requirements in response to high unemployment. It was reinstituted for 54 counties on Jan. 1, 2016 and for the remaining 13 on Jan. 1, 2017. As of April 2017, the highest jobless rate among the 13 previously excluded counties was in Wilcox County, which reported a state-high unemployment rate of 11.7 percent, down more than 11 percentage points from the county's jobless rate for the same month of 2011.

snap crackle pop as they say

Man to state - "Work for money? You mean earn it? No way."

I wonder if a similar increase in meth cooking will be noted.

Sounds like a good thing to me.

I remember once I had to collect unemployment, and they made me document applying to at least two businesses every week in order to receive the unemployment.

I had a new job about a month and a half later. It really worked, and I was grateful for the temporary supplement and the motivation to keep trying and to not give up and just let the state feed me.

I've never had food stamps but I would imagine this is a good plan that seems to be working.

Surely here and there, there will be someone who is truly put out by these policies but for the majority this should continue to work well, and I'd like to see other places adopt these policies as well.

If anyone can think of reasons why this isn't a good idea, I'd love to hear your views on why.

-Alee

a reply to: xuenchen

This is great news!

I am sure someone will be along to tell you why curbing wasteful government spending is a bad thing though.

originally posted by: roadgravel
State to man - "Work for money? You mean earn it? No way."

Here's an article comparing the average number of working hours of the regular citizen to that of our senators.
www.mcclatchydc.com...

Perhaps they should serve as better examples to their constituents!!!

The article is pretty clear why the drop happened. The waiver, with a time limit, of work requirements of able bodied adults after the 2008 crash. Its because the economy improved. It was the states that asked for the waiver.

"During the economic downturn of 2011-2013, several states - including Alabama - waived the SNAP work requirements in response to high unemployment. It was reinstituted for 54 counties on Jan. 1, 2016 and for the remaining 13 on Jan. 1, 2017. As of April 2017, the highest jobless rate among the 13 previously excluded counties was in Wilcox County, which reported a state-high unemployment rate of 11.7 percent, down more than 11 percentage points from the county's jobless rate for the same month of 2011.

Ending the exemption has dramatically cut the number of SNAP recipients in the counties."

People will take every handout they can get, even if they don't really need it.
Remember the ones that had multiple free phones?

omg people for god sake do a little research
here in Florida they did the same thing with the same effect .
And as Paul Harvey would say here is the rest of the story .
First over 49 is exempt so old folks dont starve .
now here is the work requirements ether have a job ( over 20 hours a week ( if there are non or you just cant get hired then here is the alternative .
work 20 hours a week at the kind of jobs people on work relise or community service do .
Ok so work for it you say ? a single person man or women is elagable for a MAX of 196 $ a month in food stamps .
now mr wizzered dived that by 80 hours of mandatory UNPAYED work aka picking up trash along the road with the chain gang .
197 $ / 80 hours 2.46 a hour .
Ok so every one should work is your moto fine then every one should get a working wage .
All they have done is put tons of pressure on churches to fill the gap because millions of these people live miles from even a gas station let along a town big enough to have a few jobs .
saying a 11 % unemployment rate hu ? ok
well 4.8 million people in the state so that rounds off to 50,000 UNEMPLOYED even if that 11 % is correct and we all know its alot higher as they dont count people who are not on the dole .
now find every job opened in AL count them all even lawyer jobs ( mite be a few short hu?
You would starve people wile cheering how many are killed with the ooo so cool weapons we use .
sick world were killing is so important to people they would starve others to keep up the pace .
BECAUSE www.theguardian.com... this is sooo much better ( think they could get it running for that hu ? 4.5 billion now how many people would that feed but now how many will it kill .
How many trillions do we spend on Killing ? cops armed to the teeth oo ill take a dozen of thous ships plz and through in a few billion dollar jets wile your at it . Never mind about people we wil make them work for 2.46 a hour for well just enough food to not starve fast .
Sick sick sick glory in death . starvation destruction.
one more thing Genius in order to even do teh community work requirement there must be places close enough to home to get to .
father more its IMPOSSIBLE because tehre are not even 5 % of community jobs to work . not even enough for all teh citations people get let along adding 500000 k more to the rolls .
That is the REAL reasion the lvs have droped 85% not because tehy all got jobs

couple more things first if your paying taxes they will not go down by even a dime .
after all Trump himself says we need to Incress military spending . Just were do you think the extra money came from ?
second once people really are starvinf ( soon very very soon at this rate )
what you think they will just sit around and quietly wate to die ?
Of just maby there will be millions of them raging through your town your home .
sounds like a good reason for marshal law maybe? next people will be teh ones with bages demanding any horded food and your guns

originally posted by: roadgravel
Man to state - "Work for money? You mean earn it? No way."

I wonder if a similar increase in meth cooking will be noted.

Then there should be a corresponding drop in meth prices, and a slight increase in meth lab explosions.
Could end up being a win, win.... depending on who you are.
I am thinking firefighter with a meth addiction.

a reply to: xuenchen

Are black people lazy, or is there not enough work opportunities, or the opportunities people have they do not have the skills, or what opportunities they do have the work pays so little it's not worth it to even go?

I wonder what is the reason behind the drop.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: xuenchen

Are black people lazy, or is there not enough work opportunities, or the opportunities people have they do not have the skills, or what opportunities they do have the work pays so little it's not worth it to even go?

I wonder what is the reason behind the drop.

who mentioned race?

a reply to: dfnj2015

Remember, job training programs are part of this. So not having skills is not an issue. They can get the skills.

originally posted by: network dude
who mentioned race?

The person who thinks about it the most apparently.

As a resident of Alabama, I can say that all handout programs are frequently abused, by people of all [ insert description here ].

When you have people trading SNAP cards for cash, you have a problem. Time to go back to government cheese, bread, and milk.

When you have people on government programs who have nicer vehicles, clothes, and phones than I have ( making above the median income for Alabama ), the time has come to weed out the ones who game the system.

I hear what ur saying iv never lived outside of a city but iv seen it when buying food required a full gas tank

I doubt 85% of snap recivers didnt need it ... there was someone probly alot of someones who are hungry over this ...

I think the foodstamp program is a joke tbh ... the wic program is better ... make it as hard as posible to turn that money into cash its hard to sell a 2lb block of cheese on the street ... but 100 bucks spent on a ebt 50 in the cardholders pocket.... go back to giving people food ... someone has to remember this if u where poor u got a box of food not money ... wtf hapen tp that

a reply to: markovian
What happens is that big players in food like Kraft, Nabisco, Frito Lay and such wanted a piece of the money pie, and lobbied to make sure that payments were eligible on nearly everything edible at a store. So instead of fresh fruit and veggies, grains, rice, real meat and juice or teas everybody buys Hamburger Helper, Chips Ahoy, Coca Cola, Hungry Man meals, Doritos, Captain Crunch, etc... etc...

Why give people real wholesome food that would keep them healthier and save money when we can use the awesome power of our propaganda machine and TV/Radio/Magazines to get people to buy stuff that costs more and provides less nutrition and sends them to the overpriced doctors more often to buy up ever more garbage pollution pills to destroy their bodies and minds with. And people feel awesome because they get to eat like swine while not using their own money.

What people do not know you can buy with SNAP though, is Seeds! You can buy vegetable and other plant seeds with snap to grow ones own foods.

Its hard to get food stamps in Florida. You have to do mandatory job searches, and you have to apply for at least 5 jobs a week, if you can't find a job you have to work a minimum numbers of hrs a week for free to get them.

Florida actually has a decent policy to get people back to work. It is a lot harder to live off the dole here, which I'm fine with that.. because even at my worst spot, I still managed to not take handouts. It's really more of a pain in the ass to get handouts than it is to find a job.

Don't get me wrong though, some people know how to game the system, but if they get caught for fraud they can go to prison.

a reply to: xuenchen

When I saw this article this morning my first thought was -- well, that 85% must not have really needed that welfare after all.

That being said, I know it’s “racist” to cite simple facts these days – and God forbid it’s actual numbers!, but this story represents a true outlier because of the population demographics of the 13 counties.

The 13 counties noted in this story have large black populations.

Barbour 47%

Choctaw 43%

Clarke 44%

Conecuh 46%

Dallas 70%

Greene 80%

Hale 58%

Lowndes 73%

Monroe 41%

Perry 68%

Sumter 74%

Washington 25%

Wilcox 71%

The most current and “official” data on the demographics of welfare recipients comes directly from Obama's US Census Bureau [updated 2015]:

"At 41.6 percent, blacks were more likely to participate in government assistance programs in an average month.

The black participation rate was followed by Hispanics at 36.4 percent, Asians or Pacific Islanders at 17.8 percent, and non-Hispanic whites at 13.2 percent.

U.S. Census: Welfare Demographics

Let's do the math...

41.6% of the welfare is used by 13% of the population.

13.2% of the welfare is used by Whites of European descent (White alone, or "non-Hispanic" per the US Census) -- 62% of the population.

There are almost 5 times more European Whites than African blacks.

African blacks use over 3 times the welfare.

Simple math indicates that blacks are FIFTEEN TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE ON WELFARE than European Whites.

Conclusion: This exercise in Alabama is in no way indicative of what the national effect of real work-for-welfare would be, but if it were even a third or so of the result in AL, that would be major!

People who need the food stamps will work for it, those who cannot work for certain reasons should not be required to work though. We made it too easy to get the foodstamps, then when the people do get them, they sometimes waste the money on expensive things like prime steaks and expensive pizzas and stuff. About thirty percent of the people on food stamps used to waste them before, a lot of people would trade the foodstamps for money for other things, like beer or entertainment. They would trade two bucks of stamps for a buck. That is illegal, but these people talk their relatives into doing this saying they need something, so the government does not prosecute people who actually take the stamps, but they do go after the one who gets the food stamps. How do I know this, I actually researched this about two years ago.

So why would a person actually work for the foodstamps, they can make more working a few extra hours. That is if they can.

The majority of people on food stamps around here actually do appreciate and need them. But there are always going to be the others that abuse the system. Hey, there is a pork chop in every beer, actually that is nutritionally pretty accurate.

It's about time some of these red state deadbeats get off their lazy asses and got a job. McDonald's fried chicken places and Walmart may have to lower their requirements so the rest of you can get a job so there still is hope for the rest of you. Until then there's always meth and moonshine.