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I receive food stamps. While I am not on Section 8, I do have four children to feed. My husband walked out 3 weeks after the baby was born, and felt no need to provide groceries, money for electric, clothing, doctor's visits, etc. for the kids. I filed for child support back in April, and we are now in January and I have yet to receive the first regular CS payment, and I've had his wages garnished! So, my food stamps help to pay for the 5 gallons of milk I go through a week, the fresh apples, carrots, green beans, broccoli, chicken, beef cubes, yogurt, wheat bread, cereal bars, eggs, and other basics that me and my children need. I haven't totaled it up lately, but at one point before #3 was potty trained I was going through over $900 a month in groceries, with not a bit of junk in site! Formula, diapers, milk for the older kids, and good foods cost more than the junk foods.
Oh, and I do work part time from home. It would cost approximately $38,000 - $45,000 a year for the two little ones to go into daycare full-time, and the older two (ages 7 and 10) to go to before and after care. I don't know of any jobs in this area (gotta be within half an hour of the kids in case of emergency) that would pay enough for me to justify the luxury of getting to doll up, go to work, interact with adults, drive my car by myself, and get time away from the children every day. With four kids its pretty much guaranteed that one of them is going to be sick each month, and its not like their father is going to take time off from being a VP to stay at home with a sick child. He wouldn't even know which end to put the thermometer into! I won't always be a SAHM. When my littlest one is in school full-time, I will get a full-time job away from the house. But for now, I savor each new discovery my baby makes, and each messy art project my little guy makes. I missed out on all this with #1 because I was an executive assistant in a high pressure office.
Sorry for rambling, but my point is that not every person who uses food stamps is lazy or trying to beat the system. Tam, congratulations to you for succeeding. I was supposed to go back to nursing school this past fall, but unfortunately there was a waiting list for child care assistance, and I couldn't afford the daycare costs of $3,200 a month on my meager $1,200 a month income.
Unfortunately your situation is way too common but this is what I don't understand. My owns a daycare and she works with 4C's. They have a ton of children there and when my mom would get a new customer who did not receive any assistance she would tell them she works with 4C's to see if they could assist them with the weekly payments. Well the answer was no. No if you work and make a decent living (decent meaning you actually earn more than $7 per hour) and are not with DYFS (meaning you may have had your children taken away). What is wrong with this picture? If I work and have a child that I can support but would much rather have them go to a daycare that teaches them rather than have someone watch them, you won't assist me. But, if I have a child that I can't support and knew I couldn't support before I had them, you will give me groceries, money, housing, and free daycare. Maybe I am so confused and bias because I know plenty of people who are in the latter but only one or two who are in the former.
I receive food stamps. While I am not on Section 8, I do have four children to feed. My husband walked out 3 weeks after the baby was born, and felt no need to provide groceries, money for electric, clothing, doctor's visits, etc. for the kids. I filed for child support back in April, and we are now in January and I have yet to receive the first regular CS payment, and I've had his wages garnished! So, my food stamps help to pay for the 5 gallons of milk I go through a week, the fresh apples, carrots, green beans, broccoli, chicken, beef cubes, yogurt, wheat bread, cereal bars, eggs, and other basics that me and my children need. I haven't totaled it up lately, but at one point before #3 was potty trained I was going through over $900 a month in groceries, with not a bit of junk in site! Formula, diapers, milk for the older kids, and good foods cost more than the junk foods.
Oh, and I do work part time from home. It would cost approximately $38,000 - $45,000 a year for the two little ones to go into daycare full-time, and the older two (ages 7 and 10) to go to before and after care. I don't know of any jobs in this area (gotta be within half an hour of the kids in case of emergency) that would pay enough for me to justify the luxury of getting to doll up, go to work, interact with adults, drive my car by myself, and get time away from the children every day. With four kids its pretty much guaranteed that one of them is going to be sick each month, and its not like their father is going to take time off from being a VP to stay at home with a sick child. He wouldn't even know which end to put the thermometer into! I won't always be a SAHM. When my littlest one is in school full-time, I will get a full-time job away from the house. But for now, I savor each new discovery my baby makes, and each messy art project my little guy makes. I missed out on all this with #1 because I was an executive assistant in a high pressure office.
Sorry for rambling, but my point is that not every person who uses food stamps is lazy or trying to beat the system. Tam, congratulations to you for succeeding. I was supposed to go back to nursing school this past fall, but unfortunately there was a waiting list for child care assistance, and I couldn't afford the daycare costs of $3,200 a month on my meager $1,200 a month income.
Wow, $900/mo? I feed a family of four (two adults, two teenagers) for between $350-400/mo.
Wow, $900/mo? I feed a family of four (two adults, two teenagers) for between $350-400/mo.
That's because u don't have to throw out your teenagers underwear 5 or 6 times per day . Babies are expensive. Especially if you want to feed them the proper foods. That's why I am going to start hoarding Gerber coupons and any other promotions I can get from them when I decide to have kids.
Neekah,
I think you know the answer to your question. You and I are busting our hump and some freeloaders are staying home and getting free food, section 8 housing, free child care and so on. Yes a very small segment of the population should be entitled to this. Both myself and wife have worked 30 years both at the same time while raising a family, watching over terminally ill parents, tragedies within our families. I worked midnights for almost 15 years and came home and wiped childs asses, fed the kids, changed urine bags for elderly parents and in laws. I never once thought of government assistance or my wife. To me if I had to receive food stamps I would take on another job. One question that arises, the people that bettered themselves with section 8, when you move on because you were helped out are you going to pay the government our tax dollars back. I still work 2 jobs and I could sit on my butt for the rest of my life and retire and live comfortably. I'm sorry if I offended anyone but I am being perfectly blunt. I see perfectly healthy people for the last 30 years that can work but don't sit on the porch all day and have no intention of working. So yes Neekah life is not fair.
Neekah,
I think you know the answer to your question. You and I are busting our hump and some freeloaders are staying home and getting free food, section 8 housing, free child care and so on. Yes a very small segment of the population should be entitled to this. Both myself and wife have worked 30 years both at the same time while raising a family, watching over terminally ill parents, tragedies within our families. I worked midnights for almost 15 years and came home and wiped childs asses, fed the kids, changed urine bags for elderly parents and in laws. I never once thought of government assistance or my wife. To me if I had to receive food stamps I would take on another job. One question that arises, the people that bettered themselves with section 8, when you move on because you were helped out are you going to pay the government our tax dollars back. I still work 2 jobs and I could sit on my butt for the rest of my life and retire and live comfortably. I'm sorry if I offended anyone but I am being perfectly blunt. I see perfectly healthy people for the last 30 years that can work but don't sit on the porch all day and have no intention of working. So yes Neekah life is not fair.
Jersey Man I know how I feel about the topic (my opinion became even more negative as I was sitting in the financial aid off in college applying for various student loans and trying to figure out how much of my income I could use to pay towards my monthly payment plan). Yes I believe some people may need it i.e. the elderly and disabled. But some people get on it just because they get pregnant and that irritates me so much. I used to work for Community Development which was right below Housing in the same building. You would be surprised at the people I encountered. I had the young pregnant woman who had already had one child, claimed to be homeless (but yet you found a place to have sex), then there was the old mother who was there with her young pregnant daughter, the old mother was already on welfare and told her young daughter she could now receive it and sign up for Section 8 too. I am sure there are young people who have children but work to care for their child without assistance. They work hard as Secretaries by day, go to school, and move on to have careers.They may not get their own apartment right away or be able to spend all day with their child, and they will struggle to buy their child the necessities but atleast they are doing it. I have had more experiences with the negative stereotypes of welfare recipients than I have of those who actually don't take it and decide to do it on their own.
Ok I am veering off the topic of Section 8 and more towards welfare. I don't think there is any good solution for this problem. Well there is, give a time limit and monitor those receiving benefits.
That is what upsets me. Is the criteria for receiving Section 8 based upon income? Is that why they keep raising minimum wage every year or so? Because they figure welfare recipients only work minimum wage jobs and if we can keep raising minimum wage maybe there won't be a need for welfare.
I guess it would help if I actually met or heard from someone who has received Section 8 and was a success story. I haven't met one yet that can form a complete sentence but yet they know all the tricks to "beating the system. They know how to move in and out of state with Section 8 and what other assistance they can receive but will not contact anyone for a decent job or further their education (even though they can receive a substantial amount of financial aid while us poor working folks had to work full-time to pay tuition and bust our humps for even the smallest scholarship).
for the most part, welfare recipeints DONT work. if you make the tiniest bit of money, they yank your benefits. its much easier for them to say they have a disabled child, or a medical problem that prevents them from working. Welfare makes you go down to the welfare office on a whim, if u miss an appointment, they close your case ASAP. its hard to keep a crappy on-the-books job while on welfare.
Welfare recipients USED to be the ones that worked off the books, but the huge influx of ILLEGAL ALIENS stopped all that noise.
For the ones that dont know how to beat the system, they get put on workfare, in which they get trained and pushed into a job (usually a city job) and then they work to keep their benefits.
This is posted from the NYC point of view. im not sure how things might be different in the burbs, but in the urban areas, thats how it is.
Now keep in mind, welfare and section-8 are 2 very very different things. it kinda boils down to this
Lowest - Full welfare recipient. lives in projects for free, gets cash, food, medical, will prolly never work, will teach her kids the same values
Low - partial welfare. Lives somewhere (mom, boyfriend) gets cash food medical. depending on how many kids she pops out, she may go up or down the ladder
Middle - lil bit o welfare . section-8, food stamps, medical. probably only has 1 kid, and is somewhat stable. is a drug/bad boyfriend/another kid away from going down the ladder. Is also one good break from going up the ladder.
Upper - Section-8 . has a job, just doesnt make enough to handle life, but makes too much to get anything else. Again, prolly just 1 kid, but not enough education/work experience to get off assistance right away. usually has a job and goes to school.
Section 8 Success story right here! When I was 19 (with a 4 year old son) my cousin called me early in the morning telling me that there was a "Section 8 Line" that we would have stand in for hours, in order to sign up for Section 8. Needless to say...I wasn't very interested. She practically drug me out of bed to go. And it turns out that that was one of the best things I've done to better my life.
I was able to remove myself and my son from "The Hood", and a very negative environment; to a more positive one. I remember my rent being just $12!! But at the same time, I was in college and not working much. Section 8 allowed me to be able to focus on school and get good grades, instead of having to work full time in order to pay full rent. I really think that if I wouldn't have had Section 8, I would have not finished college because of the negative environment that my son and I were in. I would have just worked my behind off to get us a better place to live, and probably would have never had time for school.
I graduated from Temple U when I was 25 and now...2 years later, I have a great job with a great salary, and I'm about to close on my first condo!! I'll be saying bye bye to Section 8 on February 25th when I close. So all in all, I think that Section 8 is a good thing for those who plan to use it to better their lives. BUT, I'd say about 85% of the people who are on Section 8 are not using it for that reason. I have friends and know people from "The Hood" that are having babies and purposely loosing their jobs just so that their rent will be lower. That's not right. I think there should be a 5 year limit on Section 8. I mean, I did it in 5 years...so it's definitely possible.
congratulations hun. You've pulled yourself out of the crapper and given yourself a chance at life. your next mission. Make your son twice as good as you ever were!! good luck!
The problem with XX year limits is that once the gov't puts their hand out to help someone, they make it almost impossible/illegal to pull it back. They always have loopholes and special circumstances. Then those turn into the norm, unfortunately.
Neekah,
. One question that arises, the people that bettered themselves with section 8, when you move on because you were helped out are you going to pay the government our tax dollars back.
I get section 8 and I work and pay taxes too. It is not just the tax dollars of people who don't receive assistance that go towards these programs, So , no I personally don't plan on paying any tax dollars back. I already pay taxes .I have not always recieved assitance nor do I plan to recieve it forever. Either way I would never expect anyone to pay anything back. These programs are here to help people when they fall on hard times. If some people who can benefits from these programs are too proud to accept this type of help when they really need it that is there problem. I put into the pot ( by paying taxes) and I surely won't hesitate to use assistance when I need it.
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. Babies are expensive. Especially if you want to feed them the proper foods. That's why I am going to start hoarding Gerber coupons and any other promotions I can get from them when I decide to have kids.
). Yes I believe some people may need it i.e. the elderly and disabled. But some people get on it just because they get pregnant and that irritates me so much. I used to work for Community Development which was right below Housing in the same building. You would be surprised at the people I encountered. I had the young pregnant woman who had already had one child, claimed to be homeless (but yet you found a place to have sex), then there was the old mother who was there with her young pregnant daughter, the old mother was already on welfare and told her young daughter she could now receive it and sign up for Section 8 too. I am sure there are young people who have children but work to care for their child without assistance. They work hard as Secretaries by day, go to school, and move on to have careers.They may not get their own apartment right away or be able to spend all day with their child, and they will struggle to buy their child the necessities but atleast they are doing it. I have had more experiences with the negative stereotypes of welfare recipients than I have of those who actually don't take it and decide to do it on their own.
When I was 19 (with a 4 year old son) my cousin called me early in the morning telling me that there was a "Section 8 Line" that we would have stand in for hours, in order to sign up for Section 8. Needless to say...I wasn't very interested. She practically drug me out of bed to go. And it turns out that that was one of the best things I've done to better my life.
