Maine Gov. Paul LePage has a novel idea: make able-bodied food stamp recipients work for their stamps.
“We must continue to do all that we can to eliminate generational poverty and get people back to work,” LePage said in a statement announcing the change, which would take effect Oct. 1. “We must protect our limited resources for those who are truly in need and who are doing all they can to be self-sufficient,” stated LePage.
“Able-bodied” is defined by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services as adults between the ages 18 to 49 who have no dependents, are not pregnant and are not disabled.
Gov. Paul LePage announced Wednesday that Maine will no longer seek a federal waiver that allows some able-bodied adults to receive food stamps without fulfilling work requirements.
“We must continue to do all that we can to eliminate generational poverty and get people back to work,” LePage said in a statement announcing the change, which would take effect Oct. 1. “We must protect our limited resources for those who are truly in need and who are doing all they can to be self-sufficient.”
Currently, Maine receives a waiver from the federal government that allows some food stamp recipients to receive benefits without meeting work requirements. Maine has received the waiver for the past six years, largely because of its high employment rate and anemic job market.
In fact, all but four states have received waivers during at least some years since 2008, when the economy sank and unemployment rose nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency that oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. It was not clear Wednesday how many of those states receive a waiver this year or how many have reinstated the work requirement.
Without the waiver, able-bodied food stamp recipients in Maine will need to meet a work requirement outlined in federal law, which means they need to either work at least 20 hours a week or volunteer for a community agency.
According to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, able-bodied recipients are defined as adults ages 18 to 49 who have no dependents, are not pregnant and are not disabled.DHHS has identified 12,000 current recipients in Maine who fit that definition. They represent about 5 percent of all food stamp recipients and collectively receive about $15 million per year in benefits, or about 4.4 percent of all food stamp dollars that come to Maine. It’s not known how many of these would fail to satisfy the work requirement.
Those who fit the definition of able-bodied will receive notification of the change in the coming weeks.
The federal government provides funding to cover food stamp benefits, but the program is administered by the states, and the states cover the administrative costs. Each state has some discretion over how the program is administered and who should be deemed eligible.
WHETHER MAINE WOULD STILL QUALIFY IS UNCLEAR
Stormie Whitten, 25, of Portland, has been homeless for a year. She has physical and mental disabilities but hasn’t applied for disability insurance benefits and doesn’t plan to.
“I pretty much rely on my food stamps so that I can feed myself and it keeps getting cut so it’s harder and harder to supply food for the month,” Whitten said Wednesday outside Paul’s grocery store on Congress Street. “But if I lost them, you know, it would be that much harder.”
Whitten says her mental and physical disabilities prevent her from getting a full-time job. She tries to find work as a house cleaner and is currently house-sitting, which allows her to avoid staying in a shelter. Whitten said she won’t be able to support herself if she loses the food stamps.
“I don’t want to use every benefit available to me,” she said. “I don’t stay at the shelter, but food is the one thing that I really need help with – food is extremely expensive and I don’t know what I’m going to do when they turn the program off.”
Dean Taylor, a 30-year-old from Portland, said he thinks people should work, if they can, as “a resourceful way to pay for your food stamps.”“There are those that are mentally and physically disabled that can’t, but other than that, if you’re able to, then it’s just a matter of the resources,” he said.
Taylor said that he was unemployed in 2012 and received $189 per month in food stamp benefits. Taylor wasn’t aware at the time that the waiver was allowing him to receive the benefits without being required to work or volunteer. When he couldn’t find work in Maine, he moved to Florida, but recently moved back to Maine hoping the economy had picked up enough to find a job. He said he still sees people who rely on assistance.
“Everywhere you go you see lines of people (with food stamps),” Taylor said. “Who knows how many of them are actually looking for employment, but I know some are.”
It’s not clear whether Maine would still be eligible for the waiver for an additional year, given the improvements in the job market and unemployment rate. But the LePage administration does not plan to apply.
Source: pressherald.com
Photo: Maine Department of Education
What a DISGUSTING excuse of a human being…from an equally DISGUSTING excuse of an “organization.”
You will also have to be careful if you do this. A woman who had a serious heart condition, forced to retire with little income and had to apply for assistance of $200 (somewhere in that area) and food stamps. She was required to do “light volunteering work” which meant sitting at a desk, answering phones…. was the recommendation of her heart specialist. However, an individual(s) determined that light duty was picking up trash on the beach in 103 degrees, in the afternoon. Guess what? She was found dead. I don’t know what the results were, but her son went after the government. This is a real story and it broke my heart when I heard it several years ago. Yes, there are a lot of people who are milking the system, f**e illnesses, depression… working under the table…. and then there are those of us who work whenever we can find it, pay our bills … not sitting on our butts and admittedly, I know that some of the people I worked with were earning money under the table to buy clothes, pay rent, utilities…. because the cash grants do not pay rent. You want change, check out what the rules are that have become traps, barriers for families and single individuals. Most would take a job if it meant they never had to ask for government assistance again because they could support themselves. The government has hundreds of thousands of rules, reg’s that I hope someone will really take a good look at and have them simplified, dumped (like you must report $25 or more in cash as in a yard sale…..that way they can cut your food stamps but you cannot pay your electric bill so they cut it off), deal with real issues and reality instead of continuing to create agencies that have lost sight of the “goals” and are nothing but political and employment agencies, not there to help people get back up on their feet and do not promote a healthy environment for economic growth.
Sorry, but our govt pays for the recipients’ daycare. Why can’t those on welfare with dependents utilize that daycare when they are assigned work?
The only answer is BAN all welfare – you want to live…..make a living – time for the responsibility to be put back on families and charities and taken completely off taxpayer’s backs
I love this, lots of things that need done..work for yourself, do not expect me to feed you..I am 80 years old and I worked for what I have and you can too, it tastes better also.
Originally when welfare was set up (way back when) it was meant to be a temporary stop-gap for immediate situation. Those receiving had to work x amount of hrs on gov. projects to receive. It was a fair system and should be put back .
He wont last in Office long. People have to work?? Thats not the new America.
We spend 2 to 1 on corporate welfare vs social welfare, but you dolts don’t give a damn about it.keep fighting the stupid fight.
Corporate welfare is also wrong.
Love it