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Essays on public assistance food stamps
Essays on public assistance food stamps
Food stamps being abused essay
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According to Reuters, approximately 47 million people receive Food Stamps. That equates to 1 in 8 Americans (Abbott). Food Stamps is away to supplement those who are having trouble finding jobs and supporting their families. There are individuals who take it for granted, and abuse the system. Many people apply yearly for assistance, but get turned away because their case is insufficient, or there is simply not enough room to accommodate them. According to an article, states that since Food Stamps are running out of funds and people are turning to food banks for support (Food Assistance Becoming the "New Normal). Food banks are designed for extreme measures such a natural disaster, extreme weather conditions, and the homeless.
Because food is in short supply, our National government should create and endorse a New Food Stamp Reform Bill; because some individuals who are receiving the benefits that are allotted to them are committing fraud. Hard working Americans who make below the poverty line are denied every day for assistance because abusers are finding new creative ways to deceive the system.
The Foods Stamp Act of 1964 was very influential to the United States of America. It does not discriminate a household because of political beliefs, nationality, religion, and race. Its goal is to reduce hunger in low income families. The Foods Stamps is monitored heavily by the federal government, but the prospect receiver has to go through their local social services to apply. Food Stamps are only given only once a month, or in increments of two. It usually is given on the 1st and the 15th. How much a person receives, is dependent on household size. There are limits to what a person can buy. Alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and imported ...
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...les. "Food-stamp Tally Nears 40 Million, Sets Record." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 07
Bump, Philip and Abby Ohlieser. "House Republicans Vote to Cut $39 Billion From Food Stamps." The Wire. N.p., 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. May 2010. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Duncan, Ian. "Two grocery store operators charged in food stamp fraud case."baltimoresun.com. Baltimore Sun, 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Koenig, Brian. "Report: .5 Billion in Food Stamps Benefits Improperly Spent." The New American N.p., 19 Oct. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
"Food Assistance Becoming the "New Normal" Feeding America. Feeding America, n.d. Web.
Lubrano, Alfred. "The Debate over Food Stamps." Standard-Examiner. N.p., 25 Sept. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
"Parenting Classes OC." Parenting Classes OC. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
The Food Stamp Act of 1964. N.p.: n.p., 31 Aug. 1964. PDF. 21 Apr. 2014.
Issitt, Micah, L. Flynn. "Welfare: An Overview." Points Of View: Welfare (2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 5 Jan. 2014.
?Off Welfare, Better Off.? National Center for Policy Analysis. October 1,2002. http://www.ncpa.org/iss/wel/2002/pd100102a.html. (March 26, 2003).
With more and more people becoming unemployed and applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is imperative that we understand the benefits as well as problems this causes. Even while researching this topic and talking to some of my family and friends about it, it surprised me the amount of those who do not understand food stamps. Coming from the SNAP website, “Food stamps offer nutritional assistance to millions of eligible low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities” (United States). This program helps millions of people per year and gives upwards of $75 billion and rising. With the prices of food increasing due to inflation, beneficiaries are receiving around $400 at most per month. Using the Electronic benefit transfer systems (EBT), beneficiaries can buy goods from a grocery store using a credit-card like transaction, which takes the money off of their card. The benefits are received monthly on a specific date and vary in amounts from person to person. One family may receive $300 per month because they have three kids and need the extra money, while another may receive $100 or less depending on financial status. The application process includes completing and filing an application form, being interviewed, and verifying facts crucial to determining eligibility. In the past, these applications did not require a drug screening to get benefits, but more and more states are adopting this. There are many drawbacks to SNAP as well such as taking money from working people’s paychecks every week and people abusing the system. Talking about a very opinionated subject, we must remove bias and answer whether or not the Food Stamp system should be limited.
Murray, Sara. “Numbers On Welfare See Sharp Increase.” The Wall Street Journal. 22 Jun. 2009. 20 May. 2012.
Many families and people have become too dependent on food stamps. “Critics of food stamps and government spending, however, argue that too many families have become dependent on government aid.”(NoteCard #1) But if they did not have this program people would go hungry. “11.9 million people went hungry in the United States”... “that included nearly 700,000 children, up more than 50% from the year before.”(NoteCard #2, Point 2) The program does good and helps people but it also spends a lot of money to get people food stamps. “..food-stamp recipients has soared to 44 million from 26 million in 2007, and the costa have more than doubled to $77 billion from $33 billion.”(NoteCard #5) But in the end, is it worth it? People need the assistance. It does help people from going hungry and keeps them at least with a little food in their stomach to that keeps them from starving. A lot of people who could not get jobs, were eligible for the program because they did not have a source of income. “Critics of food stamps and government spending, however, argue that too many families have become dependent on government aid.”(NoteCard #1) Since not everyone could get work, the government changed the requirements and it went for the better and for the
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2013, September ). Household food security in the united states in 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err155/report-summary.aspx
Welfare Recipients-False Positives, False Negatives, Unanticipated Opportunities. Women’s Health Issues, Vol. 12(1), pp. 23-31, Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1049-3867(01)00139-6
With our national debt rising every year, there are many things that are contributing to it. Programs like food stamps benefits are meant for poor people; however, there are many that will take advantage of this program throughout history. Alex Roarty, claims that since the great depression over forty millions of people use food stamps benefits because of the loose eligibilities required and suggest that forty-one percent of people believe that it is due to edibility requirements and our own economy (“Most Americans Want Tougher Food Stamp Requirements”). With the nation’s debt soaring into the negative trillions, setting up piles of debt for our younger generation and developing poor eating habits this program is in jeopardy of deteriorating.
Albelda, Randy. “Fallacies of Welfare-to-Work Policies”. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 577, JSTOR Sept. 2001. 66-78.
As I stated early, I am against food stamps. I am opposing towards because it creates a toll on the American taxpayers. We are contributing to fraud, the obesity rate and letting people have no incentives to work. The government makes food stamps so easy to access with the qualifications being so low. Even with the working poor getting “free” money for food, they still have no motivation to better their lives and find a job. I care about this matter because I, as a young adult, I pay tax myself. I hope that the government too will consider eliminating or reforming the Supplement Nutrition Assistant Program in a more efficient way that possibly could benefit not only the working poor but as well as American taxpayers.
Morin, Rich. "The politics and demographics of food stamp recipients." Pew Research Center RSS. Pew Research Center, 12 July 2013. Web. 11 May 2014.
Food insecurity is an issue faced by millions of Americans every day, and the biggest group affected by this is working families with children. Food insecurity is so big that the United States government has now recognized it and provided a definition for it. The United States government has defined food insecurity as “a household level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food” (USDA.gov). Food banks and anti-hunger advocates agree that some of the causes of food insecurity are stagnant wages, increases in housing costs, unemployment, and inflation in the cost of food. These factors have caused food banks to see a change in the groups of people needing assistance.
According to Dolgoff and Feldstein (2003), “the needs and goals of the Food Stamp Program are to alleviate hunger and malnutrition by enabling low-income households to buy a nutritious adequate diet” (p. 132). The program also improved the market for local merchants to produce food for eligible low-income households and other agencies such as the School Lunch Program which safeguard the health and wel...
While in some cases this may be true, to understand poverty as a whole, one must consider the fact that many impoverished people actually work full time and do their best to live healthy and productive lives. This is one of the major reasons why government welfare programs exist, to aid and work with the poor to help individuals and families achieve economic stability. One of the nation’s largest anti-hunger program is SNAP – Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. SNAP, which is run by the US Department of Agriculture, has two central focuses: to teach and to assist. SNAP works with state agencies, schools, and organizations to help educate people on how to make healthy decisions and live healthy lives. This program broadly assists individuals and households with low or no income by providing a monthly allotment that can be used to purchase food. This money, often given in the form of an "Electronic Benefits Transfer" card, can be used in grocery stores to buy groceries. However, SNAP tightly restricts what can and cannot be purchased with SNAP money. The list of prohibited items includes hot foods, food that will be eaten in stores, alcohol, household supplies, pet food and more (FNS website). While SNAP helps about 44,000,000 people or 22,000,000 households on a yearly basis, the benefits are limited and heavily regulated by the government (FNS website). Another
Being hungry makes an average human being unfocused and emotionally unstable. For children, being hungry is worse because they lack the nutrition to grow and learn. Children will be unable to focus on school because they are too hungry to concentrate on anything else. Most families in poverty struggle to feed their children and can’t afford to buy nutritional food and instead purchase food that is the cheapest with the great amount. Families that do not make enough income rely on food stamps. However, families that make a little, emphasis on the little, over the standard income are disqualified for the program. In other words, they are stuck; they make too little to provide enough food for the table and yet make too much to receive food stamps.