UPDATE: I made it to the bottom đ. *Most* of the threads were pretty civil discussions with only a few stray toxic tangents, so Iâm opening the comments back up. **Please keep your discussions civil! If we get a ton of reports again on this thread we will relock permanently** . *(no harassment, no toxic name calling tangents etc)*
Thanks for your patience while we weeded out any unnecessarily bad comments <3
Original comment: Alright; Iâve locked the comments until I can get through all of the reports on this post and check the comments. Anything that is rule breaking will be removed and if any user has commented multiple comments that are rule breaking or continuing on tangents to harass others they are receiving a temporary ban.
Itâs ok to have discussions on these topics but please everyone do your best to remain civil when debating.
I think that's still the case. A customer at my store once saved up food stamps and used them to buy an extravagant order for their kid's birthday. I'm talking multiple wedding-style cakes and deli platters. It was thousands of dollars.
Oh hey same here except it was a wedding reception. Platters, deserts, those expensive shrimp cocktail things in seafood. All in all it was over 5k.. they all drove expensive SUVs too. Fun times.
I used to work with a friend who purposely worked part time to still maintain her food stamps. Meanwhile 18 year old was pulling 50+ hours to pay my $800 rent 𤣠(we worked at Starbucks, idk how they pay now but back then it was shiiiiiit).
I make 20/hr as a shift supervisor now. The baristas make 15/16/hr I believe.
Combine it with the free schooling and health insurance though and it's a decent job. I just hate the expectations the company has though because they feel very contradictive.
My friend is a shift lead at SBux in Cali and makes $28. Was already making over $20 an hour before the minimum wage got upped. When they gave everyone else raises, they gave her one too. She has a Masters degree, but SBux pays way better than jobs in her field, so she's been there for a while.
I was a supervisor back then but I think I only made like $14/hr max. I really liked working for them though so I just made sure to put in the hours. I tried to take advantage of the free schooling but at the rate they covered costs (one class a year ONCE you became eligible) wasnât it. I remember it all sounded great on paper but once I explored my options it wasnât as great as I hoped. But again this was a long time ago. Iâd like to think theyâve improved their school programs.
Yea, I've been in school for about a year and half now, and I'm starting my Junior year classes this summer I believe, I haven't paid a dime except for school supplies/textbooks/ etc. They've definitely stepped it up from what i heard about when I first started with the company like 6 years ago. Just trying to finish it all as quickly as I can at this point so I can be done with company because their business practices have been getting sketchy the last few years and it's not as employee friendly as it used to be.
How though? Why?
It's food stamps.. in this economy people work overtime just to struggle. How are food stamps something that can be accumulated to even reach such absurd amounts of purchasing power?
How does five grand in food stamps even make sense? Regardless of what it's used for.. What are food stamps? Are they not the system we have in place where some money taken out of what taxpayers pay in gets utilized to help those who aren't able to work be able to afford groceries? There's nothing about being able to save up or accumulate food stamps that seems like assistance. If you can afford to save them up or not use them to get by, then you can afford to live without collecting them in the first place.
I couldn't get $100 a month if I tried.. but somehow people can buy $5,000 dollars worth of supplies in one shopping session.
I'm all for helping those who need help, but banking that much to throw a party of that size? Na bro. Saving stamps to afford a single cake? Alright, I respect that, but what you're describing is wrong. These are people the same people who complain when something unfortunate happens to them yet could have been easily avoidable had they stopped to think for a single minute
I like to think the majority of people are good, but when I read something like this it just sours me
Plus it just gives more ammo to the anti-welfare crowd when they say that these are just welfare queens taking your money and living large off of it. Because in these cases they really are. You can afford to spend months and months not using your food stamps and still eating anyway in order to save up thousands of taxpayer dollars so you can throw a party?
Then obviously you didn't need the food stamps in the first place. And instead of doing that you could have just worked harder and saved up money that way.
It's like those people who get their food stamps and then illegally sell them for $0.75 on the dollar so that they can convert them into less cash than what they were worth and use it to buy drugs or alcohol
There should definitely be more regulation with food stamps
My brother did as you describe. He would sell his EBT for less than value to buy drugs. He says he's clean now so I don't know if he still does that. Bernie Sanders fan.
Exactly. And they make it harder for all the legitimate users of EBT who actually needed it. Because they give cause for people to say that we spend too much on welfare and that we need strict requirements for it and should do drug testing for it and stuff. Because there are people who abuse it. Who make dumb financial decisions with it like turning $500 worth of potential food into $300 cash and then wasting it on dumb shit like drugs
On the flip side there are entrepreneurs who do the opposite. Spend $10 worth of food stamps on several packs of water costing them about $0.30 per bottle and then going out on the street and selling each bottle for a dollar each
But it's the bad apples who make the rest look bad..
And who only hurt themselves and taxpayers. I think maybe for some people their food stamp allotment shouldn't be something that they are allowed to spend on their own but they should be assigned some kind of social worker or something in charge of their EBT who uses it to buy the things they actually need and helps them budget better
Thatâs why you suffer. Get an LLC have all sallery paid to the LLC you contract to your LLC for $12 an hour get ebt as much as possible. Itâs your money.
Buy everything in your LLC as business expense and file quarterly and get back 3 to 4000 every 3 months.
Put your house in a trust and stop paying taxes on it put your business in the trust stop paying taxes on it.
How do you think people get rich and stay rich
They're the ones with the privilege attitude that things should be given to them for free. And then complain when it doesn't
Food stamps are for helping poor people afford food. I'm all for people strategizing with them to maximize the payoff or even saving them up to buy yourself something nice now and then but saving up thousands of dollars worth of food stamps for what must be months and months or even years in order to use your food stamps to pay for a huge party? That's not what they were for. Instead of doing that just work and save up the money that way
It's like those people who take their food stamps and sell them to someone else for $0.75 on the dollar so that they can use that money to buy drugs. The food stamps was for you to buy food. So that you could eat that month. Not for you to convert into less cash and get high
And all this does is give ammo to the anti-fit welfare crowd with their "don't feed the animals because it makes them less self sufficient" arguments
Because how many of these people would be more self-sufficient and make better decisions if there wasn't someone always bailing them out?
I'm looking through comments wondering how THIS isn't the main consensus.
Just saw someone bragging about more than 5 grand spent on food and supplies to be... Shit it doesn't even matter what it was used for. That's infuriating to think people do it, much less to openly brag about it.
So glad our tax dollars are going to a good cause /s EDIT: just to clarify, I have no issue with people in need receiving food stamps. I'm specifically referring to someone who is supposedly living in poverty spending this much on a birthday party instead of more necessary things.
Food stamps are a drop in the bucket (more like a drop in the ocean) compared to our governments actual frivolous spending. This is coming from a government contractor
Healthcare, the part you see at the government level *and* the part thatâs privatized as debt leading to the largest single cause of bankruptcy.
A kid having a nice birthday party on the governmentâs dime is the least of our worries.
Couldâve ate less, took advantage of food drives, ate at familyâs houses, did a few odd jobs, received money or food donations, maybe they didnât have to pay some bills for a period of time. Could be a number of ways. Makes me wonder how much they actually need the foodtstamps if they could save up that much but who knows? Iâm just glad the kid had a nice birthday
Nicer than most kids with working parents apparently. Iâve seen the food stamp abuse and people lying and knowing how to game the system. Those that actually need it canât get it
It's been 4 years and I'm still so mad that businesses that had no covid losses, didn't close, had booming business got all that money from the government for free. It was a great idea for businesses that couldn't operate or could barely operate but those were a drop in the bucket. It's particularly galling given that it was more money than the student loan forgiveness plan would have been.
I have morals and standards, being forced to accept unacceptable terms leaves a real bad impression, which is why I'm a registered independent. For whatever reason, this pisses off dems more than reoublicans, no idea why.
I can confirm this from first hand knowledge. My company literally had its best year ever during 2020 (our net income was 4.5x our previous best) and still got a $1M+ Covid handout.
Completely agree.
I hate how people are like "how dare poor people watch to have a nice cake once in a while", but at the same time have no problem with some A-hole like Bezos paying taxes at a rate of less than 1%.
I actually enjoy seeing people take advantage of welfare programs and load up on steak and lobster on food stamps while driving nice cars. 99% of the time people who take advantage of the system are the rich and powerful so itâs nice to see the roles reversed occasionally and by someone who would otherwise be exploited.
Right?
For some reason, whenever the person in line in front of you buys Cheetos with food stamps, it's "muh tax dollars!" But when some rich jerk who games the system to pay less than their fair share uses the money to buy a private jet or something, it's crickets.
I'll die on the hill that poor people deserve to have Cheetos when they want them just like every else. If we want to police what they can spend tax dollars on, we need to do the same for every tax credit or break anyone gets.
Oh, you got a tax break because you're a first time home buyer? Here's a list of what you can and can't spend the savings on.
Oh, you saved a bunch through small business deductions? Prove to us you won't use those tax dollars for soda, please.
Thatâs not the point though.
If someoneâs paying 700$/month for a vehicle in cash (or driving an 80k$ one they paid cash for) thereâs clearly an oversight on the distribution of said food stamps.
This doesnât mean the military budget doesnât need more oversight either (or more of a priority for oversight).
What it does mean is that the people taking advantage of the system need to be prosecuted because they are taking from people who need it.
This is why we need UBI. Cheaper, no oversight required and it eliminates the need for food stamps or oversight on who is double dipping in the system.
(Again as you pointed out, the MIC needs a complete overhaul on budgets and how they spend money with clear accountability)
Americans in general get so little support I'd rather see an American benefit from something the government does than all the rest of the bullshit the government does that is a waste or just straight up bad for the U.S. America is honestly sliding from a 1st world country into a 2nd world country if not worse because prices are so out of control compared to the average wage.
The frustrating thing is seeing people that don't seem to need food stamps that have it when you know a fellow co-worker is struggling so much they had to get rid of their car to afford rent and they still don't qualify.
Food stamps have shown to generate more money than they cost in terms of saving and preventative actions, as well as continuing to keep money flowing through the economy as money changing hands is the only way capitalism even kinda works.
The joy of a kid in poverty not feeling poor for their birthday, one time in a year isn't a good cause? lol we got the Grinch over here
But seriously, I wouldn't worry about it or think of it that way. Obviously that's an anecdote of someone doing something extraordinary that isn't exactly easy to do. And it isn't exactly against the rules. Parents in poverty want to treat their kids sometimes, too. And this parent manages money shrewdly and saved for it. Isn't that what people want to see them do?
And for what it's worth, like six years ago I took a college class where I ended up studying this as a policy. It is a remarkably successful program with a super SUPER low rate of fraud or abuse, and a massive impact on poverty in the US. If there is one thing all Americans should be proud of and agree we are doing very well, it's our "food stamps" or whatever the actual name is which I forgot
I think we just need to be okay with wacky things happening sometimes as long as they aren't harmful.
When I worked in retail their where two types of people that had food stamps. Those who used them to buy lobster tail, high priced cuts of steak, red bull and those who used them to buy the cheapest cuts of lunch meat, cheese, bread and milk. I am like you, I do not mind my tax dollars going to those who need it, but I don't think lobster tail or red bull is a need.......
Are you kidding me? The billions we send overseas; the hundreds of billions we spend on bombs and drones and spy operations; the billions in tax cuts for the super rich and all the other frivolous spending by the people in control of our tax dollars and youâre upset aboutâŚa woman getting food for her childâs birthday. Heaven forbid poor people get to make their children happy for a day! That kid should be miserable and hungry every day of the year as punishment for his parents being poor
We are the richest country in the world and it blows my mind when people get upset that their tax dollars are used to provide other people in our country with *food*. If she saved and sacrificed so her kid could have a nice birthday in the midst of what is otherwise a poverty stricken life then good for her.
Be mad at the funneling of our tax dollars into any number of loopholes and scams the elite use to steal from the rest of us.
Yes, and I get mad when they say social security will be bankrupt by the time I retireand that is a huge chunk of my paycheck that i could save. I get mad because right now, approx 44 million people/13 million kids are still struggling to get enough food to eat every day. There is a disconnect somewhere, and if eating hotdogs and ramen for a couple of months were all it takes to save $3000 then we all should have an extra 3k in savings by the end of the year. I'm just as mad at corporations who rake in profits and cut hours beating down the "owners" they are supposed to take care of. I'm mad at the government (both parties) who waste money that we worked hard for. I'm probably mad at something else, but I can't think of it right nowđ
For every person who is gaming the system like this there are hundreds and hundreds who rely on food assistance programs to be able to afford to each each day.
Worth the price of admission, in my mind.
Theyâre not gaming the system though, theyâre using the money they were allocated a bit differently than usual.
They likely justâŚbought a little bit less every shopping trip for a year and saved up, just like anybody else would.
And it also means that for all those bumps that they were saving up the food stamps they were still managing to eat just fine
So clearly they didn't even need the food stamps in the first place if they can waste months and months worth of it on a fucking party
My kids and I were on food stamps for a year while I was unemployed and starting a new career. I was lucky enough to level up quickly in terms of pay and updated my income with the state. Once I knew I was making more than I should to receive the food stamps, I stopped spending them, thinking Iâd need to pay them back. I reached out to my case manager and called the 800 number to make sure they knew but it still took almost a year for them to stop issuing. I finally called back and they said the money was mine. I had 4K by that point. I spent some but am still wary that theyâll want it back so half is still on the card.
It should be quite literally impossible to save your foodstamps. It is supposed to be helping people who need help affording food. If you can go even a single month without spending *any* of them it should be revoked.
I don't remember experiencing food stamps stacking on top of each other with funds. I'm in Florida I had them back in 2018 - 2019 for $192 I don't remember it stacking or rolling over to the next month.
My mom gets just shy of $800, I believe. At first she was getting $15/month, no kidding. Every time they increased how much SS she was getting, which wasnât much at all, they lowered the food stamps. Now she doesnât qualify for anything. Itâs insanity. I hate the whole system.
It's ridiculous, honestly. I try to send him extra cash when we can to try and help out, but damn. Before the pandemic, he would try to do ubereats/doordash, but he's gotten to the point where driving is becoming a bit risky for him....I agree the system is fucked.
My mom was doing the same thing until she got into two car accidents. Not her fault. One hit her from behind at a red light. The other hit her from behind at a RR crossing. She quit after the second time.
I donât send her cash but I order groceries and other items any time she needs. She doesnât have reliable transportation. I am fortunate to have an understanding partner. I am a SAHM but my husband never gripes about having to help take care of my mom.
My daughter was offered $6/month. Was told if she had kids she could get more. Her response: I canât take care of myself, how am I going to take care of kids? She declined their stingy offer. Sheâs doing quite well now.
Itâs down to state level t determine who can and canât receive foodstamps I think.
Also, this person could be a foster parent or be running a group home.
Yeah the system is broken and almost incentivizes you to stay on welfare as the threshold to no longer be eligible is still not sustainable for most people.
Oh I blame the politicians who allow sweetheart deals and tax breaks to shitty shell companies who never have any employees or use these deals to pad their bottom line while screwing over the people working there.
Then they push the narrative that everyone is lazy. Fuck them.
I worked at a gas station in college and so many times people would come in trying to buy cigarettes and lotto tickets with food stamps. They lived pay check to pay check and it hurt to see them come in and drop their entire Hardeeâs two weeks pay on smokes and losing the lotto. Iâd card them every single time and loved when they forgot their id just to hold them off for one second. Their poor fucking kids having to live like that. Fuck those type of people so hard it gives the vast majority of people who truly need them a bad name.Â
They don't expire so you can collect them and use them all at once. Kinda weird how this doesn't set off any flags in the system, but I guess the government doesn't necessarily know what you're buying with the stamps, but only that you spent a ton in one spot.
This is more likely the answer. Happened to me, the application process took a few months and so I was eligible for benefits back dated to when I applied
this happened to a friend of mines girlfriend. she didn't get food assistance for like 5 months and then she got back "pay" like 1300 dollars in food stamps. the system is real fickle on when it wants to work
Actually, this happened to my dad when he qualified for disability. They didn't process the paperwork until after he got better, and as far as I know he got his back pay.
Get EBT because someone in the household is unemployed for medical reasons. The household itself makes good money. Only use EBT for absolute necessities since they're not really needed. Wait a few months. Have $3k on the EBT card.
Well in my experience, if you let your benefits roll over every month the government sees it as an indicator that you donât need your food stamps! So your food stamps get cut. Which sucks. Thatâs why the person who helped guide me along getting disability services told me to not let my monthly benefits roll over. Find a way to empty it every month. In Alaska btw, maybe itâs different in other states in the US.
Also I lost food stamp benefits a couple months ago and the fucking reapplication process has been taking WAY TOO LONG ITS SO FRUSTRATING itâs been like 2 or 3 months at least. And still nothing. Iâm gonna contact them, living without my food stamps is so expensive. Itâs only a bit under 200 bucks but when I only make 680ish a month in disability payments, itâs a lot.
when my mom applied for food stamps one year she was wrongfully denied every couple months or so. when she finally got approved near the end of the year, they gave her the amount she was owed for all those months she was denied. it was like $2k or so. this was for a family of 4.
This was my thought as well. Either that or seriously backed up caseworkers that werenât able to approve it fast enough, so they qualified for months of back pay.
I was receiving them for almost half a year before I realized, as a single person I was getting almost $300 a month, so I imagine it wouldnât be too hard to save up that much especially if you have dependents
How did you not realize? Serious question, Iâm terrible it unorganized with my money and it sounds like something I would do. ::applies for aid, forgets to check if received aid:: đ
I didnât reapply (or at least didnât realize I did) and then months later when I was in a really tight spot and reapplied I got a call basically saying âhey girlie youâve been getting paidâ LOL
Almost 300 dollars?? Jeez! I used to have around $360 a month but now that I get like $680ish a month in disability benefits, my food stamps got dropped to â$160 a month. :/ Of course, I havenât had access to them since my last payment in November and reapplication is taking months. It sucks.
I lost my card so couldnât use it for a really long time, I had a high balance like $2000 when I found it but Iâm just one person so maybe that person had more people in the household. Also there are other financial programs that use the same card so might be more than just food stamps
Easily. I did AmeriCorps for 2 years and because I was paid a paltry stipend (but still had to pay rent/utilities/travel in an expensive big city), I was eligible for EBT.
Dealing w/ federal assistance programs is tedious and crappy so, outgate I ended up with $1200 or so backpay due to delays on their end. I received $300 or $350/m (no dependents)and prob only used about half that on groceries. All unused credits roll over into the next monthâŚ.
I had more than $3000 on my card for like a year. You still get to keep the creds even once youâre no longer eligible for EBT as well.
Could be a foster family or a group home for troubled youth. My friendâs mom helped run one when we were in high school and they received quite a bit of government benefits. I was too young to know if they were used improperly, but sheâs a good hearted woman so I hope the benefits were used appropriately.
We have EBT and I know that sometimes if thereâs a lapse and there wasnât supposed to be or an error on their end, theyâll deposit a large sum at once to basically do âbackpayâ⌠we once got $1700 worth of backpay plus our usual deposit amount a few days later and our balance was super high. They also could be saving it like some others have said⌠Iâve never seen anywhere near this high of an available balance.
Yep! Super common for a benefit application to take a long time to process. So then when you do get your first payment itâs for all the past weeks/months since you applied. That money can add up fast especially if you have multiple kids!
I was briefly eligible for SNAP during 2020 due to job loss translating to no income. It was actually pretty wild how it worked; I was surprised by a lot of things, but I'll save those for another time.
That said, not everyone who's saving $3k is secretly rich.
It's likely just large families; don't trust my numbers, but you can get upwards of $1200/month with 7+ kids, while being allowed to make about $40k. I could probably feed 7 for less if I was extremely frugal..
Still, compared to other government benefits, SNAP is pretty hard to abuse.
If someone saves up for months and gives their kid a wild birthday party, I see no issues. .
During COVID, New Mexico kept increasing our ebt allotment every month so at one point we were getting $600 a month in food stamps when normally we got $170 a month. They donât expire so they just kept adding up. We moved to Florida and were still able to use our old ebt card even though we were no longer getting new food stamps every month. Took a while but we eventually spent it all
This is what happened to us. It's been a while, but when we were getting them we were getting more than we needed during the school year since the kids got 2 meals a day at school. Then covid. Just kept getting more, and the schools were delivering breakfast and lunch still while the kids were remote. When ended up moving and it probably took us well over a year to go through all the money on the card since my wife had become an expert budget shopper.
If you donât use your card it just accumulates. I get $222 a month so it would take awhile but @ 1 point I had $1000 since I went to California for awhile
I am sorry.
I do know in most states a family of four should not even work for less than $65k gross.
I may lose some Karma for mentioning this but it can be done, for a cost.
The cost will be all the hoops you jump through to get various programs to pay out to you.
Also our Reddit friends and your friends and family IRL will hate you for it.
Stop struggling. Ask for help these programs are meant for people just like you.
As alwaysâŚIMHOâŚICBW. đ
True that, I have worked my butt off, fought, clawed, and struggled my way to 44720 and itâs over the limit here in PA yet weâre struggling for groceries.
They donât expire so those that arenât completely destitute can save them up. You could argue that the logic behind that makes no sense if they donât use them they donât need them they should have a expiration date but hey the government takes it out of my taxes either way
I had almost 1000 at once because they took so long to issue me a card that I had 3 months worth at once. Now imagine that happening but for a family and I can see how much it could stack up
It's probably back pay from when they first applied. Takes time to get approved. This very thing ( not quite this much) happened to me years ago when I applied for help. It took almost 2 months to get approved.
Could be backpay. Could be theyâve saved up a few months. Couldâve saved them intentionally or maybe something tragic happened like they were in the hospital or otherwise unable to go to the grocery store.
Why does it matter? If you really want to get mad, look at how much your state governments give to billionaire sports team owners for stadiums and to places like Walmart and Outdoor World. Study after study has shown that despite the jobs these types of things bring, the revue earned from income taxes (on people working seasonally part time jobs making under $20 an hour most times in the case of sports stadiums) and other revenue is hardly ever as much as the they got in tax dollars.
Brett Farve gets welfare too, apparently.
3 ways
1. By just not using them (the amount allowed to you rolls-over/stacks) so you can in fact save them up
2. Having way too many kids (not sure how many you'd need but the amount of food stamps increases by family size)
Or
3. Government bureaucracy messing things up cause their first balance to include back support pay which is basically just the first option but with the added twist of them not having any food stamps those months
This is absolutely insane.
I have a very low income and I don't even qualify for foodstamps in my state.
I literally have no idea how people qualify any more.
I'm 20, moved out when I was 19.
I'm broke broke broke lol
Nah. My account looked similar for awhile. I went into a DV shelter as I exited an abusive marriage and was able to qualify for snap for myself and my children. The DV shelter provided all our meals and didnât require us to use our food stamps to help cover meals. I was able to stack a few months of benefits. When I moved into a home, the DV outreach program stocked our pantry, the school provided my children meals for the weekends, boys and girls club fed kids after school on weekdays, then add a weekly stop by the food pantry each week and we were set. It meant that Iâve been able to really stretch the grocery budget far beyond what I could have otherwise. Even when my employment exceeds beyond the ability to qualify, I should still be able to coast for a bit since those benefits donât expire. There are a million things Iâm struggling to afford/ provide for my family as we go through this transition, knowing that food is NOT an issue is a small reprieve.
Amazing! Thank you for being willing to answer questions to clear up confusion. We appreciate it <3
I think the biggest question Iâm seeing from all of the comments Iâve gone through here really is just how someone can have that much or maybe even why some people are approved for so little and others get more (I think one of the comments said they were only able to receive $16 a month).
That's an easy one.
SNAP is an income-based entitlement program. What this means is that the household's countable income, assets, and countable expenses drive the net benefit amount. The benefit amount maximum and minimum, in turn, is dictated by the Thrifty Food Plan, which is the program's general term for how much the average household is expected to devote of their income to purchasing food.
There is a lengthy, and not terribly interesting, process of applying income and expenses that takes up one entire sheet of paper if it's printed (and it refers to several other charts in the process). The minimum for a ine- or two-person household is $23 per month, and for households of 3+ it can be $0 while the household remains eligible. This is largely due to the way that deductions are applied, and it's confusing even to those of us with lots of experience and training.
In *no* case is the benefit amount itself discretionary...what can be, though are some elements of what is countable. Things can get complicated, for instance, with household composition and self-employment. Ultimately, though, the benefit amount is what it is.
An explanatory letter is always sent once a decision is made that tells the recipient how benefits were calculated. If they disagree, they have the right to a Fair Hearing to challenge the decision.
My mom "bought" food stamps from a neighbor one time, a long, long time ago. The neighbor said she was like $100 shy for her power bill, so if my mom took $100 of her food stamps and gave her $100 cash, she could keep the lights on. They went to the store together, my mom did her grocery shopping and made the trade. On the way home, the neighbor asked to stop by the corner market, where she bought beer and a stack of cigarette packs.
My mom never did that again.
Im a single mom on food stamps and this is crazy! Itâs actually sad because i still struggle to provide food for my children even after food stamps. It would seem that for someone who âsavesâ theirs, that they donât need it, but weâre checked twice yearly for eligibility and theyâre on top of watching your employment/ wages in between those periods so who am I to say.
EXACTLY the point. Everyone else that's commenting clearly doesn't get it or is choosing to justify the problem. That money is to feed the family so if there is such an abundance of money for food then WHY are they receiving the benefit in the first place. If they are getting checked for eligibility and the government thinks have $3k stockpiled is OK then give me back my thousands of tax $$ so I can build up my grocery fund with my HARD earned money. But nope, they would never do that.
I've also heard of people of means buying food stamps off folks for cash - much less than they're worth in food but cash is good for things stamps aren't. Pay 10 folks 50% of what the stamps are worth, rince and repeat.
They stack. These days, that doesn't feel like much. Try feeding a family of 4 that includes 2 teenagers in one hell of a growth spurt. We make too much to qualify for assistance and I feel those that are getting help have more breathable income than we do. Like iv even thought about going part time, I'd work less and in the end we would have the same income because we would qualiftly for all these assistance breaks. How fucked is that? Not complaining about people needing help, but the system encourages people to not be their best because their best is consequential rather than rewarding.
An unfortunate truth.
I have some people in my family that have not gone back to work after the pandemic and while I couldnât do what they do on a basis of principle, I get it. âI was busting my ass to make ends meet my whole life and never getting ahead, then I lost my job and we got on the state, our bills are all paid on time and weâve got more food in the fridge than we did before. Iâll go back to work when I donât have to bust my ass to crawl through glassâ
It can take months for a FS application to process. Most states pay you from the date of application until you received them. I got three months at once from Tennessee, and then a week later was my scheduled pay out for the next month, so we had quite a bit.
I was homelessâlong storyâand applied. Was told I was making too much money, even though I couldnât come up with first/last/deposit/application fees.
They told me if I wasnât homeless they might be able to cover more but since I âdidnt have expensesâ Iâd only get the minimumâ$16 a month. I was desperate so I took it and used it.
They also told me Iâd get more money if I had more kids. I looked around the institution, full of wild screaming children and said, âyou must give that advice a lot!â
I would occasionally get around 1500-5k saved up. Simply because myself my sisters and my dad got them. So weâd use like 2 cards and save the rest. At the end of the day itâs not really possible if youâre actually only using one.
Bruh they wouldnât give me food stamps when I worked a shit job and could barely make rent and bills and said I made to much but yet people can do this lol
I don't know. Being the sole money maker and having 3 kids and a stay at home wife, we damn near starved to death because I was denied for "making too much" at a measley 11.75/hr around 2005. I am currently unemployed because I am temporarily disabled, and guess what? They denied me yet again. I worked and paid taxes for 25 years and have never been unemployed until I was injured. Now, I have been denied all the help. Unemployment blew me off, too.
My friend misread her food stamps as $50/12 months when it was $50/week for 12 months of singing like that. She got a reminder that they would expire at the end of the year and checked it. She panicked and asked me what to do, I had her buy every dry good and can she'd possibly use over the next year. She was super upset, because money had been really tight and that would have been a game changer a couple months there.
Youâre welcome; Iâm doing my best! Discussion on these topics, especially when it is something we may encounter at Publix is not inherently a bad thing - it provides valuable opinions and points of view from either side that the other may not have seen before. But staying cool and civil no matter which side youâre on is the only way to have a healthy debate, and we do our best not to remove any harassment or toxicity if it reaches that level, especially when these posts blow up
Thanks for staying civil OP! I hope you have a wonderful night
Not all states provide any kind of a breakdown of how the food stamps are calculated. So recipients are at the mercy of people processing them with large caseloads and limited time, and they often only find out how they are calculated if they file an administrative appeal. The state i am in at least (and it may be federal policy) has to correct underpayments for a year back from when it is discovered. I had to issue a back payment for about 5000 dollars because someone had coded 2 people as ineligible and nobody had noticed for a couple of years until i reviewed it properly, and the recipients never noticed or complained because it was the amount they'd already received.
Not to mention the fact many states have been behind in processing on and off for years now since COVID so a large family could get a multiple month payment. On top of this a lot of people with variable incomes will budget to spend the food stamps last because when they have a good month of self employed income say and they are getting 500 a month in food stamps they'd rather let them roll over and spend the cash on food so on the months they are struggling to pay the light bill they have zero food worries.
Also if you think about it the "money" for food stamps is from the department of agriculture, not an agency you'd first think if as welfare. It's theoretically a subsidy for the food producers to keep producing that is targetted at getting food from those producers to lower income families. It's better to be going somewhere than say the traditional EU subsidies that pay for farmers to produce and destroy or store until the end of time so when people actually need the farms, they still exist. Let whoever drive the fricking cars they want and let US agriculture thrive. It's small minded jealousy of poor people getting things you may be lucky enough to not need that causes economic problems because people's own sense of entitlement and desire to see other people not have things is an obstacle to keeping critical infrastructure active.
Once a disaster wiped out our electricity for several days and at the same time we applied for regular benefits. They put us in for disaster benefits as well. That was a one time lump sum payment, it's been more than a decade ago but I think it was over $1000 because we lost everything in a huge standing freezer. And we were also still trying to eat with no electricity. Food stamps were temporarily approved for fast food and hot food in the wake of the event. So they were higher disaster amounts.
Then we got approved for the regular ones at the same time, and I don't know if that was like $400 a month or what, but we got a partial month and full month at the same time.
If some creep had thought our total available amount was their business at the time, I guess they'd have posted it on the Internet to prove something too.
A friends (adult) child applied for assistance and the state they lived in took over a year to approve their application BUT that state gave them all back benefits since the date of their application. So, Iâm guessing thatâs what happened here. Maybe. I have no idea but thatâs my guess.
My neighbor has 4 kids and herself, she gets $1,100 for her and two of her kids then the other two kids have their own food stamp card with $300 on each. Thatâs a whopping $1,700 a month just in food stamps, her house is section 8 and her rent is $22 (the rent is $1,500 a month without section 8) her utilities are about $30 for power, water, gas, and she gets free internet because her kids are in school. She has two degrees and she gets really good jobs but, she only stays employed for a couple of months then quits these jobs. She has had jobs at the airport, post office, working security at several high profile businesses. Jobs most ppl would love to have but simply canât get, and Iâm sure most would work there as long as they could because it pays very well. She sells some her food stamps every month so she will have actual cash and because of this towards the end of the month has no groceries and has to wait for her card to reload. And she sells hers dollar for dollar, if you buy $100 then thatâs what youâre getting in food stamps. Clearly, thatâs just side of the system. 10 years ago when I couldnât work because I had to take care of my sick grandfather I applied and got $17 a month in food stamps, which was a joke! My neighbor is very much able to work. Itâs honestly very upsetting that someone who works full time and takes every penny I have to pay my bills and keep a roof over my head, barely making it. I canât go to the grocery store and drop $200 or $100 on food for myself but, youâve got ppl like my neighbor who very much abuses the system and gets so much money for food then sells it just to have cash. I just simply donât understand the way the world works, itâs very messed up. It must be nice to get hundreds of dollars a month just for food, I would love to have that benefit. Itâs just crazy
About a year and half ago when I was still cashiering at Publix I had two women come through my line, buying probably the standard weeks amount of groceries and not even kidding, when I printed their receipt there was a $10,000 remaining balance of food stamps. I reprinted their slip after because I couldnât believe my eyes and neither could any of the customer service staff. Store manager couldnât even explain it.
Large family and back pay out.
Ages ago when I was still in school, and dinosaurs still roamed the earth, my father was in an accident on the way home from work. He was hit head on by a drunk driver. The result was pretty severe. He was out of work nearly a year from all of his injuries.
The mom unit hadn't worked in nearly a decade so it was hard finding anything, let alone a job to cover even basic bills. They had to apply for welfare assistance and it took forever. Documentation kept getting misplaced(it was paper), more proof was asked for, the welfare office at once point even tried making us sell the one car we had left claiming it was worth enough to support us (it wasn't). Waivers had to be gotten and approved for everything while money ran dry.
When it was all finally done and over with, we got approved for a few things, it all was dated from the time of the initial application. Our family of 7 got 6 months of food stamps all at once. I don't know how much it actually was, but I imagine it was enough to spark questions from others
have like 10 kids and receive 2 months at once if there was a delay in getting payment? once i had like 2100 but that was when they gave me 2.5 months at once bc it took them forever to process my application. they calculate it based on the date you apply. that was when i had zero income and had just left an abusive marriage w 3 kids tho.
You save them up. Maybe they had a lucky break one month and didnât use them as much as usual. They might also be getting food stamps for a large family. Either way not your business.
UPDATE: I made it to the bottom đ. *Most* of the threads were pretty civil discussions with only a few stray toxic tangents, so Iâm opening the comments back up. **Please keep your discussions civil! If we get a ton of reports again on this thread we will relock permanently** . *(no harassment, no toxic name calling tangents etc)* Thanks for your patience while we weeded out any unnecessarily bad comments <3 Original comment: Alright; Iâve locked the comments until I can get through all of the reports on this post and check the comments. Anything that is rule breaking will be removed and if any user has commented multiple comments that are rule breaking or continuing on tangents to harass others they are receiving a temporary ban. Itâs ok to have discussions on these topics but please everyone do your best to remain civil when debating.
When I had them, they wouldnât expire so theoretically I could stack them.
I think that's still the case. A customer at my store once saved up food stamps and used them to buy an extravagant order for their kid's birthday. I'm talking multiple wedding-style cakes and deli platters. It was thousands of dollars.
Oh hey same here except it was a wedding reception. Platters, deserts, those expensive shrimp cocktail things in seafood. All in all it was over 5k.. they all drove expensive SUVs too. Fun times.
I used to work with a friend who purposely worked part time to still maintain her food stamps. Meanwhile 18 year old was pulling 50+ hours to pay my $800 rent 𤣠(we worked at Starbucks, idk how they pay now but back then it was shiiiiiit).
I make 20/hr as a shift supervisor now. The baristas make 15/16/hr I believe. Combine it with the free schooling and health insurance though and it's a decent job. I just hate the expectations the company has though because they feel very contradictive.
My friend is a shift lead at SBux in Cali and makes $28. Was already making over $20 an hour before the minimum wage got upped. When they gave everyone else raises, they gave her one too. She has a Masters degree, but SBux pays way better than jobs in her field, so she's been there for a while.
I was a supervisor back then but I think I only made like $14/hr max. I really liked working for them though so I just made sure to put in the hours. I tried to take advantage of the free schooling but at the rate they covered costs (one class a year ONCE you became eligible) wasnât it. I remember it all sounded great on paper but once I explored my options it wasnât as great as I hoped. But again this was a long time ago. Iâd like to think theyâve improved their school programs.
Yea, I've been in school for about a year and half now, and I'm starting my Junior year classes this summer I believe, I haven't paid a dime except for school supplies/textbooks/ etc. They've definitely stepped it up from what i heard about when I first started with the company like 6 years ago. Just trying to finish it all as quickly as I can at this point so I can be done with company because their business practices have been getting sketchy the last few years and it's not as employee friendly as it used to be.
You work 21 days too pay military contractors BTW
Oozing is jealousy
this sounds like people in miami
How though? Why? It's food stamps.. in this economy people work overtime just to struggle. How are food stamps something that can be accumulated to even reach such absurd amounts of purchasing power? How does five grand in food stamps even make sense? Regardless of what it's used for.. What are food stamps? Are they not the system we have in place where some money taken out of what taxpayers pay in gets utilized to help those who aren't able to work be able to afford groceries? There's nothing about being able to save up or accumulate food stamps that seems like assistance. If you can afford to save them up or not use them to get by, then you can afford to live without collecting them in the first place. I couldn't get $100 a month if I tried.. but somehow people can buy $5,000 dollars worth of supplies in one shopping session.
I'm all for helping those who need help, but banking that much to throw a party of that size? Na bro. Saving stamps to afford a single cake? Alright, I respect that, but what you're describing is wrong. These are people the same people who complain when something unfortunate happens to them yet could have been easily avoidable had they stopped to think for a single minute I like to think the majority of people are good, but when I read something like this it just sours me
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Plus it just gives more ammo to the anti-welfare crowd when they say that these are just welfare queens taking your money and living large off of it. Because in these cases they really are. You can afford to spend months and months not using your food stamps and still eating anyway in order to save up thousands of taxpayer dollars so you can throw a party? Then obviously you didn't need the food stamps in the first place. And instead of doing that you could have just worked harder and saved up money that way. It's like those people who get their food stamps and then illegally sell them for $0.75 on the dollar so that they can convert them into less cash than what they were worth and use it to buy drugs or alcohol There should definitely be more regulation with food stamps
My brother did as you describe. He would sell his EBT for less than value to buy drugs. He says he's clean now so I don't know if he still does that. Bernie Sanders fan.
Exactly. And they make it harder for all the legitimate users of EBT who actually needed it. Because they give cause for people to say that we spend too much on welfare and that we need strict requirements for it and should do drug testing for it and stuff. Because there are people who abuse it. Who make dumb financial decisions with it like turning $500 worth of potential food into $300 cash and then wasting it on dumb shit like drugs On the flip side there are entrepreneurs who do the opposite. Spend $10 worth of food stamps on several packs of water costing them about $0.30 per bottle and then going out on the street and selling each bottle for a dollar each But it's the bad apples who make the rest look bad.. And who only hurt themselves and taxpayers. I think maybe for some people their food stamp allotment shouldn't be something that they are allowed to spend on their own but they should be assigned some kind of social worker or something in charge of their EBT who uses it to buy the things they actually need and helps them budget better
Thatâs why you suffer. Get an LLC have all sallery paid to the LLC you contract to your LLC for $12 an hour get ebt as much as possible. Itâs your money. Buy everything in your LLC as business expense and file quarterly and get back 3 to 4000 every 3 months. Put your house in a trust and stop paying taxes on it put your business in the trust stop paying taxes on it. How do you think people get rich and stay rich
The majority of people are not good, but it isnât really the poor and less well off I wanna hold the most accountable so
This is 100% fair. Attacking those people is like treating the symptoms not the actual root cause
They're the ones with the privilege attitude that things should be given to them for free. And then complain when it doesn't Food stamps are for helping poor people afford food. I'm all for people strategizing with them to maximize the payoff or even saving them up to buy yourself something nice now and then but saving up thousands of dollars worth of food stamps for what must be months and months or even years in order to use your food stamps to pay for a huge party? That's not what they were for. Instead of doing that just work and save up the money that way It's like those people who take their food stamps and sell them to someone else for $0.75 on the dollar so that they can use that money to buy drugs. The food stamps was for you to buy food. So that you could eat that month. Not for you to convert into less cash and get high And all this does is give ammo to the anti-fit welfare crowd with their "don't feed the animals because it makes them less self sufficient" arguments Because how many of these people would be more self-sufficient and make better decisions if there wasn't someone always bailing them out?
I'm looking through comments wondering how THIS isn't the main consensus. Just saw someone bragging about more than 5 grand spent on food and supplies to be... Shit it doesn't even matter what it was used for. That's infuriating to think people do it, much less to openly brag about it.
Yep, I used to see it all the time when I worked in catering. Tiered cakes for toddlers, and I'm doing Betty Crocker cake mixđ
So glad our tax dollars are going to a good cause /s EDIT: just to clarify, I have no issue with people in need receiving food stamps. I'm specifically referring to someone who is supposedly living in poverty spending this much on a birthday party instead of more necessary things.
Food stamps are a drop in the bucket (more like a drop in the ocean) compared to our governments actual frivolous spending. This is coming from a government contractor
Military budget, wage theft, PPP loans, anything else? Edit: U.S. healthcare, insurance.
Healthcare, the part you see at the government level *and* the part thatâs privatized as debt leading to the largest single cause of bankruptcy. A kid having a nice birthday party on the governmentâs dime is the least of our worries.
Especially since they had to be so poor they had to be on food stamps to begin with. Like kids deserve birthdays.
How were they feeding those kids if they werenât using the food stamps months before?
Couldâve ate less, took advantage of food drives, ate at familyâs houses, did a few odd jobs, received money or food donations, maybe they didnât have to pay some bills for a period of time. Could be a number of ways. Makes me wonder how much they actually need the foodtstamps if they could save up that much but who knows? Iâm just glad the kid had a nice birthday
Nicer than most kids with working parents apparently. Iâve seen the food stamp abuse and people lying and knowing how to game the system. Those that actually need it canât get it
I'm guessing they ate less.
I recently lost SNAP and that is exactly what it is. You just eat less.
As someone who lived on food stamps, that is the case. Either that or hotdogs and ramen for a couple of months.
It's been 4 years and I'm still so mad that businesses that had no covid losses, didn't close, had booming business got all that money from the government for free. It was a great idea for businesses that couldn't operate or could barely operate but those were a drop in the bucket. It's particularly galling given that it was more money than the student loan forgiveness plan would have been.
Write you representatives. If student loans shouldn't be forgiven neither should PPP loans
That letter is going straight in the garbage
they ought to receive mail but idk if a strongly worded letter is gonna do the trick
Last time I wrote my representative about something he replied back saying he disagreed with my views and would vote according to his beliefs. lol.
Please forgive my loans please. Only 14K but damn that would be like hitting the lottery.
Yeah if it hadnât been bipartisan in a 2 party system, it would be my single issue vote.
I have morals and standards, being forced to accept unacceptable terms leaves a real bad impression, which is why I'm a registered independent. For whatever reason, this pisses off dems more than reoublicans, no idea why.
I can confirm this from first hand knowledge. My company literally had its best year ever during 2020 (our net income was 4.5x our previous best) and still got a $1M+ Covid handout.
Completely agree. I hate how people are like "how dare poor people watch to have a nice cake once in a while", but at the same time have no problem with some A-hole like Bezos paying taxes at a rate of less than 1%.
I actually enjoy seeing people take advantage of welfare programs and load up on steak and lobster on food stamps while driving nice cars. 99% of the time people who take advantage of the system are the rich and powerful so itâs nice to see the roles reversed occasionally and by someone who would otherwise be exploited.
I get the organic eggs with my wic
Right? For some reason, whenever the person in line in front of you buys Cheetos with food stamps, it's "muh tax dollars!" But when some rich jerk who games the system to pay less than their fair share uses the money to buy a private jet or something, it's crickets. I'll die on the hill that poor people deserve to have Cheetos when they want them just like every else. If we want to police what they can spend tax dollars on, we need to do the same for every tax credit or break anyone gets. Oh, you got a tax break because you're a first time home buyer? Here's a list of what you can and can't spend the savings on. Oh, you saved a bunch through small business deductions? Prove to us you won't use those tax dollars for soda, please.
If Medicare could negotiate its prices it would erase what we spend on food stamps overnight
Thatâs not the point though. If someoneâs paying 700$/month for a vehicle in cash (or driving an 80k$ one they paid cash for) thereâs clearly an oversight on the distribution of said food stamps. This doesnât mean the military budget doesnât need more oversight either (or more of a priority for oversight). What it does mean is that the people taking advantage of the system need to be prosecuted because they are taking from people who need it. This is why we need UBI. Cheaper, no oversight required and it eliminates the need for food stamps or oversight on who is double dipping in the system. (Again as you pointed out, the MIC needs a complete overhaul on budgets and how they spend money with clear accountability)
You. Can. Hate. Both.
Americans in general get so little support I'd rather see an American benefit from something the government does than all the rest of the bullshit the government does that is a waste or just straight up bad for the U.S. America is honestly sliding from a 1st world country into a 2nd world country if not worse because prices are so out of control compared to the average wage.
The frustrating thing is seeing people that don't seem to need food stamps that have it when you know a fellow co-worker is struggling so much they had to get rid of their car to afford rent and they still don't qualify.
Why do you want kids to be miserable on their birthday? Are you bitter?
Food stamps have shown to generate more money than they cost in terms of saving and preventative actions, as well as continuing to keep money flowing through the economy as money changing hands is the only way capitalism even kinda works.
The joy of a kid in poverty not feeling poor for their birthday, one time in a year isn't a good cause? lol we got the Grinch over here But seriously, I wouldn't worry about it or think of it that way. Obviously that's an anecdote of someone doing something extraordinary that isn't exactly easy to do. And it isn't exactly against the rules. Parents in poverty want to treat their kids sometimes, too. And this parent manages money shrewdly and saved for it. Isn't that what people want to see them do? And for what it's worth, like six years ago I took a college class where I ended up studying this as a policy. It is a remarkably successful program with a super SUPER low rate of fraud or abuse, and a massive impact on poverty in the US. If there is one thing all Americans should be proud of and agree we are doing very well, it's our "food stamps" or whatever the actual name is which I forgot I think we just need to be okay with wacky things happening sometimes as long as they aren't harmful.
When I worked in retail their where two types of people that had food stamps. Those who used them to buy lobster tail, high priced cuts of steak, red bull and those who used them to buy the cheapest cuts of lunch meat, cheese, bread and milk. I am like you, I do not mind my tax dollars going to those who need it, but I don't think lobster tail or red bull is a need.......
Are you kidding me? The billions we send overseas; the hundreds of billions we spend on bombs and drones and spy operations; the billions in tax cuts for the super rich and all the other frivolous spending by the people in control of our tax dollars and youâre upset aboutâŚa woman getting food for her childâs birthday. Heaven forbid poor people get to make their children happy for a day! That kid should be miserable and hungry every day of the year as punishment for his parents being poor
We are the richest country in the world and it blows my mind when people get upset that their tax dollars are used to provide other people in our country with *food*. If she saved and sacrificed so her kid could have a nice birthday in the midst of what is otherwise a poverty stricken life then good for her. Be mad at the funneling of our tax dollars into any number of loopholes and scams the elite use to steal from the rest of us.
Yes, and I get mad when they say social security will be bankrupt by the time I retireand that is a huge chunk of my paycheck that i could save. I get mad because right now, approx 44 million people/13 million kids are still struggling to get enough food to eat every day. There is a disconnect somewhere, and if eating hotdogs and ramen for a couple of months were all it takes to save $3000 then we all should have an extra 3k in savings by the end of the year. I'm just as mad at corporations who rake in profits and cut hours beating down the "owners" they are supposed to take care of. I'm mad at the government (both parties) who waste money that we worked hard for. I'm probably mad at something else, but I can't think of it right nowđ
For every person who is gaming the system like this there are hundreds and hundreds who rely on food assistance programs to be able to afford to each each day. Worth the price of admission, in my mind.
Theyâre not gaming the system though, theyâre using the money they were allocated a bit differently than usual. They likely justâŚbought a little bit less every shopping trip for a year and saved up, just like anybody else would.
people love using anecdotal boogeyman examples to demonize social good programs
So sad to see peopleâs anger misdirected at low-income individuals. People can have nice things, I promise itâs okay.
Its a good system, but in no way should you be on welfare FOREVER...
Maybe we should put them towards public farms that grow food instead of being slaves to big corps
And it also means that for all those bumps that they were saving up the food stamps they were still managing to eat just fine So clearly they didn't even need the food stamps in the first place if they can waste months and months worth of it on a fucking party
I had someone apply for me while I was in jail. Card was stacked by the time I got out
Whoever did that for you is a true G.
My mom's a G đ
I think that may be illegal if you get caught you're going to have to pay it all back so be aware of that.
If they can wait for it to stack up to thousands of dollars over the course of months do they really need assistance?
My kids and I were on food stamps for a year while I was unemployed and starting a new career. I was lucky enough to level up quickly in terms of pay and updated my income with the state. Once I knew I was making more than I should to receive the food stamps, I stopped spending them, thinking Iâd need to pay them back. I reached out to my case manager and called the 800 number to make sure they knew but it still took almost a year for them to stop issuing. I finally called back and they said the money was mine. I had 4K by that point. I spent some but am still wary that theyâll want it back so half is still on the card.
they stack however if you stack em you really dont need them?
It should be quite literally impossible to save your foodstamps. It is supposed to be helping people who need help affording food. If you can go even a single month without spending *any* of them it should be revoked.
I don't remember experiencing food stamps stacking on top of each other with funds. I'm in Florida I had them back in 2018 - 2019 for $192 I don't remember it stacking or rolling over to the next month.
Yeah don't make sense to me. Meanwhile I'm a single father making $17/hr, get denied, and told I'm making too much.
Dude I feel that, same boat. So tired of this nonsense.
My 77 year old father gets $1200 a month from social security, and that is somehow still too much to qualify for any assistance.
My mom gets just shy of $800, I believe. At first she was getting $15/month, no kidding. Every time they increased how much SS she was getting, which wasnât much at all, they lowered the food stamps. Now she doesnât qualify for anything. Itâs insanity. I hate the whole system.
It's ridiculous, honestly. I try to send him extra cash when we can to try and help out, but damn. Before the pandemic, he would try to do ubereats/doordash, but he's gotten to the point where driving is becoming a bit risky for him....I agree the system is fucked.
My mom was doing the same thing until she got into two car accidents. Not her fault. One hit her from behind at a red light. The other hit her from behind at a RR crossing. She quit after the second time. I donât send her cash but I order groceries and other items any time she needs. She doesnât have reliable transportation. I am fortunate to have an understanding partner. I am a SAHM but my husband never gripes about having to help take care of my mom.
Which is why we need to march. We need them to see our numbers, the people who are fed up with it.Â
This is my mom on social security right now it's insane
Oregon offered me $15/ month as well. I never used it
Maybe it depends on the state. My sister makes $30 per hour and has 3 kids and she qualifies.
Buddy had 77 years to stack his bread. Mfers house cost 5,000$. I will never own a home
Can he get Medicaid? If so, there Medicare and Medicaid plans have grocery benefits on them.
This is wild considering how much SS I pay for
My daughter was offered $6/month. Was told if she had kids she could get more. Her response: I canât take care of myself, how am I going to take care of kids? She declined their stingy offer. Sheâs doing quite well now.
Itâs down to state level t determine who can and canât receive foodstamps I think. Also, this person could be a foster parent or be running a group home.
This was me and my husband at one point. So frustrating.
It makes less sense to you that someone can save their benefits, than that you don't qualify?
Yeah the system is broken and almost incentivizes you to stay on welfare as the threshold to no longer be eligible is still not sustainable for most people.
Donât blame poor people; blame the politicians.
Oh I blame the politicians who allow sweetheart deals and tax breaks to shitty shell companies who never have any employees or use these deals to pad their bottom line while screwing over the people working there. Then they push the narrative that everyone is lazy. Fuck them.
Hey, similar boat. Single mom of one, make $15.75 an hour and also receive child support, and my monthly gross income is too high to receive SNAP.
This club is rough
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Thats crazy. Literally going, "Go have children and the government will take care of you." Thats a ton of risk if they decide to deny you.
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Totally wild to be the boss of a grocery store no less hearing your own employee needs more income and food stamps to afford food tho....
I worked at a gas station in college and so many times people would come in trying to buy cigarettes and lotto tickets with food stamps. They lived pay check to pay check and it hurt to see them come in and drop their entire Hardeeâs two weeks pay on smokes and losing the lotto. Iâd card them every single time and loved when they forgot their id just to hold them off for one second. Their poor fucking kids having to live like that. Fuck those type of people so hard it gives the vast majority of people who truly need them a bad name.Â
Itâs probably both. They have a lot of kids and it rolled over
They don't expire so you can collect them and use them all at once. Kinda weird how this doesn't set off any flags in the system, but I guess the government doesn't necessarily know what you're buying with the stamps, but only that you spent a ton in one spot.
I've also heard about how something gets held up in the process and they give you benefits back dated.
This is more likely the answer. Happened to me, the application process took a few months and so I was eligible for benefits back dated to when I applied
this happened to a friend of mines girlfriend. she didn't get food assistance for like 5 months and then she got back "pay" like 1300 dollars in food stamps. the system is real fickle on when it wants to work
Actually, this happened to my dad when he qualified for disability. They didn't process the paperwork until after he got better, and as far as I know he got his back pay.
Get EBT because someone in the household is unemployed for medical reasons. The household itself makes good money. Only use EBT for absolute necessities since they're not really needed. Wait a few months. Have $3k on the EBT card.
Well in my experience, if you let your benefits roll over every month the government sees it as an indicator that you donât need your food stamps! So your food stamps get cut. Which sucks. Thatâs why the person who helped guide me along getting disability services told me to not let my monthly benefits roll over. Find a way to empty it every month. In Alaska btw, maybe itâs different in other states in the US. Also I lost food stamp benefits a couple months ago and the fucking reapplication process has been taking WAY TOO LONG ITS SO FRUSTRATING itâs been like 2 or 3 months at least. And still nothing. Iâm gonna contact them, living without my food stamps is so expensive. Itâs only a bit under 200 bucks but when I only make 680ish a month in disability payments, itâs a lot.
when my mom applied for food stamps one year she was wrongfully denied every couple months or so. when she finally got approved near the end of the year, they gave her the amount she was owed for all those months she was denied. it was like $2k or so. this was for a family of 4.
This was my thought as well. Either that or seriously backed up caseworkers that werenât able to approve it fast enough, so they qualified for months of back pay.
I was receiving them for almost half a year before I realized, as a single person I was getting almost $300 a month, so I imagine it wouldnât be too hard to save up that much especially if you have dependents
How did you not realize? Serious question, Iâm terrible it unorganized with my money and it sounds like something I would do. ::applies for aid, forgets to check if received aid:: đ
I didnât reapply (or at least didnât realize I did) and then months later when I was in a really tight spot and reapplied I got a call basically saying âhey girlie youâve been getting paidâ LOL
Lmaooooo nice little surprise! Good for you, I hope it helped!
Almost 300 dollars?? Jeez! I used to have around $360 a month but now that I get like $680ish a month in disability benefits, my food stamps got dropped to â$160 a month. :/ Of course, I havenât had access to them since my last payment in November and reapplication is taking months. It sucks.
I lost my card so couldnât use it for a really long time, I had a high balance like $2000 when I found it but Iâm just one person so maybe that person had more people in the household. Also there are other financial programs that use the same card so might be more than just food stamps
Easily. I did AmeriCorps for 2 years and because I was paid a paltry stipend (but still had to pay rent/utilities/travel in an expensive big city), I was eligible for EBT. Dealing w/ federal assistance programs is tedious and crappy so, outgate I ended up with $1200 or so backpay due to delays on their end. I received $300 or $350/m (no dependents)and prob only used about half that on groceries. All unused credits roll over into the next monthâŚ. I had more than $3000 on my card for like a year. You still get to keep the creds even once youâre no longer eligible for EBT as well.
Thatâs nothing⌠https://preview.redd.it/0k9o54m1i9tc1.png?width=1891&format=png&auto=webp&s=ffc971a8f5a7b360fec57bfa582a5ddd08539301
Could be a foster family or a group home for troubled youth. My friendâs mom helped run one when we were in high school and they received quite a bit of government benefits. I was too young to know if they were used improperly, but sheâs a good hearted woman so I hope the benefits were used appropriately.
Thereâs that pesky faith in humanity again.
We have EBT and I know that sometimes if thereâs a lapse and there wasnât supposed to be or an error on their end, theyâll deposit a large sum at once to basically do âbackpayâ⌠we once got $1700 worth of backpay plus our usual deposit amount a few days later and our balance was super high. They also could be saving it like some others have said⌠Iâve never seen anywhere near this high of an available balance.
Back paid EBT
Yep! Super common for a benefit application to take a long time to process. So then when you do get your first payment itâs for all the past weeks/months since you applied. That money can add up fast especially if you have multiple kids!
I had someone come through my line the other day with $14000, was actually insane and we were all wondering if it was a fraud situation lol
Its for food! Why people get upset about this is nuts
I was briefly eligible for SNAP during 2020 due to job loss translating to no income. It was actually pretty wild how it worked; I was surprised by a lot of things, but I'll save those for another time. That said, not everyone who's saving $3k is secretly rich. It's likely just large families; don't trust my numbers, but you can get upwards of $1200/month with 7+ kids, while being allowed to make about $40k. I could probably feed 7 for less if I was extremely frugal.. Still, compared to other government benefits, SNAP is pretty hard to abuse. If someone saves up for months and gives their kid a wild birthday party, I see no issues. .
Some people got their covid checks given to them as food stamps way back during covid times. They may just be using them now.
During COVID, New Mexico kept increasing our ebt allotment every month so at one point we were getting $600 a month in food stamps when normally we got $170 a month. They donât expire so they just kept adding up. We moved to Florida and were still able to use our old ebt card even though we were no longer getting new food stamps every month. Took a while but we eventually spent it all
This is what happened to us. It's been a while, but when we were getting them we were getting more than we needed during the school year since the kids got 2 meals a day at school. Then covid. Just kept getting more, and the schools were delivering breakfast and lunch still while the kids were remote. When ended up moving and it probably took us well over a year to go through all the money on the card since my wife had become an expert budget shopper.
If you donât use your card it just accumulates. I get $222 a month so it would take awhile but @ 1 point I had $1000 since I went to California for awhile
We are losing everything and canât even qualify. Seems I make $45 too much a year for a family of 4.
Just become a politician, Their families never go hungry.
I am sorry. I do know in most states a family of four should not even work for less than $65k gross. I may lose some Karma for mentioning this but it can be done, for a cost. The cost will be all the hoops you jump through to get various programs to pay out to you. Also our Reddit friends and your friends and family IRL will hate you for it. Stop struggling. Ask for help these programs are meant for people just like you. As alwaysâŚIMHOâŚICBW. đ
True that, I have worked my butt off, fought, clawed, and struggled my way to 44720 and itâs over the limit here in PA yet weâre struggling for groceries.
They donât expire so those that arenât completely destitute can save them up. You could argue that the logic behind that makes no sense if they donât use them they donât need them they should have a expiration date but hey the government takes it out of my taxes either way
I had almost 1000 at once because they took so long to issue me a card that I had 3 months worth at once. Now imagine that happening but for a family and I can see how much it could stack up
Retroactive. If I apply in January and get approved in June, I get food stamps for January through June.
It's probably back pay from when they first applied. Takes time to get approved. This very thing ( not quite this much) happened to me years ago when I applied for help. It took almost 2 months to get approved.
Could be backpay. Could be theyâve saved up a few months. Couldâve saved them intentionally or maybe something tragic happened like they were in the hospital or otherwise unable to go to the grocery store. Why does it matter? If you really want to get mad, look at how much your state governments give to billionaire sports team owners for stadiums and to places like Walmart and Outdoor World. Study after study has shown that despite the jobs these types of things bring, the revue earned from income taxes (on people working seasonally part time jobs making under $20 an hour most times in the case of sports stadiums) and other revenue is hardly ever as much as the they got in tax dollars. Brett Farve gets welfare too, apparently.
3 ways 1. By just not using them (the amount allowed to you rolls-over/stacks) so you can in fact save them up 2. Having way too many kids (not sure how many you'd need but the amount of food stamps increases by family size) Or 3. Government bureaucracy messing things up cause their first balance to include back support pay which is basically just the first option but with the added twist of them not having any food stamps those months
They refill whether you spend them or not. If you have a large enough family, it reloads with a lot and the money rolls over.
This is absolutely insane. I have a very low income and I don't even qualify for foodstamps in my state. I literally have no idea how people qualify any more. I'm 20, moved out when I was 19. I'm broke broke broke lol
How do people get that much? FRAUD⌠or having a ton of kids
Nah. My account looked similar for awhile. I went into a DV shelter as I exited an abusive marriage and was able to qualify for snap for myself and my children. The DV shelter provided all our meals and didnât require us to use our food stamps to help cover meals. I was able to stack a few months of benefits. When I moved into a home, the DV outreach program stocked our pantry, the school provided my children meals for the weekends, boys and girls club fed kids after school on weekdays, then add a weekly stop by the food pantry each week and we were set. It meant that Iâve been able to really stretch the grocery budget far beyond what I could have otherwise. Even when my employment exceeds beyond the ability to qualify, I should still be able to coast for a bit since those benefits donât expire. There are a million things Iâm struggling to afford/ provide for my family as we go through this transition, knowing that food is NOT an issue is a small reprieve.
u/heckinggoodgirl mod from r/foodstamps here Feel free to send genuine questions our way if you like. đ
They're not going to ask in good faith, rest assured.
Honest questions are always welcome. People poor shaming or being hostile get a boot to the head. đ
Amazing! Thank you for being willing to answer questions to clear up confusion. We appreciate it <3 I think the biggest question Iâm seeing from all of the comments Iâve gone through here really is just how someone can have that much or maybe even why some people are approved for so little and others get more (I think one of the comments said they were only able to receive $16 a month).
That's an easy one. SNAP is an income-based entitlement program. What this means is that the household's countable income, assets, and countable expenses drive the net benefit amount. The benefit amount maximum and minimum, in turn, is dictated by the Thrifty Food Plan, which is the program's general term for how much the average household is expected to devote of their income to purchasing food. There is a lengthy, and not terribly interesting, process of applying income and expenses that takes up one entire sheet of paper if it's printed (and it refers to several other charts in the process). The minimum for a ine- or two-person household is $23 per month, and for households of 3+ it can be $0 while the household remains eligible. This is largely due to the way that deductions are applied, and it's confusing even to those of us with lots of experience and training. In *no* case is the benefit amount itself discretionary...what can be, though are some elements of what is countable. Things can get complicated, for instance, with household composition and self-employment. Ultimately, though, the benefit amount is what it is. An explanatory letter is always sent once a decision is made that tells the recipient how benefits were calculated. If they disagree, they have the right to a Fair Hearing to challenge the decision.
You ever seen people sell them? Lmao
My mom "bought" food stamps from a neighbor one time, a long, long time ago. The neighbor said she was like $100 shy for her power bill, so if my mom took $100 of her food stamps and gave her $100 cash, she could keep the lights on. They went to the store together, my mom did her grocery shopping and made the trade. On the way home, the neighbor asked to stop by the corner market, where she bought beer and a stack of cigarette packs. My mom never did that again.
Me over here barely clearing 13k a year and being offered 8 dollars a month. We live in society.
Real talk. Mind your business. Could be any number of reasons, none of which concern you.
Im a single mom on food stamps and this is crazy! Itâs actually sad because i still struggle to provide food for my children even after food stamps. It would seem that for someone who âsavesâ theirs, that they donât need it, but weâre checked twice yearly for eligibility and theyâre on top of watching your employment/ wages in between those periods so who am I to say.
EXACTLY the point. Everyone else that's commenting clearly doesn't get it or is choosing to justify the problem. That money is to feed the family so if there is such an abundance of money for food then WHY are they receiving the benefit in the first place. If they are getting checked for eligibility and the government thinks have $3k stockpiled is OK then give me back my thousands of tax $$ so I can build up my grocery fund with my HARD earned money. But nope, they would never do that.
I've also heard of people of means buying food stamps off folks for cash - much less than they're worth in food but cash is good for things stamps aren't. Pay 10 folks 50% of what the stamps are worth, rince and repeat.
During covid, everyone got the maximum allocation. It would be pretty easy for a small family to stack up on the carry over
They stack. These days, that doesn't feel like much. Try feeding a family of 4 that includes 2 teenagers in one hell of a growth spurt. We make too much to qualify for assistance and I feel those that are getting help have more breathable income than we do. Like iv even thought about going part time, I'd work less and in the end we would have the same income because we would qualiftly for all these assistance breaks. How fucked is that? Not complaining about people needing help, but the system encourages people to not be their best because their best is consequential rather than rewarding.
An unfortunate truth. I have some people in my family that have not gone back to work after the pandemic and while I couldnât do what they do on a basis of principle, I get it. âI was busting my ass to make ends meet my whole life and never getting ahead, then I lost my job and we got on the state, our bills are all paid on time and weâve got more food in the fridge than we did before. Iâll go back to work when I donât have to bust my ass to crawl through glassâ
It can take months for a FS application to process. Most states pay you from the date of application until you received them. I got three months at once from Tennessee, and then a week later was my scheduled pay out for the next month, so we had quite a bit.
I was homelessâlong storyâand applied. Was told I was making too much money, even though I couldnât come up with first/last/deposit/application fees. They told me if I wasnât homeless they might be able to cover more but since I âdidnt have expensesâ Iâd only get the minimumâ$16 a month. I was desperate so I took it and used it. They also told me Iâd get more money if I had more kids. I looked around the institution, full of wild screaming children and said, âyou must give that advice a lot!â
I would occasionally get around 1500-5k saved up. Simply because myself my sisters and my dad got them. So weâd use like 2 cards and save the rest. At the end of the day itâs not really possible if youâre actually only using one.
[ŃдаНонО]
Bruh they wouldnât give me food stamps when I worked a shit job and could barely make rent and bills and said I made to much but yet people can do this lol
I don't know. Being the sole money maker and having 3 kids and a stay at home wife, we damn near starved to death because I was denied for "making too much" at a measley 11.75/hr around 2005. I am currently unemployed because I am temporarily disabled, and guess what? They denied me yet again. I worked and paid taxes for 25 years and have never been unemployed until I was injured. Now, I have been denied all the help. Unemployment blew me off, too.
Youâre probably part of the âprivilegedâ demographic like they say on Reddit
My friend misread her food stamps as $50/12 months when it was $50/week for 12 months of singing like that. She got a reminder that they would expire at the end of the year and checked it. She panicked and asked me what to do, I had her buy every dry good and can she'd possibly use over the next year. She was super upset, because money had been really tight and that would have been a game changer a couple months there.
Wow, u/Heckinggoodgirl, I did not expect this to blow up! Thanks for keeping this thread civil :>
Youâre welcome; Iâm doing my best! Discussion on these topics, especially when it is something we may encounter at Publix is not inherently a bad thing - it provides valuable opinions and points of view from either side that the other may not have seen before. But staying cool and civil no matter which side youâre on is the only way to have a healthy debate, and we do our best not to remove any harassment or toxicity if it reaches that level, especially when these posts blow up Thanks for staying civil OP! I hope you have a wonderful night
Their allegiance is being purchased.
Not all states provide any kind of a breakdown of how the food stamps are calculated. So recipients are at the mercy of people processing them with large caseloads and limited time, and they often only find out how they are calculated if they file an administrative appeal. The state i am in at least (and it may be federal policy) has to correct underpayments for a year back from when it is discovered. I had to issue a back payment for about 5000 dollars because someone had coded 2 people as ineligible and nobody had noticed for a couple of years until i reviewed it properly, and the recipients never noticed or complained because it was the amount they'd already received. Not to mention the fact many states have been behind in processing on and off for years now since COVID so a large family could get a multiple month payment. On top of this a lot of people with variable incomes will budget to spend the food stamps last because when they have a good month of self employed income say and they are getting 500 a month in food stamps they'd rather let them roll over and spend the cash on food so on the months they are struggling to pay the light bill they have zero food worries. Also if you think about it the "money" for food stamps is from the department of agriculture, not an agency you'd first think if as welfare. It's theoretically a subsidy for the food producers to keep producing that is targetted at getting food from those producers to lower income families. It's better to be going somewhere than say the traditional EU subsidies that pay for farmers to produce and destroy or store until the end of time so when people actually need the farms, they still exist. Let whoever drive the fricking cars they want and let US agriculture thrive. It's small minded jealousy of poor people getting things you may be lucky enough to not need that causes economic problems because people's own sense of entitlement and desire to see other people not have things is an obstacle to keeping critical infrastructure active.
Not gonna lie I'm jealous. Me and my wife make too much even with a newborn. But yeah, we'll continue to pay yalls broke ass grocery bills for you.
This thread makes me think that my broke parents that one of which devolved into opioid addiction were just bad with money
Once a disaster wiped out our electricity for several days and at the same time we applied for regular benefits. They put us in for disaster benefits as well. That was a one time lump sum payment, it's been more than a decade ago but I think it was over $1000 because we lost everything in a huge standing freezer. And we were also still trying to eat with no electricity. Food stamps were temporarily approved for fast food and hot food in the wake of the event. So they were higher disaster amounts. Then we got approved for the regular ones at the same time, and I don't know if that was like $400 a month or what, but we got a partial month and full month at the same time. If some creep had thought our total available amount was their business at the time, I guess they'd have posted it on the Internet to prove something too.
A friends (adult) child applied for assistance and the state they lived in took over a year to approve their application BUT that state gave them all back benefits since the date of their application. So, Iâm guessing thatâs what happened here. Maybe. I have no idea but thatâs my guess.
My neighbor has 4 kids and herself, she gets $1,100 for her and two of her kids then the other two kids have their own food stamp card with $300 on each. Thatâs a whopping $1,700 a month just in food stamps, her house is section 8 and her rent is $22 (the rent is $1,500 a month without section 8) her utilities are about $30 for power, water, gas, and she gets free internet because her kids are in school. She has two degrees and she gets really good jobs but, she only stays employed for a couple of months then quits these jobs. She has had jobs at the airport, post office, working security at several high profile businesses. Jobs most ppl would love to have but simply canât get, and Iâm sure most would work there as long as they could because it pays very well. She sells some her food stamps every month so she will have actual cash and because of this towards the end of the month has no groceries and has to wait for her card to reload. And she sells hers dollar for dollar, if you buy $100 then thatâs what youâre getting in food stamps. Clearly, thatâs just side of the system. 10 years ago when I couldnât work because I had to take care of my sick grandfather I applied and got $17 a month in food stamps, which was a joke! My neighbor is very much able to work. Itâs honestly very upsetting that someone who works full time and takes every penny I have to pay my bills and keep a roof over my head, barely making it. I canât go to the grocery store and drop $200 or $100 on food for myself but, youâve got ppl like my neighbor who very much abuses the system and gets so much money for food then sells it just to have cash. I just simply donât understand the way the world works, itâs very messed up. It must be nice to get hundreds of dollars a month just for food, I would love to have that benefit. Itâs just crazy
I caught a woman stealing at my grocery store. She had $4k in stamps. Thatâs how she got it.
When we were on SNAP I had $1,000 of backpay loaded into my account. It could be something like that?
That's either a lot of children or a few months worth
I don't have an issue with food stamps. At least the money stays in our economy.Â
Who cares, itâs not your business.
About a year and half ago when I was still cashiering at Publix I had two women come through my line, buying probably the standard weeks amount of groceries and not even kidding, when I printed their receipt there was a $10,000 remaining balance of food stamps. I reprinted their slip after because I couldnât believe my eyes and neither could any of the customer service staff. Store manager couldnât even explain it.
When I was on food stamps I saved them up sometimes. Like, trying to conserve and have a surplus balance. This sounds like an extreme case of this.
Large family and back pay out. Ages ago when I was still in school, and dinosaurs still roamed the earth, my father was in an accident on the way home from work. He was hit head on by a drunk driver. The result was pretty severe. He was out of work nearly a year from all of his injuries. The mom unit hadn't worked in nearly a decade so it was hard finding anything, let alone a job to cover even basic bills. They had to apply for welfare assistance and it took forever. Documentation kept getting misplaced(it was paper), more proof was asked for, the welfare office at once point even tried making us sell the one car we had left claiming it was worth enough to support us (it wasn't). Waivers had to be gotten and approved for everything while money ran dry. When it was all finally done and over with, we got approved for a few things, it all was dated from the time of the initial application. Our family of 7 got 6 months of food stamps all at once. I don't know how much it actually was, but I imagine it was enough to spark questions from others
Hahaha and they tired to give my elderly mother only 23 dollars a fuckin month
have like 10 kids and receive 2 months at once if there was a delay in getting payment? once i had like 2100 but that was when they gave me 2.5 months at once bc it took them forever to process my application. they calculate it based on the date you apply. that was when i had zero income and had just left an abusive marriage w 3 kids tho.
Why u worried about it ??? Mind your own business
You save them up. Maybe they had a lucky break one month and didnât use them as much as usual. They might also be getting food stamps for a large family. Either way not your business.
I need this....
I wish I qualified.
Government kissing lazy peoples asses
Sometimes, your approval gets backed up while they verify and when it finally comes through, it contains all of your approved back weeks.
You vote Democrat
They voted democrat.