Could you live of $21 a week?

[metta 0]

Thanks for posting the article metta! Very interesting!

You're welcome Tanja and Congratulations on receiving your ten year card!

[tweety 1]

Thanks for posting the article metta! Very interesting!

You're welcome Tanja and Congratulations on receiving your ten year card!

uhm, wish i had the card already.... won't happen any time soon I guess, TSC is slow

[cartaverde 12]

Before I got first pay check in my last job, I survived the past 2 weeks before that with 23 euros in Ireland .. well 23 euros to use for food and everything else. Not much fun ..

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

USDA website- Characteristics of Food Stamp Households 2005

Most food stamp recipients were children or elderly. Half (50 percent) were children and another 8 percent were age 60 or older.

Working age women represented 28 percent of the caseload, while working-age men represented 13 percent.

Many food stamp recipients worked. Nearly three out of ten (29 percent) food stamphouseholds had earnings in 2005, and four out of ten (40 percent) participants lived in a household with earnings. For these households, earnings were the primary source of income.

The majority of food stamp households did not receive cash welfare benefits. Only 15 percent of all food stamp households received TANF benefits. Twenty-seven percent received Supplemental Security Income. Almost one quarter (23 percent) received Social Security benefits.

Food stamp households had little income. Less than 12 percent had incomes above the poverty line, while 40 percent had incomes at or below half the poverty line. Fourteen percent had no cash income of any kind. The typical food stamp household had gross income of $648 per month. Nearly one-fourth of monthly funds (cash income plus food stamps) available to a typical household

came from food stamps. The average food stamp household received a monthly benefit of $209. Nearly one-third (31 percent) received the maximum benefit ($499 for a family of four). Only 5 percent received the minimum benefit of $10; most (89 percent) of these households contained elderly or disabled members.

Food stamp households possessed few resources. The average food stamp household possessed only about $137 in countable resources (including the non-excluded portion of vehicles and the entire value of checking and savings accounts and other savings). Over two-thirds (70 percent) had no countable resources.

Most food stamp households were small. The average food stamp household size was 2.3, but varied considerably by household composition.

Households with children were relatively large, averaging 3.3 members. Households with elderly were smaller, with an average of 1.3 members.

More than anything, don't these stats show how easy it is to scam some funds away from Uncle Sam? Please don't tell me that you haven't stood in line in the grocery store behind folks with $50.00 nail jobs and $200.00 hair-do's that paid with food stamps for their groceries while there was cash on hand for cigs and booze. In the parking lot you saw those folks loading the goods into a shiny set of wheels. You haven't been there? I have. One too many times.

Ever wondered about those Lexus' and Chevy's with 15K rims in the projects and in subsidized housing complexes? How do you think those folks pay for their groceries?

There's way too much abuse on those programs. Period. The stats won't tell you that other side of the story.