As Republicans in Jefferson City and Washington push hard for strict work requirements for adults on SNAP (aka food stamps), remember “work” remains just a buzz word.
The true goal: punish the poor.
Never forget that many of those you meet every day – the cashier at the grocery store or gas station, the person cutting the grass, the restaurant manager – need and get food stamps.
I always come back to a man we helped at Circle Of Concern every month for the 17 years I headed the place. He worked at a pizza joint, rising to become the senior assistant manager. While he worked full time he stayed trapped in poverty due to a wife and daughter with major, well, shortcomings. He did his best. And, when his disabled nephew needed a place to live he gave him a home. His paycheck and his nephew’s SSI check left them hundreds of dollars below the poverty line.
This week punishment efforts aimed at working folks like him are thriving in Jefferson City. Next week the House of Representatives in Washington will debate the national scheme to hurt struggling families.
Remember, most adults in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program who can work do work [ https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/most-working-age-snap-participants-work-but-often-in-unstable-jobs ]. Many get stuck in seasonal jobs or simply earn too little to escape poverty. A family of three, for example, needs an adult working 40 hours per week earning more than $12.99 per hour to rise above the income limit for food stamp eligibility. Despite what Missouri Department of Social Service bureaucrats and far-right think tanks claim, forcing adults to work 20 hours per week never leads to self-sufficiency: work requirements merely increase the number of working poor.
Work requirement schemes lay-out landmines and razor wire fences for the poor to navigate, the creators knowing that a certain percentage of ardent, hard working people will fail to complete the course.
How does that happen that someone working as required fails?
❶ No way to complete proper reporting. Both the federal and state proposals require timely reporting of hours and wages. In Missouri that would be through the DSS Call Center “system” where – if a caller gets into the electronic waiting room – on average it takes better than 20 minutes to get to a human being. DSS officials claimed last week that “85%” of calls already deal with food stamps. Add tens of thousands of additional calls a week and a creaky bridge collapses in to the river. Paper reports are no more reliable. Confidential critical documents get lost everyday.
❷ Unrealistic rules. For one, most people get to work when the boss lets them work. That means if the boss only lets someone work 18 hours one week, well, the worker did nothing wrong but would then face a two month, six month or two year loss of stamps for failing to get in the required 20 hours. Also, jobs with many employers – such as school districts – have no chance of meeting the ‘every week’ rule.
❸ Life happens. A child gets sick. A car dies. Low-wage workers live on the knife’s edge. An inconvenience to a middle-class worker can devastate an hourly person dependent on food stamps.
❹ The boss fails to cooperate. Many workers get paid bi-weekly or such. Periodically, the system will require that workers get verification that 40+ hours on paychecks really means 20 or more very week. What if a fast food manager refuses to sign forms for 25 workers? Answer: they lose.
You get the idea.
Reality shows through in the numbers buried deep in these proposals. In Missouri, as part of House Bill 1486 (the core work bill this year), the Fiscal Note quotes the Department of Social Services as predicting that 42,507 citizens [ https://www.house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills181/fiscal/fispdf/5211-01N.ORG.pdf ] would lose benefits. Based on current benefit levels, that “saves” $5.1 million a month or better than $61 million per year [ https://dss.mo.gov/re/pdf/fsd_mhdmr/1803-family-support-mohealthnet-report.pdf ].
Estimates on the savings at the national level vary but they all point to millions of people losing billions in food funds.
Simply put, saving money by depriving Americans of food for their tables means punishing people for being poor.
As a state and a nation we’re better than that.
Here’s what you can do:
First, remind your state senator and state representative that House Bill 1443 – the current work requirement bill – is unnecessary and punitive. (If you don’t know who are your state officials, call the League of Women Voters at 314/961-6869.)
Second, contact your member of Congress and let them know that while work is good and rightly should be encouraged, using work requirements to punish the poor is wrong.
Please reach out as soon as possible.
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member