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Poverty in our nation
Brief summary on poverty in America
Brief summary on poverty in America
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Poverty is a state in which one lacks the financial resources to live a stable way of life that is acceptable in society. The purpose of the living on SNAP experiment is to put our self into another person’s shoes who uses food stamps. Also the purpose of this experiment is to understand the pros and cons of a government designed program such as SNAP and how it helps provide basic resource needs to the many of Americans living in poverty.
While creating my hypothetical family I did not want to have the average American family that consist of a mother, father and multiple children. Instead, I decided to have a single mother, 33 years of age and her daughter 15 years of age. The main income source for the family comes from the mother who makes an average of one thousand four hundred and fifty dollars a month. The last source of income is from child support of the daughter which is one hundred and fifty three dollars. The two bedroom apartment the family lives in is five hundred and forty dollars, the utilities bill is one hundred and nineteen dollar and the monthly car payment and insurance is three hundred and seventy dollars. The grand total of expenses is one thousand one hundred and twenty nine dollars which only leaves four hundred and seventy four dollars for emergencies or situations that may arise.
The monthly allotment my hypothetical family receives from SNAP is $210. In order to find my family monthly allotment I went to the USDA website to first see if my family was eligible for food stamps. The monthly incoming income of my family is $1,603. The second step was to subtract twenty percent of the earned income which resulted in the total $1,282. Then I subtracted the previous total from $152 which is the standard dedu...
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...onthly allotment and have more than four people in their family then Food Stamps will not benefit them as much as it would a family of two. Especially, if there is only one person in the family who is supporting the family and the other members are dependent of that individual.
The most important thing that I learned from this experiment is that living in poverty is hard. The money they make from their job does not support themselves and their family members as well as they would want to so they have to seek government assistance. The government assistance programs provide some help towards buying food but only if you meet a certain net income. But for the people who do not meet the net income because their monthly income is too high even if it is just a couple of dollars higher than the target net income they are not able to receive Food Stamps which is very sad.
Food Stamp is a government-funded program in the United States. This is a program that helps people buy food for their families; in other words, it is a very important program to families living in poverty. It is the nation’s most important program in the fight against hunger. This program was developed in the 1960’s; it is made to improve the nutrition level and food purchasing power of people with low-income. This program is offered to people who cannot afford to buy groceries for their families, regardless of age, color, sex or religion. Food Stamps can only be used to buy food items not hygiene or household items, and it’s offered only on a monthly basis.
With more and more people becoming unemployed and applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is imperative that we understand the benefits as well as problems this causes. Even while researching this topic and talking to some of my family and friends about it, it surprised me the amount of those who do not understand food stamps. Coming from the SNAP website, “Food stamps offer nutritional assistance to millions of eligible low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities” (United States). This program helps millions of people per year and gives upwards of $75 billion and rising. With the prices of food increasing due to inflation, beneficiaries are receiving around $400 at most per month. Using the Electronic benefit transfer systems (EBT), beneficiaries can buy goods from a grocery store using a credit-card like transaction, which takes the money off of their card. The benefits are received monthly on a specific date and vary in amounts from person to person. One family may receive $300 per month because they have three kids and need the extra money, while another may receive $100 or less depending on financial status. The application process includes completing and filing an application form, being interviewed, and verifying facts crucial to determining eligibility. In the past, these applications did not require a drug screening to get benefits, but more and more states are adopting this. There are many drawbacks to SNAP as well such as taking money from working people’s paychecks every week and people abusing the system. Talking about a very opinionated subject, we must remove bias and answer whether or not the Food Stamp system should be limited.
My name is Monica Pope; I am 20 years old and I am a sophomore at Texas State University and I am apart of the SNAP program otherwise known as Food Stamps. According to the USDA “SNAP offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible, low income individuals and families and provides benefits to communities” (2015). I get a set amount of money for food every month. Right now, I receive $200 every month and I have to make the food that I buy last me the entire month. I have truly learned that I only get what need for that month and nothing more. (Question 1)
“In most cases these are not parents who are homeless or out of work.” Here she states that parents are embarrassed sometimes about not for not feeding their kids in the summer.These are parents who works minimum wages jobs and still can’t afford food for their children.Some people are not eligible for food stamps because the money they make.The money they make still isn’t enough to help take care of meals.
The House made the eligibility of purchase with food stamps of all items intended for human utilization except for alcoholic beverages. The government made a ban against discrimination of those who can and cannot receive food stamps on a basis of race, religious belief, ethnicity, or political belief. Lastly, for the second year of the Food Stamp Act being active, the government granted the funding to 100 million USD and then third year to 200 million. Today, that number has obviously increased into the billions due to the population growing but the also the poverty rate growing as
Monthly Budget Worksheet: (Due 1/9/18) List any income you receive, SSI Wages etc. send us a recent copy of all your family’s income and again when it changes.
According to the American Psychological Association, “In 2010, the poverty threshold, or poverty line, was 22,314 dollars for a family of four” (2). People living in poverty may be forced to depend on public assistance programs such as food stamps, or more formally known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. On the exterior, this program seems to benefit hungry families, but in all actually it is actually facilitating their obesity. The formerly mentioned family of four would be qualified to receive a maximum of 688 dollars a month in food stamps (North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services). That equates to just over 170 dollars a week or 40 dollars per family member. A paltry amount such as this forces families to make difficult decisions regarding the amount and type of food they provide their family.
Because of this stigma is the reason for which Congress enacted changes in the program; for example the transformation of how the benefits were distributed. Back then they were colored paper food stamp coupons that were used in equivalence to cash but obviously with regulations as to what you were allowed to purchase with them. Now benefits are allotted into a debit like card called an EBT card that allows recipients to not be embarrassed due to the branding of being on welfare is one of the many reasons for changes. In addition, media outlets that are considered more conservative convey the message of food stamps as a program that is highly abused. The media is quick to report on individuals who misuse the system and how the crackdown of fraud can save millions of dollars. Although, there is a problem with the few individuals that exploit the program, the facts are that the potential savings is relatively low. Across the spectrum of coverage in the past decades it has relatively given welfare a negative connotation and has been racially biased. “Based on content analyses of news coverage of welfare, several scholars have made the forceful argument that the news media tends to “racialize” welfare policy by disproportionately using images of African Americans to accompany news stories on poverty. Not only are welfare recipients more
Finally, food stamps are unable to be used everywhere. This causes a problem for those who don't have reliable transportation in order to get to the nearest place that do accept food stamps. To emphasize Rohini Mohan also talks about this in his article; Rohini Mohan says, “Secondly recipients are forced to travel much farther from their homes so as such to reach a vendor who does accept food stamps and has everything necessary under one roof.” Additionally this causes another issue for recipients to face. They now have to find a way to the grocery store or mini market to get foods and they are unable to maybe travel to a place that is nearer that serves hot foods to eat for temporary source of foods until they are able to get that transportation needed to get to the grocery store. On the whole te, the food stamp program is supposed to help reduce hunger and help the citizens that's in need and struggling to make ends meet but causes issues for people who are receiving them or help with one problem and doesn't help with another still resulting them in need and struggling.
SNAP provides in-kind monthly benefits for nutrition assistance to low income households. SNAP continues to be the nation’s largest domestic nutrition assistance program, with over 22 million households in the United States being served by the program in 2014 (USDA Food and Nutrition Service, 2015). As a federally supported and allocated entitlement program, administration of SNAP is carried out by the federal government under the USDA through the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). Federal rules specify that SNAP benefits are allocated at the household level . SNAP eligibility is based on household income and economic resources, or by categorical eligibility. There are three tests that a household must meet to determine eligibility for benefits:
During welfare policy reform a noted decrease in participation rate is depicted, whereas the factor of both recessions shows an increase. Another study completed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation and Costs,” shows similar trends in relation to timelines. This study depicts the costs and enrollment growth between 2001 and 2013. In 2008, both the participation and the cost of the SNAP program mirrors that of the US Census Bureau study, showing a correlation in the Farm Bill Act legislation. This USDA study states, “SNAP will remain one of the most expensive social welfare programs throughout the rest of the decade and beyond. Indeed, in 2023, SNAP will still cost taxpayers at least $73.2 billion, more than double the total cost in 2007 and more than four times the cost of the program in 2000.”
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs provide cash assistance for people who are poor and are 65 or older, blind or disabled. The SSI program is funded by general tax revenues and uses the Department of Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines as well as the Social Security Disability Insurance Program to determine who receives assistance. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is run by the Department of Agriculture and was a result of the Food Stamp Act of 1964 and the Food Conservation and Energy Act of 2008. To begin, the federal government determines the eligibility of a person to receive SNAP assistance. They then use general tax revenue to provide monthly benefits through an electronic debit card which can be used for food at commercial grocery stores. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) was a result of the 1996 policy changes to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a program which provided guaranteed cash assistance to any family that was poor for as long as the family qualified. TANF adjusted this so that the entire family is eligible to receive benefits for no more than 24 consecutive months and a lifetime total of five years, and they added an additional rule which no longer allows mothers of children
Poverty is an undeniable problem in America. In 2014, 14.8 percent of the United States was in poverty (“Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet”). There are more people in the United States than it seems that do not have their basic necessities. In an
Given the underlying and pertinent data from Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), in August of 2016 approximately 43 million Americans have been involuntarily forced on Food Stamps and SNAP taking into account their situation or circumstance of grappling with poverty. Moving up the social ladder for the poor is extremely difficult, strenuous, and arduous task especially if they are incapable because they are stymied by their own circumstances of growing up poor and do not retain the necessary resources to enable them to make a better living to guarantee a better lifestyle. However, in most cases these individuals are poor right from the start where they are at a disadvantage considering that poverty has compelled and force their hand,
... I think this project has affected me in a way that I will remember for the rest of my life. Works Cited American Poverty and Welfare Reform. 2002. The 'Secondary' of the Women's Policy Research - Research. http://www.oycf.org/Perspectives/12_063001/American_poverty_reform.htm>.