The Deserving Poor

Everytime a discussion on poor people deserving food happens, the same rhetoric is shot back again & again: “but they should work! They spend it on drugs & unhealthy foods.” Here's a quick breakdown of welfare & the deserving poor.

Iowa’s Welfare System

To properly understand the deserving vs undeserving, we need to understand out states welfare system. ‘Welfare’ isn’t one thing. The most common things referred to under ‘welfare’ is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) & Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, previously referred to as food stamps).

Deserving Poor

The deserving poor are [normally] elderly & disabled people. Their are on welfare by nothing but the cruel hand of Mother Nature. They drew the short end of the stick, & because of their unpreventable misfortune, they deserve the welfare. This is the demographic that the majority of the population rarely have a problem with. Everyone else is seen as lazy & using the system to not work. Here's why that's not the most accurate statement.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

This program provides cash benefits to families in need. There are many misconceptions revolving around TANF. First is that people live their whole lives on nothing but this. People can only get TANF for 60 months out of their whole lives. There is also a huge list of requirements for TANF. A notable requirement is that the family receiving benefits must start working as soon as they are ‘work ready’, no less than 2 years after starting the assistance. Two parent households must work 35 or 55 hours (depending on the situation), & single parent households must work for a minimum of 30 hours per week. In 4 years (from 1996 - 2000), the number of TANF recipients nationwide plunged 53%.

SNAP

SNAP is food stamps. SNAP allows people to buy breads, cereals, fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, dairy products, & seeds and plants to produce food. They cannot buy alcohol or tobacco, non-food items, vitamins/medicines, food that will be eaten in the store & hot foods.

Furthermore, SNAP recipients (shockingly) buy about the same things as non-SNAPpers.

According to US welfare statistics, the average American family gets $133 per month per person. that's a little over $4 per day per person to spend on food.

People on welfare do work! According to the Center on Budget & Policy priorities, 80% of adult household receiving SNAP worked, while 87% of households with children worked.

Welfare ‘Queens’

Another common display of the ‘Undeserving Poor’ is Welfare Queens. These women keep popping out babies & cashing in on the welfare they grant. This is just blatantly false. Am I going to say no women has ever done this? No, but I will say that all the studies show that women on welfare are simply that: women on welfare.

The misconceptions & stigmas surrounding the poor are harmful & untrue. Knowledge & evidence goes a long way when looking at welfare & it's recipients. While our society God's people deserving and undeserving of welfare, the evidence shows that people on welfare are working & trying as hard as they can to better their lives.