Missouri senators outline plan to curb food stamp fraud

[lady_grace]

JEFFERSON CITY - Two Missouri senators are reaching across the aisle in order to stop low-income people from spending welfare benefits on alcohol and entertainment.

Sens. Will Kraus and Maria Chappelle-Nadal outlined their measure at a news conference Monday which would prevent welfare recipients from spending their electronic benefits at liquor

Comments

[mahasin]

Right, poor kids deserve the zoo too.

[alicephilippa]

Monies that are supposed to benefit the kids shouldn't be being spent on booze, gambling or porn. Places like amusement parks, zoos and museums do benefit the emotional welfare of them though and should be permissible.

Emotional welfare is as important as physical welfare.

[ebay313]

Poor people should be trusted to manage their own finances the same as anyone else. Just because part of one's income is in the form of government assistance doesn't make legislating extreme levels of invasiveness into individuals lives and spending anymore appropriate. (If childrens' needs are not being met, then that's a CPS issue. If they are, then people should mind their own fucking business.)

[alicephilippa]

Monies that are meant to be spent on the welfare of children should be spent on them. If the recipients of that money are continually demonstrating that they cannot do that then it needs to be made almost impossible for them to do otherwise.

[ebay313]

Except there is neither proof that recipients in general frequently spend TANF money on things not to the benefit of their children, and certainly this is not being implemented only against recipients who have demonstrated in any way that they are not caring for the welfare of their children.
Poor parents aren't children, they don't need the government legislating every minor detail of their lives. They should be allowed to budget their money without ridiculous, classist government rules that seek to punish people for being poor by outlawing anything that is not in the very strictest sense a basic survival need. Which fyi, having nothing but the most basic needs with no fun, just barely SURVIVING isn't exactly in the best interest of children's welfare.

[alicephilippa]

FYI, I had a very hard up bringing in the early 70s money was so short that at times we had to make a choice between heating and eating. I know what barely surviving is and it's not something I'd wish on anyone let alone a child. Even now money is tight as I'm on disability as my only source of income.

I am still of the opinion that money that is provided for the welfare of children should only be spent on those children. Spending it on booze, gambling or porn does not directly benefit the children. If it takes a legal clampdown to ensure that happens then so be it.

I know that occasional drinking, &c., does not necessarily mean that a parent is neglectful. However that money should come out of the adult's money not that given as benefit monies to support the children.

As I said earlier going to museums, zoos, amusement parks are all valid ways of boosting the emotional welfare of children (and adults). They are appropriate ways of spending such monies, so long as the children are well fed and clothed.

[ebay313]

You do realize that a "legal clampdown" is absolutely NOT needed to ensure these things, right? That it actually is not, at all, the norm for parents on TANF to spend all their TANF $ on alcohol, lottery tickets, et cetera? These laws are made without any evidence of it happening, or based on the very least (often questionably accurate) anecdotes that are most definitely NOT the norm

[recorded]

A lot of times CPS isn't going to be notified though. They aren't an all knowing organization. Sometimes the lunch at school is the only food a child gets because of neglectful parents with addiction issues.

[ebay313]

Of course they are not all knowing, a report needs to be made- the exact same way a report needs to be made of neglect or abuse in families that don't receive TANF- it's not like abuse and neglect are exclusively the domain of families receiving TANF. Nor does this law mean that they would know if there is neglect- every parent who buys alcohol or a lottery ticket is not neglectful.

[recorded]

Except, TANF is for families. You must have a dependent child to get it. It does not factor in how many people are in your house (ie; adults are not part of the factoring, at least not in my state)*. Therefore, it is not meant for 18+ activities.

*The money benefits, anyway. I know they do job training, though that seems to be getting cut lately.

[ebay313]

How does any of that have anything to do with a parent being neglectful? Again:
abuse and neglect are not exclusively the domain of families receiving TANF. Families who do not receive TANF can be abusive or neglectful. In those cases one has to rely on some type of report to CPS. It's not ridiculous to have the same standard for families receiving TANF, because again, receiving TANF does not make a parent neglectful. Nor does buying alcohol or a lottery ticket automatically make a parent neglectful. We would be in a whole lot of trouble as a society if every parent who ever drank alcohol, ever bought a lottery ticket, or participated in any other 18+ activity where automatically a neglectful parent. Luckily- that's not how it works!

[recorded]

Except that's not the argument. The funds in TANF are for dependent children, who typically are not of age for alcohol or lottery tickets. So why would it be okay for money meant for dependent children to go towards that?

[recorded]

Spending money meant for your dependent childrens needs on luxury items for yourself is a huge red flag...

[ebay313]

Well, EBT just stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer, so the term EBT does apply equally to food assistance (SNAP) and cash assistance programs like TANF which are loaded onto an electronic benefits card.