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Last week, the Trump administration announced plans to step up enforcement of a 22-year-old law removing food stamps for some non-working adults.
State data shows that Georgia is ahead of Washington. In 2018, the Georgian Division of Family and Child Services, which administers the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has significantly increased the number of people withdrawn from the program due to imposed labour.
From October 2017 to March 2018, the state withdrew an average of 356 people a month from food stamps for non-compliance with the work requirement.
From April to October of this year, the average was multiplied by 20, reaching 8,000 per month.
Miraco Belcher, a 25-year-old citizen of Covington, is one of those who lost his allowance. Belcher had worked several times in a warehouse until he was injured in a car accident and fractured his spine. Since the accident, he stated that he was suffering from seizures, especially in the light of bright fires or flashing lights, thus making it more difficult to work.
Belcher applied for disability benefits from Social Security, but the process of awarding these benefits may take years. In August, he was labeled as "physically fit" and unemployed, so the state removed him from the SNAP program.
"I have not had a postage stamp for two months. It hurts, "he said in an interview in October. "I can not work and I can not find money to do grocery shopping.
Belcher was bewildered by the notice that he was receiving from the state terminating the benefit.
"If I could work, I do not need these stamps," he said. "I just do not really understand."
Belcher solved the problem by asking his primary care physician to guarantee him while waiting for his final decision on disability. His benefits resumed last month. He's lucky. Many low-income people do not have a regular doctor on whom to make such a note.
"I'm not sure what customers are supposed to do when they receive these letters (from DFCS)," said David Deganian. an Atlanta lawyer who represents Belcher in his disability application. "Most doctors do not want to do this unless they have a chronological treatment (registration of)."
This chart shows the number of valid adults without dependents removed from the federal food stamp program each month by Georgia Family and Child Services Division for non-compliance with a work requirement. CHRIS JOYNER / [email protected]
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Most recipients are families
Working conditions were adopted in 1996 and require adults between the ages of 18 and 49, who are not disabled and do not have dependents, to work at least 20 hours a week or are engaged in an education or vocational training. . The food stamp program refers to these individuals as ABAWD, valid adults without dependents
. The law gives them three months to satisfy the work requirement or lose the advantage. During the Great Recession, the federal government eased these rules, removing the time limit for entire states or regions of states hard hit by a higher unemployment rate.
Georgia is one of the states with a state-wide derogation, but in the last two years, the state has gradually phased them out for state counties at the state level. as the economy improved and unemployment declined. But the new state benefits data management system, known as the "Georgia Gateway," is another factor behind the dramatic increase in the number of Valid adults, which allows DFCS managers to get a better idea of the lives of food voucher recipients.
"We have more data elements with this system than we had with any of our other eligibility systems," said Jon Anderson, head of the office's office. 39, independence of the DFCS family. "We are more confident in the fact that the system can identify ABAWDs compared to previous systems."
The increased application of work requirements only concerns a small minority of the 1.5 million recipients of state food coupons.
In Georgia, only about 8% of the population receiving food stamps are valid adults without children, while 71% of recipients of food stamps are families with dependent children. One-third of the beneficiaries are families of elderly or disabled members.
Advocates of low-income Georgians fear that the state's willingness to remove people from the food stamp program will ignore the difficult and that some adults have to find stable
"People who use SNAP can work, work," said Alex Carmardelle, Senior Policy Analyst at the Liberal-funded Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. "If you do not work and you receive SNAP, it's for a serious reason."
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