Maine Drops 9,000 From Food Stamps After Refusal To Comply With Work Requirements

[serpentdove]

[Maine Drops 9,000 From Food Stamps After Refusal To Comply With Work Requirements | zerohedge.com] "Republican Governor Paul LePage dared to begin enforcing Maine's volunteer and work requirements for food stamp (SNAP) recipients to keep their benefits. The end result was more than 9,000 non-disabled adults getting dropped from the program..." Full text: Maine Drops 9,000 From Food Stamps After Refusal To Comply With Work Requirements 2 Thess 3:10

 

[Angel4Truth]

[Maine Drops 9,000 From Food Stamps After Refusal To Comply With Work Requirements | zerohedge.com] "Republican Governor Paul LePage dared to begin enforcing Maine's volunteer and work requirements for food stamp (SNAP) recipients to keep their benefits. The end result was more than 9,000 non-disabled adults getting dropped from the program..." Full text: Maine Drops 9,000 From Food Stamps After Refusal To Comply With Work Requirements 2 Thess 3:10

The rules prevent adults, who are not disabled and do not have dependents, from receiving food stamps for more than three months unless they work at least 20 hours a week, participate in a work-training program, or meet volunteer guidelines for 24 hours out of the month.

Any one of those three minimums getting met will result in an individual to retain their SNAP food benefits.



DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew said the goal of the requirements is to encourage people to find work.

"If you're on these programs it means you are living in poverty and so the more that we can help incentive people on that pathway to employment and self-sufficiency the better off they're going to be," Mayhew told the Associated Press.

So if they just cant find a job, they can put in 24 hours of volunteer work.

 

[musterion]

Good.

 

[Angel4Truth]

They dropped a bunch last year too, when they first started the programs and now are further enforcing it.

http://www.heritage.org/welfare/rep...quirement-cuts-non-parent-caseload-80-percent

Job openings for lower-skill workers are abundant in Maine, and for those ABAWD recipients who cannot find immediate employment, Maine offers both training and community service slots. In response to the new work requirement, however, most ABAWDs in Maine refused to participate in training or community service, despite vigorous outreach efforts by the government to encourage participation. When ABAWD recipients refused to participate, their food stamp benefits ceased.

In the first three months after Maine’s work policy went into effect, its ABAWD caseload plummeted by nearly 80 percent, falling from 13,332 recipients in December 2014 to 2,678 in March 2015.

And by able bodied adults, its meaning is non disabled 18-49 year olds without dependents.

Sounds fair to me.

 

[musterion]

I'm not too keen on working to support people often younger and generally stronger/healthier than either my wife or myself.

 

[Angel4Truth]

I'm not too keen on working to support people often younger and generally stronger/healthier than either my wife or myself.

If they cant get a job, they have to do volunteer work, and if this was enforced, they are earning what they get that way.

PS from what ive read the average food stamp amount is somewhere from 140-160 dollars a month, 24 hours of work required? Thats about 6.50 an hour paid in food stamps.

 

[Angel4Truth]

Wow, thread made at 3:52 and not a liberal whine yet about people being cut from social services?

 

[serpentdove]

...Sounds fair to me.

Me too. As illegal aliens self deport, men should have less difficulty finding better paying work.

 

[Arthur Brain]

Seems pretty similar to measures already in place in the UK. To be eligible to claim and receive unemployment benefits you have to sign an agreement stating that you're actively looking for work along with showing those efforts in turn. If you're put forward for jobs by jobcentre staff or 'job coaches' as they're called then failure to apply with good reason leads to benefits being sanctioned. You'll also be expected to attend any particular training course or employment opportunity and again, failure to do so leads to benefits being stopped.

If you're sanctioned then the only option is 'hardship allowance' that's pretty much half of the standard benefit rate.

So, it's a real 'picnic' being out of work...