A Special Message from The Lady Geek
"Welfare Reform" from a Former Welfare Recipient
Greetings dear readers, I usually like to begin my articles with snippets of my life through Philadelphia. As a home town, Philly is really quite nice for those of us interested in expanding our minds, the birthplace of the nation and home of such forward thinkers as Benjamin Franklin. We have the famous Art Museum, as well as Historical tours of the Olde City, there's the first American Zoo along with one of America's largest urban park systems, Fairmount Park.
Right now, in 2012, my children and I take as much advantage of all of the amenities afforded to us, but there was a time, not so very long ago, where the doors to almost all of these things were closed to my four children and I. For far too many people within city limits, these doors are destined to remain closed. You see dear readers, once upon a time I, the Lady Geek once received governmental assistance, otherwise known as Welfare - just like the twenty-nine million other American citizens are currently doing.
Right now, in 2012, my children and I take as much advantage of all of the amenities afforded to us, but there was a time, not so very long ago, where the doors to almost all of these things were closed to my four children and I. For far too many people within city limits, these doors are destined to remain closed. You see dear readers, once upon a time I, the Lady Geek once received governmental assistance, otherwise known as Welfare - just like the twenty-nine million other American citizens are currently doing.
Normally it's my goal to stay as far away from politics as I possibly can, leaving the various politicians involved to wheel and deal their ways to whatever office they're running for and just going along for the ride. However Welfare, otherwise known as the punching bag of my Republican friends, happens to be a topic that is as near and dear to my home as it is to my heart and pocket book.
So let me start by giving you the statistics as the politicians seem to never really want us to have them. There are, as of the last census, three hundred eleven million, five hundred ninety-one thousand, nine hundred and seventeen (311,591,917) people living in The United States of America. Of them, eight percent (8%) of our population are currently receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) also known as Welfare. This eight percent, in actual numbers equals out to roughly twenty-nine million (29,000,000) men, women and children receiving cash support, food stamps and possibly medical care from the government.
The politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, promise to "Reform Welfare" while they're running and Welfare becomes a hot topic until the election is over. They pull out terms like, "Welfare Queens", "Generational Welfare Recipients" and "Single Mother's", they make interesting sounding charges that the government is spending too much money allowing poverty stricken people to take advantage of the system. Early in this election, we had the Republican candidates as a whole making it seem like the only people on the system's teat were poor, lazy African-Americans with no work ethic other than slinging drugs. Even though these same terms and descriptions have been recycled from before President Reagan and President George Bush, hearing these things over and again every four years or so, is just really sickening to me.
I have done a lot of extensive research of various forms over the last few weeks, from Google Searches to just asking random people on the street what they think about our Welfare system as it now stands and I would like to share with you what I have discovered from both sides of the coin, those who've never been in the position of receiving TANF and those who have.
The majority of people I interviewed and websites I visited about the topic associate the term, Welfare, with lazy, faceless, uneducated minority single mother's and homeless people. They say that Welfare recipients need to get jobs and stop mooching. They complain that Welfare recipients get better medical coverage than hard working American citizens and that people on Welfare are responsible for abusing taxpayers' money on such things as illegal drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, tattoos and strippers. They describe the 'typical welfare diva' as a high school drop out with one child or a multitude of children from different fathers. They describe the 'typical welfare man' as an uneducated, criminal who won't work or take care of himself or the children he created and abandoned. Some people actually still believe that many recipients are popping out babies every time their benefits are about to be cut off just to keep that check coming in. About non-minority recipients, the overall consensus is that they, as a whole, both men and women, are a bunch of 'poor white trash' with no desire to actually 'live the American dream'.
In Philadelphia, the laws have changed a lot through the years, but several key things remain the same, Food Stamps buy raw food only, Cash Assistance is significantly less than the national poverty level, the medical coverage is good across the board. In order to be on Welfare, you must submit to drug testing, go to a Welfare to Work program, actively look for a job and take whatever job comes along whether it's cost effective for your family or not.
There used to be job training available, but after having been on Welfare for a certain amount of time, your only recourse is to just transition straight into a Welfare to Work program and then into 'community service' or a job, no matter the salary or limitations. In order to help you with your job search, Welfare gives you a voucher to go to a community-type thrift store and get one free business suit, provides you with monthly transportation to and from the Welfare to Work program and job interviews and 'helps' families by providing access to subsidized childcare resources.
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| Both of these Men are former Welfare Recipients |
Just entering the local "County Assistance Office" you can smell the desperation, feel the disapproval from the 'Customer Service Representative' stationed at the 'Greeting' table all the way to the security guard who eyes you suspiciously as you look for a seat of your own. The waiting room is packed with the elderly, the crippled, small children in strollers, young girls obviously pregnant, and more and more men of varying age and race. Without an appointment, you can literally spend entire days waiting to be seen, even with an appointment you can sometimes find yourself waiting for hours just for someone to tell you that your paperwork is 'missing' something or that you're qualified.
Now let me tell you what Welfare looks like from the recipient's point of view. Uncertain, bleak and frightening with no hope of the future. The people who work in the system certainly don't encourage you to be more than minimum wage earners, or inspire faith in your abilities. To the average recipient, Welfare looks like a form of prison and indentured servitude. It looks like desperation and despair.
For Philadelphia residents, a family of five receives a measly $589 a month in cash, which is paid to you via two $294 deposits onto your card. The average electric bill is between one and two hundred dollars a month, the average gas bill is between seventy-five and a hundred and fifty dollars, water is anywhere from forty to two hundred dollars and then there's rent. Let's do the math with just the lowest numbers without rent and phone service. That means, two hundred and fifteen dollars a month is spent on utilities leaving you a whopping $375 dollars to spend on rent, 'luxury items' like toilet paper, clothes for your children, phone service, etc.
Now that same family of five also receives a monthly payment of $770 in food stamps which, if you shop at discount grocery stores and the famed Philadelphia Italian Market will exactly cover a hot meal every night for a month, all hand made, nothing from boxes or scratch, no luxury items there either like cookies or fruit roll-ups or even chicken nuggets. Don't believe me? Try it.
I can't argue. Welfare pays great for medical coverage. Your care is top notch, your medication is close to nothing and you can get hospitalization without a co-pay.
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| I've Been There and Back |
Today, you have to sign a paper called an AMR that says you want to work and won't let anything get in your way. Then, you have to put your kids in an approved childcare facility or childcare home, and walk into their Welfare to Work program. The first two weeks of that 'program' you get 'Job Readiness' training. That's when they lump you all in a room like cattle and talk to you about the 'honor and redemption' of a job, any job for two weeks, while criticizing your resume, drilling you on interviewing techniques and preparing you for the next step. "Job search or Community Service".
When I was on it, we had to 'clock in' every morning by punching my social security number into an extremely open and visual keypad. Personally, I was able to write down sixty-four separate social security numbers when I was ten feet away from the keypad. After I presented them to the "CEO" of this particular program hoping that this evidence would cause change in practices (or at least a shielded area for such a personal invasion), he told me "any person of decency wouldn't have done that." and threatened to cut all of my benefits off if I again attempted to "interfere with the running" of his "program".
Final Thoughts:
Welfare is not a theory to be debated back and forth between political candidates whenever they feel the need to sound, "Legitimately Sincere About The Abuse of Government Spending."
Welfare is a reality and a final desperate reaching when struck with poverty. Poverty is not the fault of those stricken with it and those that are stricken with it are some of the strongest people I've ever had the chance to know.
Let me ask you this, dear readers, if you found yourself without a job, resources and with mouths to feed, would you be able to deal with your friends and family telling you how much of a bum you are for seeking help? Can you bite your lip and listen to the people from the store line or worse, the actual cashiers criticize your purchases and resent that you bought lamb instead of the hamburger helper they were purchasing. Do you think you have it in you to take people in 'authority' berating you and refusing to empathize with you? Do you think you could bring yourself to a proper level of 'humility' to be able to keep your head up in the face of Newt Gingrich calling you a welfare diva?
I've had to. I pray hard that I never will again. Now you are all entitled to your opinions and voices, but I felt that in the current climate, this Lady Geek had to paint a teeny, tiny picture of the real face of welfare for you.
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| This is the Face of Welfare. Nice to Meet You |
What a great article. I am a white survivor of Welfare. I'm much older than you and back in my "time" we had CETA (Comprehensive Employment Training Act) where I was paid to go to the local community college and take business courses. I learned to type and write business letters and was given a job where the employer paid part of the wages and CETA paid part. I was lucky to have a couple of case workers that cared and were very supportive (this is so rare - I don't even know how it happened). It was onward and upward from there and I have been very fortunate in not having to ever revisit a Welfare office.
ReplyDeleteBut... from my perspective - I agree with everything you said, especially the desperate, no hope, loss of control over your own life feelings.
May you have success in all you aspire to achieve from here on out!