Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> Reviving a "Poor People's Movement" is one of the campaigns that I
> think American leftists -- especially leftists in Ohio -- should be
> working on. The following article says "Ohio had one of the steepest
> declines in food stamp participation....Last year, [only] 59 percent
> [of the eligible poor] got them." Millions wrongfully denied food stamps
Here is some more fuel for the fire. marta
To: youngcomrade at onelist.com CC: socialistsunmoderated at debs.pinko.net, marxism at lists.panix.com
Millions wrongfully denied food stamps By Fred Gaboury
CHICAGO - Even as President Clinton was hobnobbing with business leaders here in celebration of the "success" of the 1996 "welfare reform," the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a blistering report charging that states and cities had taken advantage of the legislation to illegally deny food stamps to millions of poor people.
The GAO report, issued on August 2nd, said that policies of state and local governments that deliberately discourage poor families from applying for food stamps have been a major factor in the decline in of the number of people receiving food stamps from 25.5 million in 1996 to 18.5 million today.
Although Clinton and others brag that the replacement of the Aid to Families with Dependent children (AFDC) with Temporary Aid to Needy Families, has reduced the nation's welfare rolls by nearly 40 percent - and those receiving food stamps by 27 percent - the GAO said the demand for food aid from other programs and nonprofit organizations has grown.
The report said this, coupled with a six percent increase in the number of children receiving federally-funded school lunches, is proof that families who need - and are eligible for - food stamps are not getting them.
For years - in the case of AFDC since the mid-1930s - food stamps, Medicaid and cash assistance to needy families were entitlement programs: who ever met certain requirements was entitled to the benefits.
But that changed in 1996 when AFDC was defederalized and its administration - and establishment of eligibility requirements - was turned over to the states.
Despite these changes, food stamps remain a federal entitlement. But that hasn't prevented state and local governments from "diverting" those in need of assistance from the program by ordering them to complete a month-long job search before informing them of their possible eligibility for food stamps and Medicaid.
Earlier this year a federal judge in New York barred New York City from requiring a job search before applying for food stamps.
Worse yet, those receiving food stamps are often "sanctioned" - dropped from the rolls for such minor infractions as a missed appointment with a representative of the welfare agency.
Although most of these situations have eventually been corrected, the damage has been done as whole families have suffered, largely because state and local governments have refused to publicize the differences in eligibility requirements for cash relief and food stamps.
Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) who commissioned the GAO study, said that because so many people are not getting food stamps it is probable that there are some "hungry people in these families."
The GAO report was no less critical of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that is charged with administering the food stamp program.
The USDA has not yet written regulations to implement changes in the food stamp program that Congress enacted three years ago and has yet to review application procedures in 10 states.
In an effort to shift the blame for the fact that many eligible families are going hungry because of the Department's deliberate negligence, Shirley Watkings, the USDA official in charge of food, nutrition and consumer services, said, "There is a great deal of confusion among working families, simply because they have gone to work and they don't know what their eligibility status is any more."