Should a welfare card be used for cash and candy?
Question: My fiance is a store mgr and he says people are using their Lone Star Cards (TX Welfare cards) for candy and non-essential items, and once a lady in front of me in line at the customer service desk got $400.00 cash back on her Lone Star Card.I've never been on welfare but my tax dollars support this? What do you think?
Answer:
"The Texas Department of Human Services uses the Lone Star Card to deliver benefits for the Food Stamp and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs."
The Food Stamp program supplements the budget for people with low incomes, most of whom work or are old and retired. What items can or can not be purchased with food stamps is in the law and retailers are supposed to separate items. If the store is violating the law report them, and do your bit to prevent fraud.
If I were in your position I would be more concerned about why the economy can only provide jobs that pay $7 and $9 per hour to people who work hard, are responsible, and have10 year of experience. There is something very wrong when people like you can not afford to have children.
That is a violation for both the store and the person buying.
Do we scrap the whole system because of the 2% who abuse it?
I think it's their food stamps and they can spend it however they want, as long as it is food or drink they count it so who cares what it's used on, I'm sure they have some healthy food for meals also
the cash back on her card could have been to pay her bills from her TANF, who knows, that's probably all she got for the whole month. You can't use the card when paying bills
I think that its a complete misuse of the system.
The card isn't in place to make it easier to spend money on crap, it's there only for essential items.
I agree that people abuse these cards... they should have standards for them... more along the lines of WIC - where they are limited on what they can buy with them. I once saw a lady go into a Dollar General and buy a bag of chips and a bottle of pop with her card... how healthy is that?
no, it shouldn't.
they put their money and stamps on the same card toprevent theft . she might have been using it to pay her rent .and just u might be poor it doesn't mean u r not allow to have some candy once in awhile. r they buying soap , toilet paper etc. if they r older it might be their social security money that they paid taxes for.
Well, most reasonable state welfare systems have designated food stamps or cards which people on welfare can ONLY use to purchase staple foods, not junk foods and certainly not tradeable for cash.
That's like when I see a homeless person begging for change, while smoking a cigarette.
Man, sounds like Texas needs to fix that system, I would be pissed too.
Obviously a part of the people on welfare lack personal responsibility,for them that even may explain why they are on welfare in the first place.Then there may be a group that abuses the system and doesn't really need it.The examples you give however give totally no insight and we also have no other way of knowing how big the group is that abuses the system.
What we do know is that extreme poverty in America is up and I think the focus should be on fixing that problem but I agree,abuses of any social program need to be avoided and made virtually impossible.First because it is very unfair and second because like the question proofs,it reduces the support for social programs in society and that is sad for the people who really rely on them and never abused them ever.
I think welfare shouldn't be used for regular items. It is taking from the rest of us.
Poverty can not be fixed, it will always be here. Delusional people often they they can eliminate it. Why has it been around forever?
We should scrap the system and stop giving handouts to the lazy and incompetent.
you should thank god that you have never been on welfare, it is only a few paychecks away you know.
No bud sadly enough it does happen.
I agree with Meg. There is enough abuse of the welfare system and someone needs to report the store and the abuser. It can be done anonymously.
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