General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A friend of mine saw someone using food stamps to pay for ice cream bars. [View all]happyslug
(14,779 posts)Under the federal regulations that cover Food Stamps, that was "in-kind" assistance and must be reported to welfare. Welfare when then count the groceries as "Income" and reduce how much Food Stamps you were eligible for. You will then have received an "Over-payment", which will be used to reduce the Food Stamps you will get next month.
Yes, that is the Law and it is widely ignored for good reasons. I use to joke, in the 1990s I had a copy of my states Welfare Regulations on a Shelf on my office. It was 8 volumes each 4 inches think. All, but one page, were the various "Rules" to make sure people on welfare did NOT get overpaid (The one page was how much Welfare a person was entitled to get). It is now on computer but the actual welfare amounts have NOT changed since 1982 for Pennsylvania (Through Food Stamps have increased):
55 PA Code (Welfare) site:
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/055/055toc.html
In the late 1990s it was proposed to the State of Pennsylvania as one way to save money, was to cut back on the reporting requirements. The proposal was rejected, even through everyone knew it would save money. No rationale was given, but the reason was clear, people in the Welfare Department are afraid of the State Legislature, and the State Legislature is afraid of hearing of someone abusing the Welfare system. The State Legislature is so afraid of hearing of one person getting his or her's $174 a month (The Welfare Grant for my home county, a welfare recipient in Pittsburgh get $206, In Philadelphia $226 do to higher costs of living in those two counties) when he or she MAY not be entitled to it, that they were willing to spend thousands of dollars to prevent such a situation, even if it can be shown the controls exceeds any possible fraud (i.e. putting a $50 lock on a 10 cent items to make sure the 10 cent item is never stolen).
Anyway, the concept that Welfare (and Food Stamps) are to be REDUCED by any other income a poor person gets is well established in the Law. It is also up to the Government to PROVE you had the income (not for you to show you did not), thus unless you report it, the Government does not KNOW of it and thus will NOT use it.
While the law in most states says you MUST report such "Income" most welfare systems do NOT want to hear of such gifts, it confuses their system. It is better NOT to tell them, even through the law says you must. Welfare does NOT want to hear of such "gifts", but the underlying law says you must inform them (i.e, no one wants to hear of such gifts, but no one wants to change the underlying law either). Thus my advice is NOT to tell anyone, unless asked about it, and then tell the truth. Most Welfare caseworkers know better then to ask, so such income is ignored. My sole point in bringing this up is to so how stupid most of the regulation regarding welfare are, written by people who have never been on welfare and then more to look good at the next election then to do anything to improve welfare.