Ohio food stamp use increases by 71 percent since 2000

[Algorem]

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/16670516.htm

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The number of Ohioans receiving food stamps has increased by 71 percent since the year 2000.

The Department of Job and Family Services says that in Franklin County -- home to the state capital of Columbus -- food stamp use has more than doubled. It's more than tripled in central Ohio's Union County, home to Marysville.

In other urban counties of Cuyahoga and Hamilton, food stamp participation has increased by about half in the past six years.

Agency spokesman Jon Allen says the number of people getting state help to buy food has always been an indicator of a poor economy...



Hungry in Ohio

Dramatic jump in use of food stamps underscores troubling trend across state

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2007/02/10/20070210-A1-00.html

Saturday, February 10, 2007
Rita Price
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Hungry in Ohio

...In Franklin and the six surrounding counties, food-stamp recipient rates grew more than 100 percent between 2000 and 2006...

The job and wage stagnation that have long plagued the northeastern and southeastern regions of the state seem to be reaching central Ohio, said Laura Holton of the Fairfield County Department of Job and Family Services...

"A majority of these families are working families, and I think the public really needs to hear that," Holton said."Our unemployment rate might not be that bad, but the wages just aren’t enough."...

Doris McShine, a 24-year-old veteran who returned from Iraq 14 months ago, got her first food-stamp card last month. McShine said she returned to Delaware to resume her studies at Ohio Wesleyan University...

[Uben]

1. It's abused way too much

I reported a case of abuse in Georgia. A relative was making $50,000 yr and his wife was still collecting foodstamps under her maiden name and letting her mother use the food stamps. They acted like they didn't even care! So much for trying to do the right thing.

[Pharaoh]

2. so because they were jerks

then everyone must abuse food stamps!

[Lars39]

7. All of our social programs, including abuse, pales besides corporate

welfare.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. I wonder why the wife wasn't using the stamps herself.

Perhaps her mother was - gasp - NEEDING it? And for some reason couldn't get stamps? Or it was not enough for her basic needs?

For now, I'll give you the benefit of doubt and assume you investigated and concluded the mother was as, er, "rich" as her daughter and son-in-law. :eyes:

[Uben]

9. Her mom was a gold digger

She lived with a sugardaddy, never worked. Of course, he knew nothing of it. Trust me, they were truly scumbags. I have compassion for those who need assistance. And, I know we have a large population of working poor! Been there, pal.

They pulled insurance scams, too. Bought a car, wrecked it, then reported it stolen, after they had it chopped. I learned about it first-hand.....her husband....my wife's ex son in law. He was the one on the road making the money to pay for everything while she was at home scamming anyone she could. He divorced her, and tried himself to report the fraud, but his afforts fell on deaf ears. Of course, she got everything in the divorce, no kids, but it was worth it to get away from that family. He didn't want the Feds waking him up in the middle of the night and hauling him off in handcuffs!

[acmavm]

18. Your post is something else. You bash a thread talking about hunger

and the need for food stamps in an area of the country well-known for losing jobs. And you justify this crap with some gossip you got from an ex-husband who got 'burned' in a divorce.

[T Wolf]

10. There IS a lot of abuse in Ohio, too.

I have family (by marriage) out there and they are typical of what is wrong with many people in the US.

They eagerly use "gubmint" services while complaining about "those people" in Cleveland who are too lazy too get a job.

They hate Dennis K. because he represents people and values that are condemned by their churches.

They vote puke because they hate women (reproductive rights), gay people (gotta protect marriage though they have very high rates of divorce, unwed births, and infidelity), and members of minority races and religions (can't let "them people" vote) despite the miserable economy that their "leaders" have brought down on their state.

Their "morality" is a perfect example of selfishness and arrogance. I have no sympathy for them.

[CountAllVotes]

17. and they hold dog auctions there too

One going on right now in fact at the Holiday Inn in Akron, Ohio.

Desperate for a buck people alright. They do not care WHO or WHAT gets hurt! :grr:

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[scarletlib]

11. maybe she was her mother's representative

a lot of elderly folks are either unable or unwilling to apply for food stamps for themselves. especially in the south ( i am from Tennessee/Florida and worked in these programs for 20+ years) many of the elderly poor are illiterate.

In such cases, family members can be what we call 'authorized representatives' for their relatives. that means they apply for the benefits for their family members, get the benefits sent to them and then use the benefits for their family members. So, it may not be fraud at all.

I always use this little 'joke' to clarify things: How do you tell the difference between a Christian Rebublican and a Christian Democrat?

Answer: A Christian Republican will let 99 families go hungry to catch one welfare cheat. A Christian Democrat will let one cheat welfare to feed 99 hungry families. We told that back in the Reagan days. I don't guess much has changed.

[Debau2005]

12. I was a Welfare/Food Stamp Social Worker

from 1990 - 1996. Abuse is not as high as you read in the media. Of course it happens, so does bank fraud, mail fraud, theft from workplaces, etc.

A lot of people are helped by the foodstamp program. A great number of elderly people are eligible for food stamps, but may only get $10 a month. They have social security and SSI, which barely pays their bills, but it is enough to make them only eligible for $10. This is the crime!

I doubt that the increase in Ohio is due to abuse. Perhaps it has more to do with the rise in fuel prices, home heating oil, food price increases, lose of jobs, etc.

If more states would fund education programs for the people on welfare, a lot would be able to find jobs that support them and they would be able to leave the welfare rolls.

Not all of the people on welfare want to be there! And if people think that welfare "queens" are being made on welfare benefits, they should have to leave on those benefits for a year.

Until you walk a mile in someone else's shoes let's not judge.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. The problem is that the abusers are good press, the families in need are not.

There is abuse in every program. It's just a fact of life. What bothers me more are the working people who could benefit from WIC, EBT, and other helping hand programs yet they won't apply because they think it's somehow wrong to ask for help,and the way some people assume that a well dressed person using a benefits card must be scamming.

[scarletlib]

16. I am 100% in agreement with you.

Yes, I saw fraud. But most of it was penny-ante. The most common fraud was some poor mom on welfare getting a part time job a MCDonalds or some such just before school started or before Christmas. She was working extra to get the kids clothes and a few presents at Christmas. They didn't make much and left the job after a few weeks.

Now there are those of you who will say: will why didn't she just keep the job? I'll tell you why. She couldn't keep the job: If she did she would loose her medicaid benefits. If she had little children, she wouldn't be able to afford day care for a full time job at those wages, if she lived in subsidized housing her rent would increase. Lots of reasons and all made perfect economic sense.

Now if we had universal health care, affordable housing, universal good daycare and early childhood education, then she would have been able to keep that job. As things are now and then none of these things exist. A lot of people did get off welfare in the 90's. But thank a booming economy for that. Also the reforms did let the moms keep the medicaid for an extended period of time.

However, I think all that will be changing. I know a lot of the moms out there working do not make enough to support their families. That's why they need food stamps. Believe me, hunger is real in America today.

[catzies]

24. Thank you for a much-needed reality check. And like a poster upthread

Corporate welfare costs us more than human welfare. I'm all for helping folks more than helping companies.

[tabasco]

23. Was she like the welfare Cadillac queen?

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-welfarequeen.htm

[xchrom]

30. anecdotal evidence is no evidence at all.

just a story.

[Lucky Luciano]

3. See, this means bush is a swell guy..

"You give us the elections and let us steal billions of dollars while you lose your jobs, and we will give you food stamps in return....for the time being"

:sarcasm:

[llmart]

4. Well, let's see........

what happened in Ohio in 2000? Hmmm..... How many of those food stamp recipients voted for those wonderful Republic family values?? How's that working for you, eh? I don't feel sorry for the ones who voted Republican thinking they would look out for them. Hey, how's that $300 tax cut check you got right after Bush took office? What? That didn't amount to a hill of beans you say? Weren't all you Repugs so smug about your boy back then.

[Lost-in-FL]

19. $300 tax check?

That was a joke. We had to claim it as INCOME on the next tax year. Lots of people fell for that cheap trick.

[Uben]

5. Not enough agents

They claimed they only had a few agents for the entire state of Geogia to investigate fraud. I know a lot of people need assistance, but to see someone abuse the system so flagrantly pisses me off. Not only did the relative get food stamps, she got some gov't agency to pay for her gastric bypass! All using her maiden name, not her married name, where she would have been disqualified in a heartbeat.

[kurth]

6. It's like that across the rural Midwest

Below the radar screen, there are many working families who can't survive without food stamps.

[area51]

13. Ohio food stamp use increases by 71 percent since 2000

It so obvious we're in the 2nd Great Depression. Competition for what few jobs are left here in the U.S. is fierce, and the nazi party wants to offshore/inshore even more of our jobs. :mad:

[Igel]

15. When we still lived in NY State,

it must have been 2002 or 2003, there were reports that the food stamp program was underenrolled. There were estimates of the number of people that could be receiving them, but who weren't.

The response was to run tv and radio ads, put up posters in places like supermarkets in communities with a high percentage of poor (working or not).

Between steps to increase participation, the economic downturn that started in 2000 creating more poor (as a percent of the population), and general population growth (increasing the base the percentage of poor is part of) ... 71% isn't surprising.

[CountAllVotes]

21. I cannot disagree with you

I just said this to someone yesterday. They were shocked I'll tell you, shocked as they filled up their HUGE truck with gasoline which cost the idiot $85.00.

Depression you say? Why oh why? :grr:

:kick:

[ozone_man]

20. This is a good economic indicator.

Unemployment doesn't tell us much, when people are employed making unlivable wages.

"A majority of these families are working families, and I think the public really needs to hear that," Holton said."Our unemployment rate might not be that bad, but the wages just aren’t enough."...

[earth mom]

22. Another example of how screwed over the people of this country are.

But hell yeah we gotta keep those borders open or else we're cruel and mean to people who aren't even legally allowed to live here! What a f*cking disgrace! :eyes:

[entanglement]

27. Have you any evidence that the increase in food stamp use has anything to

do with illegal immigrants?

[prolesunited]

29. Who needs evidence?

I can't believe the poster is falling for the old standby of pitting disenfranchised groups against eachother.

Guess what, while they have us fighting for the crumbs, they are walking away with the whole pie.

[Danascot]

25. A local food bank said

they were out of food for this month already due to increased demand. They were hoping increased awareness would bring donations.

[sakabatou]

26. Gee, I wonder why that is...

:eyes:

[OhioChick]

28. Yes,

The economy is absolutely booming here. Let's offshore/outsource more.

Ohio fourth in nation in mass layoffs
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Ohio ranked fourth in the nation for the most mass layoff claims in 2006, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/business/2007/01/24/ddn012407masslayoffsweb.html

[xchrom]

31. the real numbers about tommy thompsons ''miracle'' are

starting to come out!


conservatives CAN NOT run government -- any government.

[Joanne98]

32. I work with people who come to work with no lunch....

I'm afraid to ask them about it.

[manic expression]

33. If you want to solve the problem

do away with capitalism, it's the root of the issue.

[tanyev]

34. Gosh, you'd think in such a Republican stronghold that everyone

would be pulling themselves up by their bootstraps right and left. No food stamps necessary.



:sarcasm: