I know I’ve posted numerous times about how welfare fraud is in fact very, very rare and welfare programs have lower fraud loss rates than things like businesses. Which is true, but it’s also true that most actual technical welfare fraud doesn’t look much like the stereotype either. Pretty much the only people who “get rich” off fraud are service end things like stores, hospitals, etc. Nobody else really gets rich from lying on their food stamp paperwork.
Welfare fraud looks less like “cadillac and mansion” and more like:
a disabled person lies about their level of mobility because medicaid will often only cover wheelchairs if you need them in the house, not if you need them to go out or do anything outside of the house
a poor woman claims her boyfriend lives separately from her because the amount he contributes to her and their kids counts against her less if it’s listed as childsupport instead of part of the household income and that small difference can be enough to keep the children from going hungry
a poor person sells part of their food stamps and lives on things like instant ramen because almost nobody gets cash assistance anymore and they need things like toilet paper or tooth paste
a disabled person who could not hold down a regular job sells $100 a month in homemade crafts and doesn’t report it because they might have to spend months or even years re-fighting their social security case if they reported it
a homeless person makes more than $20 a month begging but lists their income as zero because that’s less confusing
other things like that
A lot of that is just survival. It’s not a system set up in a way that makes it easy to even live unless you “cheat”. People aren’t doing it to get rich, they do it to cling to the very basics and just manage to live. I don’t blame people who violate the laws to keep their heads above water, I blame the people who set up a horrific system like this and who benefit from harming and exploiting poor people.
also looks like being homeless while you’re on food stamps 8) because thats illegal. you can’t have food stamps if you don’t have a home 8)
8) also looks like having multiple sources of income even if both are minimum wage jobs that you only work for 3 hours a week 8) 8) if you have multiple sources of income and are on food stamps that is illegal.
welfare fraud is bullshit. plain and simple. if people are “cheating the system” its because theyre drowning in it, and the only cheating they’re doing is surviving. which. is. not. allowed.
The people are not cheating the system.
The System is Cheating the People.
Someone told me years ago that if they lived in Michigan, they couldn’t get married because they would have a combined income that was greater than the threshold for the wife to get disability benefits, even though it was still below the poverty line. So they moved to another state where they got less in benefits, had to deal with more red tape to prove every year she was still disabled, and once had to deal with someone claiming that because she could walk, she wasn’t disabled. But hey, they were able to get married, and therefore claim they both needed assistance because the husband couldn’t work a job that paid big money because he didn’t have skills or a degree.
One of our politicians recently confessed to this type of welfare fraud when she was younger to demonstrate how broken the system is. She did it to feed her kids. The political fallout was so severe she had to step down from her role as party leader. Another MP was identified as fraudulently claiming extra on his pension despite a massive salary, but the sole fallout from that is a hunt to seek out the leak of his private information.
A young woman commits minor fraud because it’s the difference between starving and having enough money to feed your kids? Intolerable! How dare you? A wealthy man cons the system to obtain an extra $60 a week that would be insignificant compared to the rest of his income? How dare we breach the privacy of a man clever enough to find a loophole!
universal basic income is the only option to end this stigma. when we agree as a society that everyone should be able to afford the basic necessities required to live and stop viewing benefits as laziness or cheating we will all be better off.
“wouldn’t you rather earn something than have it just handed to you?”
Yeah when it comes to actual awards and fancy goods, but when it comes to basic needs, basic human decency, and accomodations, those things should always be handed to people. No one should have to “earn” those things.Value people as people, not base it on how much they produce.
yeah but that creates a severe dependency that could be exploited easily, and creates a slippery slope @musical-clarity
Actually studies show that people who live in places with universal income (who are given money with no strings attached just for being citizens) do far better work than those who don’t and are more enthusiastic to do work.
This is because they still want nice things and will work for those but the part of their energy that was devoted to worrying about if they have enough money to pay the rent and bills this month is now freed up to do other things.
Some people will always be lazy and take advantage of the system, but they are always a tiny percentage and it seems ridiculous to me to punish the majority and severly hamstring their abilities just because a handful of people will simply live of basic income rather than work.
It’s been tested a couple times. In Canada, in some European countries, and the results are always the same.
There are two groups of people who show a statistically significant (Greater than one half of one percent, or 1 in 200) increase in Not Working and living off the guaranteed income. Parents of Children under school age, and full time students.
Among ALL other groups, employment actually INCREASED. Why? Because guaranteed minimum income means that homeless people can get at least a basic low end apartment. It’s hard if not impossible to get an above board job without a permanent fixed address. Also more people were able to have and maintain a BANK ACCOUNT. It is often hard to get a decent job without an account that can accept Direct Deposit for paychecks.
Also, lost work time due to illness and injury decreased across the board. It turns out if people are getting a decent amount of money each month they can A> afford to eat better, and B> obtain decent medical attention both preventative and emergency. Crazy right?
So why hasn’t it caught on?
Because it doesn’t directly benefit the people in power, and it increases THEIR PERSONAL taxes, their CORPORATE TAXES, and thus decreases their PERSONAL INCOME.
So, because Jeff Bezos and Alan Greenspan might fall from making 100 billion dollars a year to making 99.8 billion dollars a year, it’s a hard NO and we can all fucking die..
Margie Goold, who suffers debilitating arthritis, bought a new walker.
Lance Dingman, who lost his right leg to a chronic bone disease, is no longer running out of groceries by the middle of the month.
Wendy Moore, who has been homeless for almost two years, is looking for an apartment.
The three Hamilton residents are part of the first wave of participants in Ontario’s experiment with basic income, a monthly, no-strings-attached payment of up to $1,400 for people living in poverty. Those with disabilities receive an additional $500 a month.
Loki is the Philosopher King 