This is a tragic story that does not end well. If you have any humanity in you, it will make you sad and angry. You should read it.
Unlike the Regan-era myth of "welfare queens" that still persists today, the vast majority of welfare recipients, including most of those who violate the rules, are desperate people just trying to survive. But the irrational belief that capitalism works, the religious faith in the free market, leads inevitably to a belief that if you're not succeeding you must be sinning. And so the same politicians who perpetuate the military-industrial complex, who order the bombing of other nations, who sell their principles to the highest bidder, talk about the "moral hazard" of helping the poor eat.
The hand that feeds you | Al Jazeera America
Money-wise, things weren’t so lucky. David says he was paying nearly $800 a month in child support for three kids from his first marriage while earning just under $40,000 a year at the plastics plant. Candice had three children of her own, but custody of only the youngest two — an 18-month-old girl and a 4-month-old boy; her 7-year-old son lived with his dad in town. Candice, 25, was 10 years younger than David, but suffered from a number of health issues....She and her two children moved into David’s mobile home on the outskirts of town. Two months later, she was pregnant.
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...The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) determined David’s income was too high for the family to receive benefits. The income threshold for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, is about $35,000 a year for a family of five, and does not factor in custody payments. One caseworker suggested to Candice that she get a divorce.
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...To make ends meet, many SNAP recipients have to supplement monthly benefits — about $133 per person — with ad hoc work or by housing a partner or relative, and hide the additional income from authorities. “Everybody has to do something that makes them a criminal,” says Kaaryn Gustafson, a law professor at the University of Connecticut and author of Cheating Welfare: Public Assistance and the Criminalization of Poverty.