Who is Eligible for Welfare in the United States?

My sister's husband got laid off and they tried to get food stamp but the Missouri Social Service declined their application. My sister is a legal immigrant and her husband is a US citizen who also paid taxes. i think it was very unfair because there are people out there who are illegal and still get help from welfare.

I don't think persons convicted of a felony crime are eligible for any government assistance, including pensions, social security or welfare. That's the one thing people don't think about when the crime is committed. Sure, a lot of people are tough enough for prison, but what happens when you get old? What happens when you get out and need to live? On top of that no one wants a felon in their home or place of business. I suggest you start a business in cleaning, hauling, etc. and open a savings account. Put 10 percent in the account for when you retire.

I left school at 16, with a baby on the way. I wanted to be responsible, started working as an electricians helper and another baby came, then another, lol. All three raised and doing OK. Through the years, I taught myself advanced math, geometry, some algebra and trigonometry, theory, science and everything else I needed to know, including how to run a business.

I ended up as a multi state licensed master electrician, owned my own company for years, decided to advance and passed state examinations and completed college course’s for HHS/ICS electrical inspector (Hazardous and commercial/residential occupancies) became a sub code official and plans examiner. I was hired by a very large township when the recession hit, 21 hours a week at $23 an hour. I did all this because I became disabled years prior, having a shoulder and hip replaced then diagnosed with spondylolisthesis -- a fancy word for three crushed disks and needing rods in my back. Now I need a right knee, but that’s another story.

I’ve worked like a bull all my life. I’m 44 now and filed for SSD, denied (but heard it’s a two year wait or longer for everyone). Anyway, now my wife and I live in my parents’ attic because the township I went to work for wanted me cut to 12 hours a week. I’m collecting UC because with a 12 hour work weekm I couldn’t live in that state anymore. This is OK for now. I don’t get much, but I don’t need much either.

I don’t see this economy coming back for a long time and decided to let all my professional licenses go because I can’t afford the required continuing education (maybe I’ll keep inspector because the state pays for it but for electrical contractor you have to pay for it, and besides I can’t do the work anymore with my physical condition). I believe in the American Dream and worked hard to reach every goal I wanted. If I were younger, I’d become a lawyer.

My point of the story is, if you really want something you can get it, and no one can tell you different. Those people are either lazy or jealous. I just hope when I need my SSD I get it. The electrical field was very good to me. I have the brains but the bulls gone. You’re still young, so get out there and get what’s yours while you still can. Welfare is stereotyped as being for dirty, lazy people who are a menace to our society when, truth be known, it was enacted for people in my situation, not so much yours.

You don’t want welfare, trust me. As educated as I am with electricity and electronics, from code to integrated circuits, I’m willing to stock the apples and oranges at a store or deliver pizza before I’d want welfare. All I ask of my employer is acknowledge my disabilities and give me work I can do. There’s work out there. You just have to look a little harder. Good luck and best wishes!

I feel very sorry for you US citizens.

I earn £12 GBP per hour in my construction job. I am taxed around 22 percent on this, leaving me with a paycheck of around £374 per week. I have four children, so on top of this the UK government pays me £52 in child benefits and £168 in tax credits, which is just a check that turns up at my door once a week.

The rent on my home is £182 a week. The government also pays £62 of this.

It's a good system for the poor but it's pretty unfair for the rich who get taxed heavily under this arrangement to pay for it.

It also looks set to change under the new Coalition Government but I can't see it changing too much for people in my situation.

Without this assistance, i would not be able to afford a family.

OK, I just stumbled onto this topic and after reading the postings I have to state my opinion.

I have a college degree, been employed at my job for six years, but no pay raise in that time, and my insurance has gone up three times. I only make $13 an hour. That is absurd! I don't qualify for any assistance, so I guess you would say I am the working poor.

I literally have no money left to save when i pay all the bills. I have tried and tried to find a better paying job, but to no avail, nothing. 300 people applying for a 12 hour job is a joke, especially if you have work exp and a college education

My point is, I believe the welfare is needed most of the time. Most welfare recipients are not abusing the system, but I am sure some are who give it a bad name. This country is messed up. No one has mentioned corporate welfare, balling out banks with taxpayer money. I would say the mid-class and the working class are the ones screwed. You either have to be dirt poor or wealthy to get any break.

@339: For most of us, children are a great joy, and if you wait to be able to "afford" them, you'll never have them. 40 hours – hmm. Well, if only we could all get 40 hours we'd be good to go. Not really.

Not everyone is able to get 40 hours and they get hours cut at work. They look for a new job but that takes time. Different people have different situations. Don't look at 40 hours. Some people get hours cut at work.

Some people have disabilities beyond their control. I myself couldn't get more than minimum wage. ( i have a learning disability) Daycare is 10 bucks an hour here. I"d only get 7.50 an hour. That would be my paycheck and then some.

My husband works(long hard hours) for all of us because if I went to work it would take my entire paycheck to daycare or a babysitter. I understand what you're saying, but you make it sound so easy. It's not. You're lucky to even have a job in today's economy.

@342: I agree with you to a certain point. Yes, no one should lie about what they make to get what they want.

Does the federal government set the "poverty level" too low? Yes, I think so. A family of four is going to make it on 15,000? I don't think so. It's impossible for a family of four to make it on 30,000 let alone 15,000.

Bottom line: you really need to be living in a car or on the streets to even qualify for food stamps.

Should we wait until it gets to that before we can help them? (A family of four crammed into a car). No, I really don't think so.

On the other hand, cash assistance is the most abused thing. Food stamps are O.K., but the program has its problems. But cash assistance can be used to buy clothing which is needed or a 42" TV which isn't. Personally, I think cash assistance would be OK if it was controlled a little bit more.

Now, not having kids. Umm, I can see where you're coming from, however in my experience (i have a 4 year old) you can wait and wait and wait. You'll never be able to "afford" a child. It's just not possible. Most people won't make what is needed to raise a child, let alone afford him/her.

And of course people aren't perfect. We all do things we know we shouldn't. (drugs, sex without a condom, cheating on someone, talking back to our parents, cheating on our taxes, stealing, lying etc.) However, should the child pay for a mother's or father's wrongdoings? No, it's not their fault in this situation.

And furthermore, for most people not having children rich or poor. Having children gives us lots of joy and happiness. Most people couldn't live without their child in their life. You really can't love anyone more then your own child. And you can't expect mothers who can't afford a child to abort/kill him/her just because she can't afford him/her. If she chooses to do that herself, that's her choice, but should she be forced to do it? Of course not. Are we going to wait until we strike it rich to have them? Of course not. So, why should someone else?

Millions of people are living in poverty and on the streets without jobs who can't finds jobs today. I say we help the legal citizens only. We need to send illegals back where they came from.

If they want to come here, fine, but come here legally and become a legal citizen.

352, - anon140079: Wow. I hope that you never need to experience what it's like to not have something to eat or something that you need. Your statement makes you sound really selfish and self-centered. Your statement makes me very angry that someone out there is someone out there who is really, really that selfish.

I've known people who just don't care, but those very same people who say that they don't care would give their t-shirt off of their backs to help someone out. I understand it's your opinion but what you said, to me, is very wrong.

I understand that you don't like any government assistance but there are also food banks that help people in need out, too. Do you hate them, too?

I hope that one day you can see for yourself what I'm telling you is true. Life's not just about getting; it's about giving. I could not live with myself if I knew someone in need and could help them but didn't.

Welfare upsets me. Why should I pay tax dollars to help someone else? It really makes me mad.

No you have no "right" to food, life, or anything else. If you can't feed yourself, then that's your own problem, you know? What makes people think that just because they live in the United states, they "deserve" stuff?

You don't deserve anything but freedom to make or break yourself. If that means you starve to death, so be it. If that means you become a millionaire, so be it. It's all of to you.

I have no sympathy for people on welfare.

@129: Some people are just down and out on their luck. They go to college and get nothing but minimum wage jobs.

They, not being perfect like everyone else have children or a child. You can't expect women who become pregnant to abort a child just because they can't afford him/her. Why would you do that when there are so many options out there for you?

Now, if someone if down on their luck but still pays their taxes after working as many hours as they can, then why shouldn't they get help?

So, you're saying that because you make 60,000 a year that everyone else will get the same after college? Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. Not everyone makes that kind of money.

You're lucky to even have a job, some people look day and night and can't even find a job.

And maybe they had children and once were making that 60,000 dollars that you were talking about but lost their job (due to the economy) and can't find one?

Should those people starve and live on the streets because they aren't supposed to ask for help? No, of course not. And you shouldn't either. No one who is a US citizen who pays taxes should ever go hungry or live on the streets. That's what some of the taxes go to. Have a heart.

If you were having that hard of a time you'd ask for help too, wouldn't you?

And I honestly don't care if it's help from our government, help from a friend, family, or help from a food pantry. If that person or their family needs help then by golly, they should get it!

Please don't feel bad in getting help. That is what it's there for and I'm happy to pay taxes and help people out as long as those people pay their taxes to and are US citizens who are honest hard working people. That is all.

No. 38: You're being judgmental. Everyone here pays taxes out of their paycheck. Everyone I know works very hard for their money. No one really has a "free ride". Some people are just unfortunate and aren't able to make more then minimum wage and never make it with that.

If they need the help to feed their family and are honest tax paying citizens then why can't they get the help if they need it.

Some people like me aren't aren't able to work because of the situation that they are in.

It would cost 10-15 bucks an hour for me to get/hire a baby sitter/daycare worker to get to watch my child. That alone would be my entire paycheck and then some.

So, I stay at home while my husband works his butt off and pays our taxes.

Only problem is it's just not enough for one income to make things work. He works 10 hour days and doesn't come home until late at night most nights.

I could work evenings for like two hours, but who would hire me for that little bit of time?

Financially it's hard. We can't afford the food and shelter that we need.

So, yes, I'm trying to get all the help that I can. And why not?

There's nothing wrong with getting help if you really need it. Sometimes we must swallow our pride.

And if that means asking government, friends, family, and churches for help to keep you from starving or living on the streets, then so be it!

343: I do not hate your guts! If you need help who's to say that you shouldn't get it? Get help if you need it that's what it's there for. It doesn't make you a bad person. People who don't ask for help and really do need it are cowards.

I am a single mother who survived on welfare for 4.5 years while obtaining a degree. After graduation, I left the program and now work full-time and pay my taxes which, in part, help others in [temporary] need.

There is a two-part problem with welfare in the USA: poor regulation and abuse. In a nutshell, a lot of women abuse the system, but for every one of those children, there is also an absent father not living up to his end, either.

Caseworkers are so overloaded (because we are not willing to spend tax dollars to hire enough workers), so nearly every follow-up falls through the cracks. As result, not all recipients seek work in the way required (my ex-neighbor had a Master's degree and collected welfare for herself and her 15 year old child).

The answer to all these problems is not- "limiting rights to reproduce" (this is not China, folks), nor is it to leave them on their own (this is not a primitive jungle, we are not wild animals), but rather education, education, education and follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.

And those opposed to welfare in the first place, I pray you never find yourself left by your spouse with three children (and no college education because you were a housewife), or injured on the job, or stricken with life threatening illness, or elderly with a bankrupt retirement fund, ad naseum. Abuses do occur, but the welfare program also saves lives. The abusers' children should not be forced to suffer. Let's grow some consciences here, please.

In reply to post 300: I hope you are joking about majority rule or more the point mob rule, because that's all Democracy is: the tyranny of the majority. You all need to realize that we live in a Republic, one in which the majority cannot vote to plunder the minority no matter how great the "need".

The provided statistics: 27 percent of those on welfare have been on it two to five years. Even on the other resources I have found, this was true even before the recent recession. That is a college career!

I'm 27 and have worked since I was 16. The longest I went without a job was two months!The last year, when things were horrible, I worked 70 hours a week at two fast food jobs and then a fast food job and walmart.

Before I go on, the stats say 20 percent of welfare recipients have been for over five years! Government cheese is their career! I know some people like this who have been on it, unemployed for 20 years.

Why are over half of welfare recipients on it for over two years, even before this recession? Because the other people get jobs while those who don't want to don't. So the number of permanent welfare recipients snowballs every year as those who don't want to work never leave.

Eventually, they will make up nearly all welfare recipients because their numbers only grow!

wow. some of you -- most of you -- would probably hate my guts. i have a sleep disorder, am totally disabled and unemployable.any amount of stress disables me from being able to sleep. All through high school and afterward trying to work, the very thought of having to go to school the next day or work the next day would literally keep me from sleeping all night every night.

i eventually wound up receiving total disability at 21 years of age. I'm unemployable. Period. The weird thing is that a person just by talking to me or hanging with me wouldn't see that there's anything wrong with me. My disorder isn't visible for all to see. I've learned to live with it and laugh at jerks who define me as someone who lollygags around all day and and received nearly 800 dollars monthly.

In fact, it's a percentage of my father's social security benefits, not joe the plumber's. from experience, let me add here that i can tell that many of these posters here are jealous and nothing more than that. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if many here don't believe in psychiatry or emotional and mental disabilities that one can't visibly see. In other words, i think many of these posters have the uneducated view that if a person has two arms and two legs they can do something. Sorry but that's a nice myth and that's all it is.

If you know someone who is gaming the system, call in on them. we are allowing this to happen and for the people who are taking up for this i am willing to bet you are lying also to get free government benefits you are not entitled to. if you cannot afford a child don't have one.

About the post regarding Australia. It is not a more generous system than ours. Living in Australia is very expensive- taxes on everything you buy are very high, and it is not uncommon for people working in retail for example to have one or two roommates not related by blood. There is socialized medicine for the entire country, so medical benefits are irrelevant.

No minimum wage, it is by profession and each profession has a union that sets the wage. People in retail make about 23.00 and hour- however, making that in Australia is very low and you will not be able to afford living in apartment by yourself or own a car. Everyone who does drive, drives older model tiny cars that are kept perfectly clean. An Australian woman has just a few blouses, a few skirts and neat pants and a couple of pairs of shoes. They are not carrying a different bag for every color combination. Even at the Opera hall, it was obvious who the Australians were. They carried a larger bag, not matching their outfit at all, and they hauled their change of clothes in it to go from work to the opera house. They would not even waste the bus fare to go home, let alone own a car to do so.

I loved Australia. They are not riddled with crime, teenage drop-outs in school, and you do not see strollers and pregnant people everywhere. They are not a fast multiplying nation, as welfare is not how they think. They are not lazy like here. You do not see the tons of overweight people either. Everyone works.

If you want to emigrate there, it is almost impossible to do without a college education. And even with it, there is a point system which includes your age, education, medical needs. They do not want you if you are old, sick, a baby factory or uneducated. I would like to see you try and get into Australia and be ghetto trash and not work. They would never let you in as you are clearly uneducated, drowning in self- pity and thinking others want and should pay for your choice to be an idiot. Welfare, except for the inured and handicapped or elderly, needs to be eliminated. I would support helping head of households that are on minimum wage and work 40 hours a week.

So you have to get up very early to drop your child off at head start, well, you knew a baby was a sacrifice and a financial liability before you had it. Welfare should only be paid to people who have paid taxes, not the teenagers that just want to multiply. Stop paying them and watch the birthrate into poverty and illiteracy disappear. Make them work a minimum of 40 hours a week or they are eligible for nothing.

All of you violate my rights. I am forced to pay taxes to support the federal, local and state government and I have no say so as to whether to support you or not. The government does not exist to give out free stuff, yet another deadbeat on the welfare role, I am sure. I have never collected a penny in my life. I have held two and three jobs my whole life. I did not give birth to anything as I did not leave poverty until I was in my late 30s and felt I was too old. Boo hoo. So what? Who gets everything they ever expected or wanted? No one.

I did not have any children as I was in poverty and you should not either. You are terrible parents, the illiteracy and crime and drug rates in the welfare world are appalling. You subsidize your role as a parent with my money then you are a horrible parent. So why bother? You are screwing up your kids anyway, and we should cut them all off. Work 40 hours minimum.

You made a decision that keeps you in poverty. Stop griping already. You don't deserve what you are getting, let alone more.

No work, no eat. Every welfare recipient should be required to work 40 hours a week. Invest in head start so they can work. Second child, nothing. If welfare is a temporary service to help you get past a problem, then the second one is not temporary- it is a plan. It needs to end.

Don’t get pregnant. Recognize it as a long term financial commitment that you yourself must sacrifice for. The reason we are biased against welfare is there are just too many of you. I read a report that one in seven Americans is on food stamps. Welfare, other than the condition of a permanent handicap, should only be provided if the person has worked and paid into the system. You should not be able to draw a benefit you have never paid for.

Don’t understand birth control, or mistakes? Bull. If there was no check, you would learn it immediately. No one should get pregnant until they have maxed out their potential educationally, because without some sort of secondary education, you will always be horribly poor. Having babies is not a skill or job in which the rest of us are seeing fit to pay for. The same problem exists all over the world; people that can stay in the welfare system often do.

I would be much more inclined to help a person who held a minimum wage, full-time job. They work a minimum of 40 hours a week, on the clock taxed and they could be eligible for benefits to help them get by. If you do not work 40 hours, you get nothing. It’s your problem if you do not have a car or all the things you need. If you are not a full-time wage earner, you won’t. You sealed your own fate.

I have held full time and sometimes full time plus two part-time jobs since I was 13 years old. My mother had a birth certificate forged and set me to work like a slave. If cutting onions was good enough for me to do for 14 years, why is it not good enough for you? I of course, was eligible for nothing as I did not have children. I never have. I knew I could not afford them, so I did not have them. I am now 52 and I have no regrets, other than not graduating from college. I let all the working to survive stand in my way.

I am going to college now part-time and I own a successful small business. I go to college as I want to correct a wrong: my teenage and young adult life were lost to others greed. The point is this: I could not afford a baby, so I never had one. I could afford one now, but do not want one at this age. So, I never experienced being a mother.

Where is it written that we get to fulfill every desire, want or dream? I wanted a Porsche when I was in my 20’s as well, but I could not afford one and of course, never got one. So what? I no longer want a Porsche, I no longer want children. And if you must have children in your care, become a foster parent. There are many thousands of neglected children and babies already here. But few people want them, but they insist on bringing their own in, that they have no intention of supporting.

No one cares if you are poor or have no clothes. You paid nothing, so you deserve nothing. Help the people who have work backgrounds, who are working and down on their luck or need to educate themselves. Other than a severely handicapped person or child, I do not want to hear about it any more.

School is free -- and welfare families have the worst academics. If your job is to be a full-time or close to it Mom, why do the parents who hold full-time jobs do better at parenting than you? You bring up criminals with a welfare mentality and a 75 percent drop out rate. You stink as parents. We should stop subsidizing. You are terrible parents and your children suffer because you are stupid, lazy and selfish.

Reform welfare. If you are not clocking in 40 hours minimum at a job, you lose all benefits. Watch how fast they find jobs. I would much rather help a wage earner on minimum wage or above that, but on the poverty line, than a freebie to the lazy swine who make a business out of it. No work, no food, no medical, no money. Anyone can get hired at fast food restaurants and most kitchens and nursing homes. I did it for 14 years.

If all of you died tomorrow and we stacked you up like cord wood, I could care less. If I can work multiple minimum wage jobs for 14 years and not get pregnant as I could not afford it, you could too. Accept it: I do not care if your life stinks when you choose to approach us with your hand out. Cut hand-outs. You don’t work, you don’t eat. In what world of logic do our poorest citizens do not work? And for get immigrants coming here for this as well. We do not want you on our welfare rolls. I would not give a dime to any non-citizen.

You think I am harsh? Live the life I did with the struggling to survive my whole life before you judge me. I have put up with your crap my whole life, and have never taken a penny from you. You pay your own way or jump off a bridge somewhere. I do not care about you. Get out of your self-pity, get a job, or starve. That’s the reform we need: work or starve.

i want to know why some people can be on welfare their whole lives with nothing wrong with them, but i am a 30 year old man with no kids and i worked for 11 years at a company that decided to move the jobs to china and i can't even get one cent. if i were a woman, then they would just hand me as much as i wanted. is this really fair. i think the government is sexist!

Some of these posts just make me sick to my stomach. I divorced when my son was almost two years old and I was 23. I worked but didn’t make enough money to support us. I asked for help (back in 1982) and was told that I made too much money. I did it on my own. Rent, food, car, daycare, etc. I was so proud of myself for not living off the government! Pride! That’s what it’s all about: pride!

I have a family member who had an eight year old daughter, met a guy who had two kids (one and two years old), and then she got pregnant and had twins. Neither one of them work. She spends hours on the computer looking for ways to get more money. The twins were born early and she gets money for that every month. The other two kids mother had died, so they get money. She gets ADC, food stamps, WIC and who knows what else. They have a big screen TV, both have Blackberries, (and both have a free government phone), and they go here and there. They have a lot more than I do.

She just got a check for $20,000 from SS and accepted help for Christmas from a company. She bought all the kids everything they wanted, but got free gifts from this company. They were paying to get her van fixed, but she went out and paid cash for a newer one: $10,000.

Makes me sick. I am so sick of paying for people who don’t deserve it. And the best thing is, that neither one of them got fixed, so they could pop another one out very soon!

I agree with some of the other people's posts. The single mother with kids thing shouldn't apply to anyone under a certain age. Everyone had sex education of some sort, we all know the chances we take and consequences we may face when we choose to have sex regardless of whether you use protection or not. Even "protection" isn't 100 percent safe.

So if you're still a young one (below 20 years old at least), all i can say is maybe you should have listened to your parents and teachers. You are responsible for making the bed you're lying in. If you were raped in some way or had a gun held to your head, or disabled, unable to work and left abandoned by your lover and the father of your children that's different. You don't have many choices if any, at all.

But, if you're a single mom who dosen't fit into one of these categories or something similar to them, then why should the state and hard working taxpayers who support their families be responsible for your poor choices and supporting you through welfare? Get a job, even two or three if you have to and bust the dead beat father. Make his life a living hell until he either does his share or gives up his rights.

In response to #331 in regards to your comment: My question to you is how do you know for sure they're on SSD. Do you go up and ask them? Do your know them personally? And secondly, i would like to ask how you know for sure or can make a determination if a person is disabled and deserves to be on SSD? Are you a medical doctor of some sort? Do you know these people lives or histories?

As the old saying goes don't judge a book by it's cover. There are some people who have disabilities that you can't always clearly see or that aren't as obvious as other people. So unless you know these type of people personally that make you angry you really shouldn't judge them. And if they're on SSD, then that means they've put in their time, worked real jobs and paid taxes. SSD is not welfare! It's earned income government paid income you earn by working and paying taxes that accumulate over a period of years. The longer you work the and the more taxes your pay the more you get.

It's there to protect people who work and pay their taxes so that if at some point in your life you unexpectedly become disabled through no fault of your own and can't work anymore you have a way to live.

Now if you were referring to people on SSI, that's a whole different animal. That is a form of welfare and is not earned in any way. But still once again you don't know a persons situation, what if they got a serious disease or disability when they were young? Like say at the age of 7 or 12 or younger that seriously limited or interfered with their ability to work or do much else so they never had the capability or opportunity to work a "real job" and pay their taxes long enough to earn SSD? That's why SSI is there for people like that.

Yes, a lot of people abuse the system and it's sickening and sad, but how do you weed those people out when there's so many. Some of the abusers are very clearly obvious and others aren't.

All I'm saying is, until you know all the facts about a person and their situation and your educated well enough to know the differences between SSD, SSI, SSP, welfare and how each one works it's really not appropriate to judge or put down people who are on these programs.

I don't know why my posts aren't showing, probably because I am in defense of welfare instead of opposed to it, so maybe this will help those people who are so bitter towards their fellow man. God says love thy neighbor. Also remember that judging is God's job, so please allow him to do it.

Also the only thing in life that is guaranteed is change, so what if that change lands you in need? What will you do then? Think before you condemn. God bless.

I am a disabled single mother of three. I busted my butt to provide for first myself(since the age of 11) and then my kids until I was no longer able to do so. I have applied and been denied for SSDI and SSI twice now although I have MS and Epilepsy, as well as diabetes.

Now are you people who are so against welfare going to tell me that I don't have the right to have some help from the government? I understand that there are some people out there who abuse the system, but should that make it impossible for people who really need it to get help? how fair would that be?

It's already hard enough as is in this world for people like myself, and now you want my children and I to starve and be homeless. Have a heart. It even says in the bible to love thy neighbor!

I am a single mother of two wonderful boys. My situation is a little different. My husband raped me at gunpoint and ended up in prison. I worked part time and was quickly running out of money to support my boys and me. I was living off of money we had saved up for a Walt Disney World trip. When that was gone, I had to turn to welfare.

I tried to look for a full time job but anytime I came around a man I had panic attacks. Through therapy I am overcoming this problem. Going on welfare was the last thing I wanted to do because of the stigma that comes with it. I have a nice car, nice clothes and jewelry. But I am homeless, have no money and my children are growing out of their clothes. Welfare does help a little. I get $428 cash and $193 in food stamps. I am going to start school in February, hoping to get a full time job and get off of welfare.

When I go to the market I am embarrassed to pull out my EBT card. I hide it and feel ashamed. I always make sure that I am not alone when I go to the market just in case someone says something to me. Sometimes the cashiers look at me funny when I use my EBT card. I just want to tell them how I ended up in this situation.

But I agree with everyone that there are so many who abuse the system. When I go to the welfare office I see it all over and so many people feel they are entitled. I cower in the corner when I am there because honestly it is a scary place to be. I know in California if you have children after you apply for welfare, you do not get credit for them.

But please remember some of us don't want to be in this situation and are trying to get out of it. I would much rather work hard than to be on welfare all my life. Slowly I am working towards being able to do that.

Some people on here bash people who get assistance. I am a single mother of three who was with my children's father for 10 years. We split up because he was unfaithful.

After the split, I was working but not making enough to get by so I had to get food stamps and medicaid. I still went to work every day and I also pay taxes. I do not knock the people who need help at some point in their lives. It's the people who are to lazy to get off their butts and work, and why should they if they can get a free ride?

The problem with the system is that they need to put a time limit on these bums for how long they can get assistance. It is ridiculous when you see a person in the welfare office who has been on it their whole life. At some point the system should have told them to get a job!

This also goes for the Social security system. I see people out here who have nothing wrong with them but sit at home and get SSD, but the people who really need it can't because of these people. Where are the people who get paid to watch to see if these people are committing fraud? We need to be mad at the system and the lazy pathetic people who abuse it, not the ones who truly are in a bad situation and need it temporarily.

Here's a point a lot of you might want to consider?

Why bother working? You bust your gut for someone, and they give you a crust to live on.

Welfare rates are set at a level where they are designed to provide someone with just enough money to live a very basic standard of living and if hard work pays a similar amount then it means you are working your arse off to barely afford to live. Maybe employers shouldn't be as greedy and pay a fair wage in return for the hard work they receive?

I don't believe everyone is equal in this country. If you aren't doing your part to make this country what it is you need to be kicked out. No healthy man should be getting any support at all! Single mothers need help, but it should be illegal for them to keep having kids they can't afford. I work really hard to support my family, and don't have any respect for anyone out there not doing the same!

To - anon127280: I agree with you. I am a 19 years old full time college-student at Temple University and part time employee. I have one daughter and I am on welfare. And I have a Droid phone. (lol) You are right about people who really need it do not get it.

I was trying to get it in my area but they said i make too much. So i had to lie and say i live with my aunt, "to whom I pay rent" and applied in a different area and i got approved. I was on cash benefits when i was not working. I got a job around $8.25 and they took me off,anything over minimum wage they will discontinue cash. But we are living in 2010 and who gets paid minimum wage nowadays anyway?

This isn't even the bad part. They hassle me about not doing enough! They want me to come into the office and "make-up time", which they have no idea how to go about that because every time I go into the office they take hours to assist you. And once they do all they do is call each other one the phones and ask useless questions.

They will truly waste your time.

I am a welfare recipient. I have two children, and have been with the father of my children for five years. I was on welfare (medical, food, wic, cash) from pregnancy until my daughter was one. My fiance and I have worked very hard to pay for the cost of living and our second daughter's birth.

He worked full time and I worked part time so that we could switch off caring for our kids, and we barely made enough to live on. Right after the baby was born he got laid off.

We had to wait a couple months after the lay off to apply, because they said we made to much the previous month and I made enough hourly so we weren't qualified! Mind you, we were struggling in the first place, because we paid higher rent to live in a safer area, and still had looming medical bills and we had no luxuries, not even cable.

With his pay (which was twice mine) gone, we were sinking fast. I told my employer that I needed to drop my work hours, with much humiliation, and had to tell him it was because i couldn't live without assistance. Then I signed up for school, so I could get a better paying job, and my fiance did too.

I am still working P/T, going to school 3/4 time, and caring for my family. My finance and I can afford to get married now, thanks to student loans, and are living more comfortably then when we worked our butts off! That's just not right!

Granted, I am very grateful, and am not abusing the system, but feel that it's terrible to live better on welfare than off!

I'm on welfare calling for reform! Reform! It should not be abolished, but it should not create dependency, either!

If there was no benefit there would be a greater cost to taxpayers because these benefits prevent a greater burden when we are left paying the high taxes on prisons, orphanages, and medical costs for ourselves because the poor can't afford a doctor.

Reform, people! Not all of us are on drugs, drinking, etc. People who are given opportunity for advancement and are ambitious recontribute to society. They are eager to become more.

Oh and one thing: for all you people out there who think women keep having babies so they can stay on welfare obviously don't bother to read because they think everything they hear is true. There is a cap on the amount and the length of time you can receive benefits.

Instead of whining on here about it, be an american, write your state reps, and congress person. Voice your concerns and ideas.

Also, if you know of anyone defrauding the system it is your obligation to report them! If they are neglecting their children and you know about it and don't say anything, it's just as much a shame on you as it is them, because obviously you don't care enough either!

Those found guilty of child neglect or abuse, or guilt of fraud are permanently ineligible from all assistance programs.

I may be on welfare, and say what you will about me, but at least i have the common sense to know my rights and responsibilities, and do research instead of believing everything I hear!

Some of the comments made on here make me sick! For one, I am a college graduate! I became unemployed last year (2009) in May. I have applied for hundreds of jobs in different positions and no one will hire me!

I am five months pregnant and not even showing, yet, I no longer have unemployment compensation and the only thing I was eligible for was Medicaid! Do you people honestly think I want to be out of work and applying for welfare? I have been working since I was 13 years old! I am 29 now!

I am living and working in pa to pay for my house in Florida, market bad and no jobs down there so PA and work seemed logical.

Met the neighbors in my “neighborhood” and they are on welfare. Husband 40 is on disability from iv drug use- hep c, met his wife at a rehab- she is 22 – they have kids just popped one out last month, number 2. They receive WIC and $600 a month in food stamps.

I can buy the “foodies” for $.50 on the dollar so they can buy beer and cigarettes. I hate the system. He is on suboxone $1000/ month from the state, smokes pot, sells his pills, is on xanax, robs public parks of benches for scrap metal, gets a rent rebate and earned income credit for any bs jobs he works for a month!

I am done filing, done paying and I’m investing in guns. when dopes like this collapse the system, she will have to hook and he will turn to crime. I work my tail off and can’t afford health insurance. guess I’m healthy enough.

Social safety net programs are acceptable but when it becomes a lifestyle and is an entitlement? Then what? They live a crap life but can make the same living as working but instead, they can be drunk and stoned all day and make the same money.

Educational system? Yes that too needs work. The parents of these deadbeats seem to do well and pay them under the table. They need to be beaten too. These people ask me favors too, including a ride to a drug deal “got to get my medicine.” I punched this moron in the head and tossed him out of my car. Don’t worry not mad at me. it was a “misunderstanding.”

I keep them close enough to know I have several handguns and assault rifles and if I get robbed I know who to go see. why is the system like this? I can supply names but who would do anything? This is one of many where I live.

i think that people on welfare should just get a job! we all have places for people in our towns for a job even if its just for a few hours a night. i know a lot of welfare people who also keep having kids so they can keep getting free money from us the people who have to work to pay for our expenses.

Fact: Most people on welfare do not work. I don't know where you got your statistics.

You all seem to miss the real foundational problem here. If you can't afford a child or children, don't get pregnant. If you are too stupid to know this simple formula, I don't want to pay for your children with my tax dollars.

Why is everyone overlooking this simple truth? Bad decisions or stupid behavior is a choice! My tax money supporting these knuckleheads is not a choice. It should be! Let's call welfare by its real name: Hard working taxpayer funded stupidity.

I know there are actual needs but they are few compared to the vast majority of scammers. I say forget them. Cut the programs and watch them find a way to support themselves. When it's their money, I'll bet beer and smokes suddenly don't got on the grocery list first anymore (the way they do when I am paying).

Thank you for this website. finally I feel like I'm not alone. I am 25, have worked since I was 15, and currently make a comfortable living while pursuing my B.S. I go to community college (have paid cash so far) and am preparing to transfer to my four-year university.

When I get to university, I will receive no aid, no grants, and no housing for my family, because I am not a single mother. If I were, I'd have all that and more. I don't have children yet because I think it is irresponsible to intentionally have children you can't support. (There are always exceptions, which goes without saying.)

I work at a grocery store. Every first week of the month is extra busy (right after food stamps and WIC are distributed.) I see the same people coming in every month, buying candy and snacks, sodas, and sandwiches in the deli.

I would really like to know what qualifies these women to be able to afford better food than I can give my family. I have no children of my own, live with my fiance's family and help to support his disabled parents (and his two younger siblings.) His parents barely get enough SSI to cover rent. Together, they get $98 a month in food benefits.

I see the balances on the receipts of all those welfare moms. Some have upwards of $1000 on their EBT CASH accounts, which they cash out for things like liquor and cigarettes!

I know another girl, 18 years old with a 3 year old daughter. The daughter lives in Georgia, while her deadbeat mother lives here in CA and collects food stamps and WIC for this child who doesn't even live here!

Please, please someone do something to repair this injustice. If I see another pregnant welfare mom I think I will vomit. Yes, I admit I am jealous. I'm well educated, very much in love and happy. I want to start my family but I can't while I'm supporting everyone else's.

It doesn't help that some, not all-- not even close to all, of these women are the rudest, most crass individuals ever to grace my lines waiting for service. The least you could do is have a little humility and think before you start whining at me because you can't buy hot fried food with the money my taxes gave you.

On a bright note, I have heard that the aid administration is tracking EBT purchases and benefits will be revoked when withdrawals are made at strip clubs and casinos. Yay system.

I am a single mother of three. I work my butt off while these other people are sitting on their butts on welfare and having kids left and right. A lot of them are on drugs and welfare pays for it. They do nothing but make more kids. I know a person on SSI who can't work. But he has a stock car and works on it all the time. Sorry. If you can make kids and do other things, you can work.

Definite abuse. I have a friend who has her GED and graduated from a business/technical college. She is now on disability, gets school grants in the thousands and works full time under the table. What boggles my mind is how she is getting government grants when she is claiming she can't work!

If you can go and sit in a classroom all day why can't you go sit in an office and work, considering you already have a technical degree suited for office work! Ridiculous. This is just one story. I know several other two parent households that are on welfare and medicaid.

The parents in these situations could work more or find better jobs but don't because collecting a check is easier, and the one couple isn't getting married just so she can still get wic and food stamps. She's presenting herself as a single parent household even though she lives with her child's father. There is far more abuse than actual legitimate people in the system, which is sad because people who do actually need it suffer -- and taxpayers suffer.

To answer your comment (#313) I advise you to read the laws of trying to get medicaid, or a P.A budget. in your case, for Medicaid coverage, you must be a single parent. If you are married, the state looks at it as "your husband has to provide for you, no matter what."

Had you guys not been married, you would have been accepted with no problem. you should not have told them you are married, that's what hurt your case.

I've been reading a lot of these comments. I don't think anyone (or very few) people on this forum begrudges anyone getting public assistance if they need it. And many, many people need it. What gets their goat (and mine) is when people get the assistance and proceed to game the system. That happens, too.

And for those interested in "facts," here are a few, provided by personal experience and my cousin, who happens to be the adult intake director at our county's family services office, and has been a social worker for 25 years.

People who make dirt nothing are often not eligible for welfare or food stamps. My husband's dad is a prize jerk. He kicked my husband out of the house, basically because he wanted to go to college instead of "getting real and getting a job."

My husband's mother died when he was 19, by the way, and he was her primary caregiver. His dad was off spending money on other women, leaving his oldest son to care for his wife, who was dying of pancreatic cancer at age 39.

His dad was transferred 500 miles from their home, and my husband had to follow. He was kicked out and had to survive on his own. He worked two jobs and lived in a two-room apartment. He didn't have a car, but had to walk everywhere, regardless of the weather conditions. He was offered a grand total of $30 a month in food stamps, and no welfare at all. Had he been a single mom, the benefits would have been readily available. Not criticizing single moms -- just saying. If one of his jobs had not been at a restaurant, he could well have starved to death. Yes, in this country, he could have starved. He went to a food pantry and asked for help. Know what he got? Three cans of tuna and a sleeve of crackers. The woman ahead of him with two children? She got a carload of groceries. Let me remind you my husband was working *two* jobs at this time. He was no freeloader. But once he paid rent and utilities, there wasn't much left.

A friend of mine lost her job and was caring for her mentally ill brother. Her mother rarely helped them out. She went to the food pantry and got pretty much the same response. No children, no food. I bought groceries for her a couple of times to supplement the little she received from the food pantry.

And women on welfare getting degrees. That's interesting, considering most of them do not have GEDs. If they had a child before they graduated from high school, the chances of them getting a GED go down by 80 percent. However, those who graduated high school before having children have a much higher incidence of getting a college degree if they are on welfare. I think it's great when they get that degree. I applaud their desire to better themselves.

Fact: People game the system. Fact: It is the children who truly suffer, because when they grow up in that atmosphere, often, they know no other way to survive. My dad taught special education and the majority of his students were on welfare. They used to ask him if he had change for a $20 or a $50. He was a teacher with a college degree, drove a two-door car with a stick shift and no air-conditioning and we ate a lot of cheap hamburger and instant mashed potatoes. Going out was a rarity. My mom worked too. But he hardly ever saw a $20 bill. It was a big deal when I had enough babysitting money to see a movie or buy a record. I remember going to students' homes with him when he needed to have a parent conference. Some of the students lived in virtual shacks, but a Cadillac sat in the front yard. People defraud the system every single day.

If someone needs help, I want that person to get help. I don't automatically judge single mothers. I know many of them are in impossible circumstances.

But I also know for a stone, cold fact that there are people who are living very, very well on the welfare system, have no intention of ever getting off welfare and are bringing up their children with the same sense of entitlement. It's sad. I'm not sure what the answers are, but I can tell you the system doesn't work very well as it currently operates.

To people who are on these boards trashing people on welfare: Just remember, those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Fact: most people on welfare are employed.

Yeah, that means they work, but between paying for daycare, car insurance, roof over head and utilities. They do not earn enough money to cover it all.

Therefore, they apply for state assistance.

Fact: Domestic violence is a vast contributor to the reason why a lot of women become "single moms on the dole" (as you're all trashing single moms.)

Fact: Most single moms on welfare are getting college educated. So, when they graduate they do tend to give back to the community. How fortunate you all are who aren't on welfare.

P.S. Yeah, I agree: they should drug test people on welfare. I for one am a recipient and could care less. I've never done drugs but I was raped and I had my child. And for this I am being judged every day I go buy groceries or take my child to the doctor.

I am married and have one teenage son. I have not slept around. I know who my "baby's daddy" is. I do not drink nor do I do drugs. My husband has a full time job in which we pay taxes for these programs that are designed to help people in need. However, he makes minimum wage and with the economy the way it is I can not find work.

But because he makes minimum wage and works 40 hours a week, we do not qualify for medical assistance. He is right now going back to college and hopefully things will get better for us.

I have a huge problem with welfare. It is only there for the abusers, not people like us who need it. Where we live for a family of three $7.35 an hour 40 hours a week is too much money for welfare benefits. Talk all you want how the system is screwed up, but you all miss the other side of it: the true way that it is screwed up. We were at the office for three hours, waiting and watching young people come in on their Droids and iPhones texting people, wearing designer clothes and shoes. They found the loop hole where we live. As long as you keep having a baby every five years you will never have to work again.

And here we sit, in desperate need. We don't have fancy clothes or fancy cellphones. We just want to be able to see a doctor when we are sick. We don't want the food stamps. We don't want cash. We just want to be able to seek medical help when we need it. But we were denied because my Husband's income exceeds the maximum amount allowed. Sad? I would say so.

What about wealthy people naturalized citizens bringing their relatively wealthy parents over from countries like China and then abusing the system?

They bring them over after sponsoring them and then soon have them on Medicaid and then Medicare, welfare, food stamps and then 'rent' out a portion of their house to these parents and then collect 'housing aid' for them. I have a co-worker from China who is doing just that.

This abuse must be looked into and stopped.

Why should the taxpayer subsidize this?

I can't believe how many people are on this website saying taxpayers should butt out because the government pays for welfare not the citizens. Hello! Where do you think the gov gets the money, does it have a job and earn it's own to give away? No, it taxes it from the citizens.

In my opinion, if society restricts free choice, planned parenthood's efforts to educate about the facts of life, limits birth control and bans abortion, then society must deal with the results, which is babies and children.

You cannot say not to have babies or prohibit the termination of pregnancy and then chastise anyone for having children, it happens.

Also, all churches should have free childcare to take care of all the babies they so vigorously defended while they were fetuses but forget about once they are born. It's not the baby's fault they were brought into this world so they should be taken care of.

I agree with 303 and have personally witnessed fraud with the government assistance program. Not WANTING to get a real job or reporting income is fraud. Then getting pregnant and having WIC pay and medicaid covering expenses makes me want to scream. Living with your boyfriend is not the issue but reporting being a single mom with no other income is!

I gave up so much raising my kids and took time off. My choice and the income went down. It never occurred to me to apply for assistance. Of course we planned our kids. I am tired of the mistakes. We have way too many ways to help with this. Government assistance is way too easy. I feel better now! Finally a forum I can vent to.

I have a problem with people saying that you should not be able to vote while you are on welfare and are worthless and lazy.

I was severely hurt in work over a year ago and I am in the process of having surgery in the next few months. My husband still worked up until he was in a bad accident earlier this year. He has been out of work since then and has had multiple surgeries.

We also have a five year old son who we have to provide for. I swore in the past that I would never turn to welfare. But in the past year with me getting hurt and my husband's accident, we were falling behind.

Now we have a temporary monthly income of $1300 a month from his disability. My case is tied up in workers comp court and as of right now I am not receiving any kind of income.

Our expenses every month are almost $2400. So I turned to welfare for my five year old son's sake, so he can have food on the table and a roof over our heads.

As soon as my husband is able to return to work and I get my surgery and am able to return to work, I will not need welfare benefits to survive. As soon as we are able I will not need welfare anymore. So I feel I should be able to vote.

You are basically saying because we are disabled for a temporary time we shouldn't vote. We are also not worthless or lazy. We both have been working since we were 15 years old.

As a result of "the dole" or more commonly known as welfare, the people of this country have become quite lazy. In addition all of you who continually reference that welfare is a state funded operation realize where the state actually gets it's money from? Yeah that's right, taxes. In some form or another, all the money use to fund welfare is based on taxes.

it's insane how completely wrapped up in your own delusions some of you can be. You aren't helping anyone by defending these lazy people. you're only hurting the already crippled psychological aspects of these people convinced that "they deserve help" when society would be better off without them.

OK, enough of this. I am 28, and have been on my own since 17. I got a job, mowing lawns, and put myself through school. Paid cash, no loans, no grants, no aid. Now I have a bachelors of science, and work 80 to 100 hours a week, because all the help I try to hire thinks the job is too hard. I have stopped looking to hire now.

Now there is one less job available on the market because of all these people sitting on their couches, pumping out snot nose brats. No more welfare until all the jobs are filled.

I am a 19 year old college student, a full time employee and a republican. Welfare, I believe, is misused so much that this is what our country is being based off of. Freeloading drug addicts who don't do a damn thing. I am currently searching for info to write a report on random drug tests for welfare recipients. And I have definitely stirred the pot on this one.(no pun intended.)

My professor put us in groups and we had to tell those around us what our topics were and when a stated mine a girl (mother of two 19 years old- Daddy: Unknown) in my group goes "I have a problem with that." OK, I say, what's the problem? "I'm on welfare and so are all my friends and we get drunk and smoke pot all the time." Well honey, thank you for proving my point!

I'm not saying welfare shouldn't be around. I'm saying a lot of people just don't try.

But don't worry. For those of you who do mistreat the system, I will keep providing my tax dollars so you can get your fix.

Our "system" is set up by a bunch of rich folks in government who have no idea about being poor. Welfare should not be a handout. Get a job and welfare will supplement your income, go to school and welfare will help until you get a job. But to just hand money out to folks perfectly capable of working or getting educated? That is why we have a huge deficit.

Each state would save thousands a month in welfare if they would enforce their own child support orders. Allowing a deadbeat to throw $20 bucks at a $1000 a month order for child support, forcing the single parent on to welfare. Check it out. It's true. If you owe child support and pay something ever 30 days, the system will not touch you. I know, because my ex currently does that and I can get no help from child support enforcement. Suing him for contempt, Ha! I have, they do nothing.

Luckily I can take care of our son, but what about those single parents who can't? The welfare system is sucking the US dry. How many hear about welfare reform any more?

The laws need to change. It's funny though, when I contacted my local government regarding the issue (and the fact that my ex is on welfare with four kids, a wife and the girlfriend of his other son and does not pay support). They (governor, state representative, etc.) kept passing me off to someone else. This was not their issue. Seriously? Not your issue? If you represent anyone in the state I live in, then it is your issue.

I have a reporter interested in what is going on so hopefully some changes can happen.

To all you single parents "doing it." Look, I am not opposed to welfare. I know it is sometimes necessary, and I have utilized it in my life, but not as an income. It was an assistance until I could get an income. I have since graduated college, all the while supporting my son as a single mom. Not to mention, my son is disabled. So if I can do it, anyone can do it.

I am a 16 year old student and I myself have witnessed many cases of welfare abuse. This is extremely disgusting. What is our world coming to? I understand that some people truly and honestly need the welfare benefits (the elderly, disabled, some single parents, etc.)

What I don't understand is the women spitting out kids left and right so that they will receive more benefits. If you couldn't afford yourself to begin with, why reproduce and make the tax payers pay for your incompetence to use proper contraception? And please, one of you claimed that birth control has failed you three times. couldn't you have learned maybe from the second kid? Quit having sex!

You women who are parents who don't get married so that you can receive benefits a single parent would, it's fraud. You make me sick.

For all the people who become unemployed and don't ever get up off your butt and find a job, worthless.

This governmental system is not effective. It's sad that the government tries to help our citizens and people abuse it. I believe that there should be mandatory drug tests, limits on children, more detailed documentation in applying for jobs, and monitoring of recipients.

Sorry, welfare recipients who do not abuse the system but are discriminated against because of the people who do. Something needs to be done, and soon.

Stop having kids for profit! It's terrible! So many welfare recipients don't parent these kids and they end up in prison using, costing money again.

What a horrible situation we are in with all these awful people perpetuating this. No pride!

They are always standing there with their hands on their hips saying "The system failed me! You owe me." I don't owe you jack! Welfare recipients are the scourge of society. They should have no right to vote. They don't deserve anything but bare survival necessities!

Everyone on welfare should have a urine test to get their check every time they get one. Drugs = no check for you!

All of you need to understand that this system was set up by our government. They produced all of this to occur. Not all people on public assistance abuse it. But it's the government that does not follow up and does not hire enough people.

A lot of the single moms on welfare are not getting child support -- again the government not going after the fathers (or absent parents). Many people are disabled and cannot work a full 40 hour week and at minimum wage? Please.

The educational system is stratified and keeps the poor ignorant while giving the rich kids a better education. I was not aware that how much your parents make will depend on what kind of education one gets. Again, the government. Revolution needs to happen. The majority rules. Well it should, right?

@anon116708: What your mom did is tough I'll give you that. My mom raised three kids, went to school and worked. She did not get a hand out from anybody; that's not the way my family is.

If you want to survive, you get a job. I feel that If you're working hard and still need help, you deserve it, but people are just not honest, and that is why so many people are against welfare.

How do you explain whole generations or family on welfare? People just need to wake up, I mean i see more and more people using their EBT at liquor stores, casinos and grocery stores buying crappy foods to feed their kids. My mom even cooked dinner from scratch every night.

We need a way of "weeding" out these jerks who are going to screw it up for the rest of people, but we never will though. instead we should pass laws that say if you're on welfare, you will give up your right to vote until you're off, specify what EBT needs to be used for. You cannot gamble, buy liquor, or use welfare money at strip clubs, and you must do 12-24 hours of biweekly volunteer work before you get your check.

The check must be directly deposited into a bank account that you must have six months prior to your application.

Lastly, we need to make qualifications tighter, and take individual circumstances into account. For example, if you are a single person with no kids, you need to do 32-40 hours a week of volunteer work, vs. a single parent with a kid(s) who won't have to do as much community service.

When I've asked my mom how come she never went on welfare she said "I didn't ask the taxpayer permission to get pregnant so why should they take care of my kids?" Use your better judgment about whether you really need a break, or if you're just lazy.

What is it with you Americans? Being in a First World country comes with certain benefits, and one is a minimum lifestyle, a home, food, clothes and privacy. If you want to be like Mexico keep on going on like all the BS I just read above.

My mother had me at the age of 17. She got on welfare to help feed me. It wasn't something she was proud of but she did it for me. She got assistance to attend college and she completed her nursing degree while working and taking care of me.

She isn't a perfect person but she graduated college, got off of welfare and has been a Registered Nurse for the past 15 years.

I know the system isn't perfect but it helped us in the best way possible. My mother has been saving lives in the Intensive Care Unit for over 10 years and I am a proud service member in the United States Air Force. We have both contributed more back to society than most people do in a lifetime because of programs like welfare.

I don't agree with the way it is abused but we were able to eat because of welfare and I am eternally grateful for that.

Wow. To everyone on here complaining about "paying for those on welfare," you need to open a book. if you pay into your taxes and get it back at tax time, then you don't pay for anyone's welfare benefits! welfare is usually funded by the state, not citizens. if the state budget is cut, welfare benefits are cut back..

and to those whose simple reasoning extends to the idea of "stop having babies," they need to get a life. those are the ones who probably don't have kids because you're too closed minded.

for some people, having an abortion isn't easy. neither is adoption. and for others, like myself, some birth control methods don't work. i have three kids. i was on the pill, the patch and the depo shot and still got pregnant. it took me five years and three kids to find the mirena. thanks to rotating doctors and crappy insurance.

Six months after my third child was born, my husband of seven years split. he left me with nothing and when i say nothing that is exactly what i mean. he cleared out the house and terminated the lease without me knowing. i had no choice but to go to my parents, but they live in a retirement community and i couldn't stay there.

i was there three days and had no choice but to go and apply for welfare because I needed the help. They found me an apartment. it was disgusting. they paid my utilities and daycare while i searched for a job. but being out of work for six years didn't make me a high priority in HR eyes. so i had to join the "welfare to work" program or face losing my benefits.

this was a joke! Supposedly teaching work skills and interview skills. after i aced all their programs my caseworker accused me of not wanting to work, all because i did so well at the mock interviews and yet still couldn't find a job.

Anyone can do good at an interview if you have common sense and a good attitude. but i had large gaps in my work record. i said to hell with all that nonsense and enrolled in college. i was in college full time, the welfare to work program part time and still managed to run my household and care for my kids.

not everyone has it easy on welfare, despite what you think.

and section 8 housing does not care what kind of car you drive. they only care about how much money you make. maybe they are making money under the table to pay for those nice cars, but let me tell you: i get section 8 and it is federally funded. it's not welfare, and I do not have car at the moment. a drunk driver totaled mine. trust me it wasn't new by any means. it was 15 years old.

bottom line is: all you complainers need to mind your own business. if you're not on welfare, don't judge those who are. You're not paying for any of it and you don't know the reason why they are on welfare.

I am 19 years old and pregnant. I work and plan on working and am still receiving welfare benefits. I do not plan on milking the system as a lot of people are doing.

I got my high school diploma and I do plan on going to college after I have my child. I am with the father and he works as well, but this does not mean we can afford an apartment, electricity, gas/heat, maybe even cable, phone and internet along with both our cell phones. I am lucky to have my grandmother paying my bills because I do not make enough to pay my half of it on my own.

With both our incomes we can barely afford to move to a two-bedroom apartment without utilities and have enough to eat every day, and also pay for medical bills.

Yes, I am a pregnant teen but get this: I will be 20 before I have my baby. And the only reason I am resorting to welfare is to keep my baby healthy and not be overwhelmed with bills I cannot afford to pay.

There are a lot of pregnant teens who are actually abusing the system, but think about it as well.

Some may have no other choice and there are also tons of adults who are claiming to have 10 people in their households when they only have about three or four and are getting about $1,000 in food stamps. Don't blame the teens for that.

Stop having babies! Welfare may pay for your survival, but it doesn't pay for you to get a life!

The only way to live a joyous life is if you do it yourself! Some honest hardworking people need some real financial help, but many are not working at all!

People think it's too difficult not to get pregnant. The only thing that should be free is birth control, but even then people may abuse that and STDS could be on the rise in place of babies. What is this world coming to?

I love how majority of these kids asking are pregnant teens. try not getting pregnant and you won't have a problem.

For the past three years i have been on welfare. Before i was on welfare. I was a single women who had a wonderful job with full benefits! I had gone through a lot of stuff to get to the place where i never ever thought I'd be.

Do i like the fact that I'm on welfare and food stamps? No! Do i want to be able to live on my "own"? Yes! Without a doubt! Not everyone who is on welfare has nice things or has a nice place to live. I live in a low income apartment complex and i can't afford a bunch of nice things. i do try to fix it up and make it look as good as possible because i am in fact still a human being!

My son is always clean and dressed nicely, thanks due to kmart. Not the gap or children's place! I buy on sale! I make the money i do get last. Also, I'm attending school so i can depend on myself and my son can depend on me also. So all the people who are hating on people on welfare i would say hey, don't be so bitter about it.

Guess what? All the money that i get (which is $6,000 a year) all is forced to be paid back. With interest so the state is making money off of your tax dollars! Also the people who get a income tax check in the mail can kiss it because you didn't pay for anyone welfare! You paid for the roads you drive on and the police and firefighters and emts in you neighborhoods!

Just so you all know, i don't come back and check on my comments because that means i don't have a life. Also today i ended my welfare and my son and i are no longer living off the system! So stop crying. thanks.

People who abuse systems like this are pathetic, and i can't wait for the state to reform these programs.

i have two children. my children's mother has put me on child support because she feels i should pay for my kids when they are with her as well as with me. Although i don't like it, i do realize that most laws regarding children are predetermined to favor women so its out of my hands but I'm not secure financially.

i still live with my parents who are separating. Their separation takes money that was once delegated to helping me fund my children's needs until i get back on my feet right out of my pocket.

my child support payments are delinquent and i need help. I've searched high and low for a job but i haven't had any luck in months. i don't want to go to jail over this. I'm very much a part of my children's lives and i think it's a shame that the system is set up so poorly that the honest become victims. welfare is my prayer. i hope the government gods are listening.

If they claim you can only be on Welfare for two years, why do I see so many people who have been on it for many years? And if section 8 housing and HUD are for low income people? How is it they can afford a BMW or Escalade in their driveways?

Why is it the government does not require extensive background checks on these people and mandatory drug test every month? Why is it these women cannot work for a living, but they can have unprotected sex often enough to create a huge number of kids for the rest of us to pay for? I think birth control and drug testing should both be mandatory for Welfare, low income and anything else we hand out, except unemployment because most people who use unemployment were working and are trying to get back to work!

I was a single mom for years until I met my husband. I worked the entire time I was pregnant at a crappy fast food joint. I couldn't make ends meet, and mr. broke joke (a.k.a. sperm donor) couldn't pay support. So instead of taking anyone's tax money, I worked out, lost my weight, and stripped. Not the best job on the planet, but it didn't take from anyone's tax dollars.

The welfare system is being abused, and it needs to stop. With how bad it is for the working class, welfare sounds like a paid vacation with tons of benefits. I didn't have any other children until I was stable, my marriage was stable, and our finances were stable.

You should not be allowed to have any more children while living free off of another. Welfare should be a help up, not a hand out.

I must say that people fail to recognize it is a process to obtain welfare, etc., and people do not pursue/lie unless they needed the help. 30,000 a year won't cut it for a family of four (for example), so if they lie to get free health insurance because they want to keep their kids healthy I don't look down upon that. I guarantee you won't find someone making 60,000 dollars a year applying for state assistance/welfare. If you are comfortable in your lifestyle/income you wouldn't be seeking out alternate ways to save money. So stop judging and let people who need help get help. Complain about all the corp suits who got bailed out and stop pointing the finger at people living in projects with rats. They aren't living the life.

So my big problem is this. I work, I pay taxes, I am a home owner and my taxes pay for schools. I have to take a drug test for my job, but people who get our money handed to them don't have to do anything.

It should be a requirement that, to get welfare, you must pass a ua. Also, I cannot afford insurance for my family. It is very high and my work doesn't offer it.

Still my children go without even though I am paying for other families to be covered and still keep having more children.

Then the last smack in the face is when I tried to enroll my four year old into preschool at a public school. She was turned away because i made too much money. Funny they keep saying it like I am rich or something, but the truth is. I live paycheck to paycheck. The problem is, is that I am married and we work. How is it i pay for these things every day i work, and yet there is no program for everyday people like me?

After reading all the stories, this is very upsetting.

Yes, I was aware of the fact that people screw the system over and over again. I never knew it was this bad.

I told my parents I might have to be on welfare or something. And they were quick to attack me and convince me otherwise. But, unfortunately, I have impaired social skills. Don't think I just am "lazy" or something. Because I have worked two jobs. One, I was fired for moving too slow and not being able to grasp daily tasks as well as my boss expected. It was the same thing with my second job. I can't communicate very well, or be able to determine if there is a problem. It's embarrassing because it's like I can stand in front of a roller coaster and not realize it's about to hit me.

I was diagnosed Bipolar and confirmed by four different psychiatrists. I have been hospitalized literally six times. I am definitely not proud of this because it has made my life a living hell and made everything harder to do. I have always struggled in school.

I'm scared I have more problems than just Bipolar Disorder. As I have difficulty grasping new things, starting tasks, completing tasks, making decisions, concentrating, and now trusting. The list even goes on after that.

What is considered common sense to others, is a hard lesson to learn for me.

I can go on all day about issues, but it would be beside the point.

What I'm trying to say is, I don't think I will be able to qualify for anything. Because the Mexicans took my only way to survive.

Call me a racist all you want, but I am half Mexican. But, I and my parents are here legally. Same with most of my family. The ones who aren't should go back where they belong. Even if they are family, they still broke the law and stole from us who are here legally. My father had his paycheck cut because of all the bs.

Yes, my father is a Mexican. A legal one.

Yes, I know, they aren't the only ones to blame.

But they are half of it. Yes half, if not more.

America is over-populated.

(I re-read this ten times to check accuracy as it is a habit and I always make typos and tons of errors.)

I'm a single mother of two, typical teen statistic -- the whole two kids before age 20 thing.

I attended college for three years and had to quit so i could work more hours. I am now 25 and work 30 hours per week, and cannot work more because I do not have child care (I'm number 178 on a waiting list for assistance and my number keeps getting higher because i actually already have a job). Child care costs more than what i make in two weeks, which would leave me with about $450 per month to pay for everything that costs money: rent, utilities, gas, laundry soap, toilet paper, toothpaste -- you get the idea.

I am not eligible for welfare because i "make too much money" -- about $850 per month. Their father does not pay a penny of his child support and works under the table to avoid garnishment of his wages and owes upwards of 20,000 in back support.

I do not understand how a system that is abused so easily will not help someone who is actually willing to help themselves. Oh, and to top it all off. if i did meet the income guidelines for welfare. they wouldn't give it to me because i wouldn't be working enough hours. I only make minimum wage. Therefore, it is impossible for me to work the 35 hours per week required by dss at minimum wage and still be under their income limitations!

So in other words, it is impossible for me to qualify if i have a job at all! they only will help you if you aren't working. if you work but don't work enough hours they make you do community service or job hunting even if you already have a job. how does this make sense?

any answers for me?

Everyone needs to just trust in the LORD and know it will all be fine in the end. He will take care of anyone who has shown to be worthy.

Do you feel complaining and being mean to others is showing worthiness any more than someone abusing the system who is stealing from others? No, it is not!

I really get irritated by people who judge others based on how many children they have. I have six and have never taken a handout but that doesn't mean I might not need one someday. Are you going to judge me too? Of course you would because you are ultimately only thinking of yourself and how many more materialistic things you/yours can have.

It is easy to judge others when you do not have to walk in their shoes. The question is: why you do not have to walk in their shoes. Did you cheat? Birth control? Getting fixed? Condoms? If you answered yes to any of these things then you cheated, which is in the same category as lying, to me.

Materialistic is what I think of you, uncaring of the human race unless they do exactly as you say and do.

Let me tell you after 12 years of marriage, I found myself as a single mom of three. I worked full time, got food stamps and help with child care. I got a lot of help in some way. But I totally agree the system needs to be fixed.

Our babysitter (my husband's girlfriend) was looking for a job after her husband left her with three kids. she had a car but welfare was giving her bus tickets. I called to see if I could get help with my bus pass and they told me they don't give them to people who work. Other than that, I was very thankful for the help I received as a single mom, working full time.

I understand they are cutting people off of daycare assistance if they work. How is that going to help? And why do people who don't work need daycare? My daughter works at a daycare center and they are losing 20 kids because the working parent is losing daycare assistance.

We should be helping the people who are working and trying to make a living and not the ones not doing anything. Here goes the unemployment rate, people are not going to be able to work and pay for daycare so they are going to have to quit their jobs.

The government really needs to think about what they are doing. Seems to me they are supporting more people be on welfare and getting cash assistance with cutting off daycare.

There were problems with the system 19 years ago when I became a single mom, but they have gotten worse over the years. I hope the government wakes up before it is too late.

If you can't afford children, stop having them!

My brother lived with a woman whose entire family had been on welfare with medicaid and food stamps their entire lives. From great-grandpa on down. None were educated, and none were ever employed.

My brother's girlfriend stayed home having baby after baby. Our tax dollars paid for everything. I took her first two children away for neglect and abuse. She and her free lawyer argued in court for the kids, which ended up costing me about $10,000 in lawyer fees.

Her argument was, "If they take my kids, I'll lose my welfare checks." But she didn't, she just went to a doctor, and claimed that she couldn't work because of "anxiety."

I have raised and supported her two children for 17 years, so far. The oldest was the first one in her family ever to receive a high school diploma. The younger one is a senior this year. I started working when I was 14 years old. I eventually got a GED and went on to become an registered nurse.

I spent most of 25 years working in the emergency room. I saw so much abuse of the system. One pregnant woman with her eighth pregnancy was having a miscarriage. Her statement was, "You have to stop this. If I lose the baby, I'll lose my paycheck."

It's a fact, that if a doctor writes a prescription for tylenol or pedialyte, etc. then Medicaid will pay for it. Children would come in with 104 temperatures, and if you asked the parent why they didn't give tylenol or something, they would say that they couldn't afford it.

However, they smoked and smelled of beer and had fresh tattoos and their hair and nails done.

I frequently had mothers bring in four kids plus her and one of her boyfriends all to be seen in the ER for colds at about $1,000 per person instead of going to the health department or their assigned doctor. They didn't care because they didn't have to pay for it.

I also would ask where they would like a prescription called in. With chain pharmacies costing around $150.00 for the same Rx they could get at Walmart for $4.00 or Publix for free. They would state, "call it into the pharmacy ($150). I have Medicaid."

If an elderly patient who worked all of their life had come to the hospital more than they were allowed in a month, they were denied Medicare payment. Medicare never helped the elderly, who paid into the system, with their medications. If you work and pay into the system and suddenly become disabled by a stroke or heart attack, etc., you have to wait two full years before you can get any medical help.

You can't qualify for Medicaid because you've worked all of your life, and you can't qualify for Medicare for two years, or until you turn 65 years old. So here you are with serious medical problems and no help, but yet that welfare mom with the seven to 10 kids can qualify the day she shows a positive pregnancy test.

Why does everyone think it became so fashionable not to marry? Those moms don't want a husband to take away their welfare check.

I am 100 percent in agreement with supporting people who really need it, but there are billions who proudly screw the system every day. We need to vote for the politicians who want to reform the system that's in place and not to give-give-give-give more to those lazy so-called Americans who don't want to do their share of the working and paying into the system.

My brother, he died. The mother, she had two more children who have been taken away and put in foster homes numerous times. Yes, she has them back, and still receives checks for the three of them. She's never worked and never intends to work.

They tried to rehabilitate her and she successfully failed at every thing they tried. The last attempt was scooping up ice cream. She was fired because she refused to take a bath, wash her clothes or her hair or brush her teeth. She smelled so bad that they couldn't allow her around the food. Some stupid people are really very smart.

to jax 1 they will only take a percentage of your monthly stipend so if you get $561 your rent will only be like a hundred and thirty-one dollars.

First of all, there is a limit to how much you can receive on welfare, mr.anon whatever number you are complaining about welfare. you can't have child after child and just get a bigger check and once your child turns two, they require you to either work or go to school 32 hours a week in order to get free child care for which providers are only paid four dollars an hour.

And for you information, taxes were only supposed to be a temporary thing until the country decided that it was a great way to get money! You don't complain when you can call the cops or the city workers to fix your road. So know your facts before you open your mouth.

If you get on welfare with one baby and you have another within 10 months or even after that, you get nothing else, so get your facts straight and watch your mouth because you never know when you yourself will be in the position of need!

As for the people who abuse the system, shame on them. But it's not easy to be on welfare. It's like a job. There is serious paperwork and serious appointments and due dates, not to mention you have to keep up with it and argue everything down. Nothing goes smooth at those offices.

well frankly if there weren't any kind of welfare or social security medicare disability, frankly any government free programs for the quote unquote poor there would not be this crisis we are in now! what i mean is, on the whole there would not be a need for the irs!

There would be less hard earned money coming out of our pockets, there would be more high paid work, people would take care of themselves and their families and communities, and in turn folks would donate more to churches and charities that could help those less fortunate and probably help with more funds or money than this country!

we would be in the position to stop raping the folks who work hard and start helping others to achieve the same as everyone else. no taxes means more money spent at the store. It means new jobs and new revenue which means lower prices and happy people. we need to remember that welfare has only been around for about 70 years and this country has been in the negative for about 70 years. we as a free nation need to go back to our roots and repair what has been broken.

There is always a certain segment of the population who needs help from the rest of us. But that is a small segment.

My problem with it is the outright abuse of the system. I know of a case where the lazy parents avoid paying work like the plague, make babies to fatten their hand-out check, live in a duplex next to their parents (so the parents get guaranteed rent money), and on the off chance a paying job cannot be avoided, the so-called "man" manages to get "hurt" so that he does not have to work once again. Then here comes the worker's comp settlement and back on the dole they go.

Oh yeah - this will kill you. They "home-school", which is just an excuse to not have to roll out of bed before the crack of noon every day. And their poor kids don't have a chance.

Yes you can get welfare with a felony, however if the charges are drug related, good luck.

As far as the welfare system goes as a whole, it was set up for a reason. The three percent that comes off your check, you can get back if you become unfortunate enough to lose your job. Then you can see how much that three percent mattered.

For those who have truly needed the system, I feel for you. I have been there. It's a pain in the butt to have to wait around for hours with your children and other people's children just to receive assistance that still keeps you in poverty.

To everyone who is ignorant about the system, ask yourself, "Who wouldn't want to pay 3 percent of their check if that weekly check is more than what you get on welfare?"

Bottom line is that if the poor don't get the money, who will? The wonderful overpaid politicians.

You have billions of dollars to spend on war, and you have people struggling to make ends meet in the USA.

People, we need to wake up: this government is corrupt. And to the people judging people who are on welfare, who are you to judge? You may be wealthy and with a snap, you can lose everything and you will need welfare too, my friend, so don't judge.

The system is corrupt anyway. We bailed out banks and corporations with your tax money as well, and now the corporations used your tax money to get raises to live that expensive taste life, while you sit here and complain and judge people on welfare.

Grow up! Stop crying and complaining, and to the people on welfare and who need it, keep your heads up. Remember you are still living, and soon we will all be in a better place. And to all the single mothers out there, there is hope and don't worry about what other people have to say. Keep pushing and work hard and you will be blessed. Never lose faith, and to the unemployed, keep looking and you will find a job. The more you apply the more calls you will receive.

I am a 20 year old college student and i unfortunately am not going to be able to afford my books this semester. would i qualify for cash assistance?

Welfare is a system that can be beneficial, but as a grocery store worker, I have seen the system exploited more time and time again. People are using WIC and EBT for their cash purchases while dressed in designer clothes and talking on the latest cell phone. Granted, there are good people who need a helping hand and deserve one, but if you are able bodied and you have been on the system for an extended period of time, I ask where is your pride?

For those who knowingly lied on their applications, and cheat the system knowingly for their own needs, shame on you for taxing everyone else who needs to work to pay your way.

my parents have both passed. because my mother was on title 19 the state is taking all that was left of their belongings. mind you she has been gone for thirteen years. good god, how far do they go back before they don't collect? i never knew you had to pay medical back so basically we all are in trouble if that's the case, so beware -- don't purchase a house.

Welfare is a good system; it's just run in a horrible way. I feel that single mothers/fathers who are working to support themselves and baby need the help. Elderly and disabled people need the help. Even two-parent families where both parents work but can't make ends meat need the help.

But then there are those lazy ones who make it difficult for all the people who could really use this service to even get any help. My husband has an ex and they have a child together. We live in TX and she lives in HI and yet our case goes through WA (don't know why though!). We got paperwork in the mail that he needs to fill out and on it they asked for my income! That started to upset me because we moved to TX so that way we could better ourselves (since HI is just too expensive!) and yet she still lives there with her boyfriend, on welfare, and now maybe with an increase in child support due to my income!

She has a total of three kids with three different dads, and I'm like great. So while I get to bust my butt trying to take care of my kids, I have to worry and wonder if now my income will go to help take care of her other rugrats?

With my step-son it is a different story. I love him dearly and would buy/give him anything, but I'm just annoyed to know that a lazy person can be on the system and still live in one of the most expensive states, while two hardworking individuals had to move just to survive -- so not fair!

I'm 23 living in memphis tn. i have been on welfare for a year now. i'm in school full time. i have a four year old son and a husband who is unemployed. it's really hard taking care of a family on just 142 dollars of cash assistance. i need the money to pay for school though. I'm a medical assistant and i can't find a job to save my life.

i really pray God will make things better because we are good people. we live with my husband's sister and mother in a two bedroom apartment. we sleep on the floor in the living room. it's really hard. my husband feels like a failure because he can't support us.

Is anyone aware of the fact that the working class that pays taxes to feed, pay rent, give medical care to the people on welfare pay for their gambling too? I have been in casinos (I work for a living) that have signs at the cashiers windows that read "No State Checks Cashed here." Yes, our tax dollars go to gambling.

#234: White people are not the only people who are not getting jobs and there are white people on welfare. I see them in droves at DHS daily with an armful of children and they man, looking like death at 3 in the morning. Maybe you should move or take that job you said you would never work.

# 215: Welfare is federally funded by block grants, child support collections and 2.7 percent of your paycheck (which funds Medicaid, food stamps, family support assistance (AFDC), supplemental security income (SSI), child nutrition programs, refundable portions of earned income tax credits (EITC and HITC) and child tax credit, welfare contingency fund, child care entitlement to states, temporary assistance to needy families, foster care and adoption assistance, state children's health insurance and veterans pensions.) which if you live long enough, you will be able to draw if you become disable or reach the senior citizen age in your state).

2.7 percent percent of your check is not even worth your griping and moaning about it. Since you probably don't donate any of these items to people in need.

# 210: Hope and pray you don’t lose your job or get hurt on the job, if you haven’t already. See how much you want it to go away and feel that it is still a waste of money. you pay into what you may need yourself one day.

# 202: I see you are part of the hate bandwagon. Welfare and its problems were here way before Obama became a part of the political problem. Shouldn't you be somewhere writing seatbelt and jaywalking tickets instead of laying blame where it shouldn't be laid…

# 192: If you are not getting help, then you must not qualify, therefore you are on this site being a poser. If the rent is so high, that means you are trying to live above your means. Move into something you can afford, and stop complaining. you apparently have a job and don’t need assistance. Be grateful for that.

# 189: The same thing I told # 192 goes for you

# 185: I have to disagree with that first part: “No one on this thread is claiming that those who have worked, or are trying to work, shouldn't get assistance.” What threads are you reading? I have read many comments on here, where they state “welfare is a waste of money and should be done away” “welfare should be ended”, etc., so if that is the case and that is how they feel then those who have worked hard and or are trying to work are included in that statement. If it ends they will not get help.

#180: Now that is the clearest assessment I have read thus far on why you disagree with welfare. You gave legitimate points, truths and reasons as well as specifics as to what needs to solved, not taken away.

#137: Do you actually base your opinions off of fake statistics? do you actually believe that Black people only account for only 13 percent of the American people? We won't worry about all those who don't get counted, but just to appease all you stat believers: Whites make up 79.8 percent of the population (245 million), Blacks make up 12.8 percent (39 million).

In 2007, the Food Stamp program participants had a US combined total of 25,926,000, of which 19.8 percent were black and 28.3 percent were white. So that means 5,133,348 recipients were black and 7,337,058 were white. That tells me that regardless of the population advantage, white people are at an 8.5 increase above Black people. Any way you try to slice the pie, Black people do not lead the pack of being on welfare.

#125: Because some of the recipients work in the welfare office and help their own family members. But we don't want to talk about that do we? Let's just bash and complain about those we really know nothing about.

#109: That is the same thing I was thinking. They're just ranting and throwing a bunch of jargon all the while not knowing what they are talking about, really.

For all of you on here talking about people living off of your checks, you need to cut it out. Who in the hell can live off of 2.7 percent of your check?

Now I do agree that a close eye needs to be kept on the welfare system, because I have seen rich people getting food stamps and assistance since the early 80s and those that work in the DHS office and they get it until they get caught.

I have received assistance at least three times in my life, all while I was working and while I was in the military, and when I was displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Receiving these benefits is no free ride. When you sign up, you have to also sign up for the work program, and they help you find a job while you attend the classes and program and once you get the job they put you on another program that allows you to receive benefits for a certain number of months, to make sure that you are stable on the job and financially before they take you off completely which is only a number of months.

That tax that comes out of our checks if you got it would be thrown down a drain, paid in sales tax when you went to the store to buy your overpriced wants, lost in the cushions of your couch, spent on internet porn, spent on that new mustang for your 15 – 16 year old child that they total out the next month because they are texting on their $600 iphone while driving, or sucked up in the vacuum at the local car wash when you clean your luxury cars.

Most of you, if you are working, will one day need what you are trying to get rid of and if not you, your own children or grandchildren and some of your ancestors have already used it.

You all saying get rid of it, my check this and my check that, my rent is so high and I can't get any help, should be ashamed of yourselves.

And I say this to you: stop living above your means and come out of the million dollar homes and condos that you know you can’t afford, make your child get a job and stop giving them a free ride, and quit your job if you don’t want pay taxes that the government has enforced for centuries.

I feel bad for everyone who has to use welfare. But don't think that just because you don't have your college degree that is the only reason you can't afford to be off of welfare.

I am a college graduate and have my bachelors degree in business admin from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA). I got pregnant just a month after graduation so it was nearly a year after i graduated when i started to look for a job (obama was already in office by this time). And i cannot find a job.

Thank God for the US Census for employing me but that offers no benefits, and no long term promise of a job. I left the census to work with a staffing agency and when that project finished here i am left with no job (again), a 1 year old, a car payment (and insurance in NJ is no joke!) and living in my parents' house. I try to make do but they're not going to pay for my car.

So now I'm waiting to hopefully collect unemployment, and maybe receive food stamps so i can survive. And trust me: i do not want to be another statistic (kids in homes with no fathers commit this crime, become unsuitable parents, etc). I just have to believe that God will sustain me, and He'll provide a great job and a husband someday soon so I can get out of this jam. No one wants to raise a baby alone. At least no one in their right mind.

I may even take a trip to the local food bank. I don't want to ask my parents to provide for me and my son. Believers, please pray for me. As for people who abuse the system, they'll never have anything anyway. Trust me, if your tax dollars are helping me for a season, I'll definitely come out of this on top!

My mom was on welfare and my dad worked hard and paid child support. I love both of them and still remain close to them both as an adult. But I knew I didn't want to be like my mom and depend on the system.

I worked through high school, saved for college, worked through college, and now have a job in the career field that I studied for. I am not rich by any means, but I get satisfaction knowing I'm a productive citizen. I enjoy being married and being a mommy also.

The man I married has a daughter with a woman who abuses the system. She has seven kids total with three different dads (two of which are illegal immigrants who don't pay child support), and she hasn't ever worked a day in her life. When my stepdaughter asked her why she doesn't have a job, she simply stated, "I don't have to work".

She is on welfare and collects checks for two of her children being disabled. But that doesn't stop her from having more, because she stated she is going to keep having kids. She just bought a brand new construction house, a brand new car and lives "better" than my husband and me.

She claims that is "her" money so she will disappear for days and weeks with boyfriends and go on trips, while other family members watch her kids.

Now my stepdaughter is facing college and as much as we would love to pay for the tuition difference that financial aid and scholarships won't pay, it is tight for us since we have been paying child support (she chose to live with her mom after her mother abandoned her for 12 years. Still question that reasoning). And yet her mother continues to bad mouth us parents who are both working and try to brainwash her daughter into thinking welfare is the way to go rather than college.

I am sad, frustrated, angry, and confused. The system was originally designed to help those in serious need, so they aren't homeless and starving. In an ideal world, people would not procreate unless they could provide. In an ideal world, people would be honest and hardworking and not abuse the system.

I have called welfare several times to report fraud, and it makes me wonder if they are really doing their jobs to make sure things aren't being abused. I am frustrated because I feel I am paying for this lazy no good woman to sit on her butt and feel entitled to continue reproducing and having taxpayers pay for it.

What can you do?

Church has gotten me through these times where I get angry. I want to lash out at her and others who abuse the system, but it is a waste of energy.

I pray the system gets better, I pray our country educates its citizens better, and I pray for the people who are truly using welfare the way it was designed-- to get you back on your feet and provide for yourself. Until then, I can only focus on my family and continue to live my life as honest and good as I can.

Dear 81096, Please do not speak of things of which you do not know. First off, your grammar stinks! And it's hard to understand all that negative banter which you are spewing.

The indeed-educated, very young lady working two or three jobs to support her unborn child, spoke very eloquently, honestly and quite clearly.

I have taken the time to read a lot of this mess. It amazes me at what I have read. There will always be the poor and there will always be the rich. If our people would give back or just pay it forward we would be a little better off. Yes, it is a shame that some people abuse the system but how do you think some of them got rich?

I have owned a business for 15 years, and due to the lousy economy the store will close tomorrow.

Not only will it feel like the death of a fifteen year old child, but I will not be eligible for unemployment because I have been "self employed."

My soon-to-be former employees at least can collect unemployment. I get nothing. I get food stamps, welfare, and a foreclosure notice. Anybody who is self employed needs their head examined. jhc

Lack of morals and loss of Christianity in this world plus the majority of welfare recipients. You will not get married or you cannot claim welfare, right? God states that sex should come only after marriage. Have babies for checks, and instead of feeding them you buy drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, nice cell phones, painted nails, nice hairdos and eat out almost every meal!

I am a new teacher with two kids and I have college loans and make 29,000 per year, with no increase in three years and expecting a pay cut this year! You get more than I do, and you get my taxes to live off of.

Did you take a drug test before you took my money? I had to before my job and do on a yearly basis. The downfall of America? Obama! The only thing that keeps me going is I will see Heaven's gates for eternity and have my reward there!

i think welfare is a great program, but i think the people who abuse it are just wrong. i think the people who get it should be drug tested and get background checks and monthly check ups.

i don't think it's right for you people who have a well paying job and have a good life, that you want to quit your jobs and try and get on welfare. That's just messed up. People actually need that money and you shouldn't be taking it from them. if you're on welfare you should be trying your hardest to get a job and try and help yourself.

My girlfriend is 26 weeks pregnant. I have been unemployed for five months. I'm still looking for work. She gets WIC and lives with me at my dad's house. We plan on getting food stamps.

Care to call me a freeloader for trying to support a human being that hasn't seen the world yet? There are lots of ignorant people who only see one side of the coin. If not for family and whatever cash we can conjure up, we would be homeless right now living in a friend's car.

Sad part is I do live in a city (Glendale, CA) where the abuse of the welfare system is seen everywhere.

I'm 17 and pregnant. and I'm thinking about getting my GED through auburn career center. would welfare still help give me money even if I'm not in real school?

I'm a single father and i pay child support like i have to, not like most men who can't handle their responsibilities.

i lost my job and can't get unemployment because my last boss is being a little witch. my last resort is getting welfare. i feel embarrassed to go to that office. I've been looking for work and would rather work hard but the economy is really screwed. You've got to do what you've got to do to survive right now.

It disgusts me seeing how many people are making light of the welfare process and accusing its users of being freeloaders who are trying to take the tax payers for all they're worth. Not only is this ignorant, but also very disrespectful for those hoping to use welfare to get on the right foot and fix their life.

I grew up in a great home. My parents were always loving towards each other and my sister and me. They always encouraged us to achieve great things, sent us to private school, took us on nice vacations every summer, and provided us with piano, dance, and figure skating lessons. My family is very stable, and you would expect any child that has grown up in this environment to carry on living the same way.

My sister did. She is now married, has a beautiful baby, and is living a wholesome life in the suburbs of Kansas City. I, however, have made a giant mess of my life. I am 21 years old and I am not in school, because, due to my father's income I qualify for no financial aid. Even though I'm paying for my school entirely, I live paycheck to paycheck, making school nearly impossible to save for, and now, I'm 22 weeks pregnant.

For those of you who have criticized the young and single mothers for being stupid and not practicing safe sex, you should know, condoms do break from time to time. For your sake, I truly hope you or a friend or a family member never experiences an unexpected pregnancy, because I fear that you will be treated with the same disrespect that you're so publicly bestowing upon others.

Regardless, since then, my boyfriend and I have split up, and I am desperately in need of financial assistance. I work full-time at Starbucks, and up until my pregnancy was working three jobs - Starbucks, Pita Pit, and teaching group ice skating lessons. I would love to work higher paying jobs, but with no degree, this is the best I can do.

I would also like to mention, I have been with Starbucks for three years, and I worked at Pita Pit for a year. The coaching, however, was just seasonal.

With these jobs, I made 10 grand last year. It's definitely not a lot, but as a single person, I managed to survive. However, now that I will have a baby, I am faced with a whole bunch of brand new expenses.

My health insurance through Starbucks is great, so I am not worried about that, but there is no way I can afford rent, groceries, day care expenses (because yes, I do intend on continuing full-time employment), etc on my income.

And honestly, I still do not even know if I am going to apply for welfare or not. An adoption is very much an option for me right now. It is so hard to think about giving up my baby, but as a mother, I have to do what's best for my child.

I would love for that to be me, and I would have to have some sort of government assistance, but if I discover it's not, then an adoption is my only choice.

I saw some of you make comments about how these young women that got pregnant should have had an abortion, because they were too "stupid" to practice safe sex. Some of the same people making these comments were insulting the morality of people on welfare. However, you are suggesting murdering a child rather than seeking government assistance, and you're criticizing morality?

I am just so irritated by these kinds of comments. You sit here and make these women out to be white trash and idiots and all cracked out and not hard workers. Let me tell you something: I am one of these women, and I can tell you first-hand these are nothing more than stereotypes that are not true!

I am a very intelligent person, I have never touched drugs in my life, I was raised in upper-class society, and work about 55-60 hours a week, on my feet, in customer service. Yeah, not fun! However, I do it because I have to, and because my parents are great people and want to teach their daughter the value of a dollar, so they're not paying all my bills and tuition like so many other kids' parents I know.

Anyone who stereotypes a single pregnant woman this way or anyone on welfare for that matter needs to pull their head out of their butt!

I am not saying there are not cases where people abuse it, but I am willing to bet at least 60 percent of welfare users are on it because they need it and are trying to improve their situations.

For those of you doubters, assuming I do keep my baby -- which I would love to -- and do qualify for welfare -- which I'm almost 100 percent certain I will -- I would like to share with you my plan. I have gotten very good at living conservatively and saving my money, so I will continue to do this while maintaining my job for year four and so on. I will also work my butt off to get my degree (Mass Communications and Journalism is my major, by the way, for anyone wondering).

Another option I have recently been considering (because I always have a backup plan) is saving up for a new pair of ice skates, training and getting my old ability back (Yes, I was good -- several gold medals), and obtaining a United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) coaching certification. With that, I would have a very well-paying career (Trust me, I used to see the checks my mom gave my coaches) coaching competitively and have more income to provide for my baby and my schooling, therefore getting me off welfare ASAP.

I know I have gone off on several tangents that probably seem completely irrelevant to my original point, but basically I just want to encourage people to quit being so vocal with stereotypes about welfare users. You do not know the quality of the people using it and have no idea who your comments are hurting.

I am a single mom struggling to work two jobs just to pay my bills.

I am beginning college in a few months and I went to get food stamps, two days, three hours each time sitting in that office looking at so many people who are strung out on some kind of drug smelling like alcohol.

I had to report every little thing I owned and did and at the end of this huge ordeal they refused me because I made 100.00 too much money. And they were going by my gross pay. Who in the world gets to pay bills with their gross pay?

I am so upset about this. This message is just the beginning. Every one of those non tax paying people need to be drug tested and stop having babies while their husbands are working under the table so they don't have to pay taxes.

I am tired of supporting people on welfare-young and old. A victim of circumstance, what a load of crap. You knew better than to think the baby's daddy was to going to stay with you. Here's a news flash: he is off procreating with someone else.

How about getting off your back and mine, get a job, be a responsible/productive adult and get an education and job? Stop leaching off the good citizens trying to live right. Welfare isn't a lifestyle!

I'm a hispanic who has been working for the last 20 years and have supported my four kids, two of them from my first marriage and been paid child support every month.

One thing i hate is that, if the welfare requires that the person who apply for that benefit should have a ss# including all parents. How come people like some of them i know qualify for that benefit even if they are illegally in here?

I know that she applied and her husband has a job, but they lie saying that she was a single mother? My question here is, The people who work in the welfare office -- are they actually doing their jobs? How come these people are receiving this benefit even if they don't qualify?

As a hispanic i feel embarrassed and some other times makes me feel angry because i do work really hard and these people are sitting in their house watching tv, while I'm working hard to make my monthly rent?

Is there a number where we can report these people anonymously?

i want to ask you this: if two people are married, husband and wife, now both are working, now all of a sudden husband got laid off and is not working. Now he's looking for a job every damn day and sees they're only hiring immigrants, blacks and hispanics and no whites!

He's hardly in the area now. He's looking around and they don't want to hire now. Is it wrong for him to go on welfare or can he get it?

I work at a pizza place that accepts EBT, or "Snap" benefits as it's now called.

And I think that it is just ridiculous that you can spend 100 dollars of your welfare money on pizza and soda and hot wings for a family of 8! Really. you can afford new clothes, cell phones, and pizza. What is wrong with this picture? It truly blows my mind.

I know people need it. But when you constantly see people abuse it, it's very aggravating.

To anon80759: That is just wrong that you would post this. Obviously a serious accident like that would result in the use of welfare.

People are not complaining at the recipients of welfare who actually deserve it and do not abuse it. I work in the ER at a hospital in Indiana and I have people come in daily and ask for tylenol because they cannot afford it. Yet the ability to buy the latest pair of Jordans is not hindered at all.

I'm saying that welfare should be used only for the people who truly need it, and not just as a fail-safe for the lazy, for lack of a better term, who sit around all day.

Wow, I don't usually like to read posts like these, but some of these have been truly enjoyable. I love reading about people judging a bunch of people they've never met. I feel like a Homo Habilis is going to poke its head around the corner at any moment.

I'm glad to see there's still a lot of bitter, heartless, and ignorant folks out there who believe 'they' are solely the ones paying for other people's hardships.

I really like the smarties who say they're going to quit their jobs and play World of Warcraft (great game by the way) and get paid for it. Unfortunately I hate to inform you that getting any kind of assistance from welfare or SRS is a difficult process, so you probably won't get it, bummer!

I've worked for twenty years. I never had any children and never had any assistance. I'm just wondering why I can actually see other people's perceptions when it comes to an unexpected child in these times, or getting injured and not being able to make that $100,000 grand a year anymore. It makes sense that these programs are in place for a reason. Could it be that our predecessors cared more about the well being of the whole than we do today? Can it be that we are de-evolving into a former form Homo Genus. Hello Australopithecus!

Seriously all the money that you spend is out of my paycheck. Get a job and lose some weight and wrap it up.

Hello everyone and thank you for your positive comments, I just hope I can get the same.

I'm 29 years old with two children and I'm still married to their mother. Out of high school I went to college, but I joined the Air Force my second year of college. I ended up serving some time in Iraq before I got out (I was then classified as 60 percent disabled).

I finished up my degree with the one child while working (my wife wasn't working and was going to school also).

I am now a disaster recovery engineer; I spent thousands of hours outside of college studying for certifications in my field. I then spent thousands of dollars to pay for the certifications (all of this out of my pocket, not gi bill or anything).

I now make just shy of $100,000 a year, and have for the past few years. We bought a large house and I drive a 5 series BMW. I don't really want to live this life anymore, though. I would like to sell the house, move into a much smaller house, sell my car and get a used beater.

I was thinking that I would save up enough money to pay for several years of World of Warcraft subscriptions. I then want to quit my job so I don't have to work anymore (I don't really care to work). Do you think if I do all of this that I will qualify for assistance?

I have a college degree and im about to get on welfare! Yes! And I'm not joking.

I feel like this is what makes welfare seem so bad. Those of you who are on welfare defend themselves for the reason of having bad luck in life. Those who are not on welfare oppose the program because they think their money is taken away for the other people.

I am not on welfare. I'm 21 college student. My parents both passed away. I've been living on my own for more than two years already. I tried to ask for food stamps and I never got accepted. I had really hard time, and I really hated it when I had to spend hours of hours to go through the process of asking for about $150 a month for food stamps.

But thank God, now my life is better and I don't need food stamps anymore.

I don't think it is a bad program, it's just bad that there are people who really need help don't get much support as expected. And people have to spend so much time and effort to have applications accepted while they can go to work at at least look for a job.

Anyway, I do oppose the welfare program, not because the government gives out free money, but because of people who make it bad. Like those teen girls who are pregnant.

I know it's unexpected and abortion sounds harsh, but there is a Planned Parenthood organization/hospital where they can go to get check ups and get free birth-control pills; they even give you free condoms. Why did they not do that in the first place? Why get pregnant at such young ages knowing there will be no support once they give birth?

And there are people who can do just about anything to receive free money, like making only cash in business so they don't have to pay taxes, ask other people to help for the title of their own properties, and those people who think "why should i work since now I'm being poor, i can get help from government? why make myself more stressed?" those people who are afraid to walk on their own and always rely upon others.

To anon80272: I don't know if you're going to go back to this site and read my comment or not. Anyway, I think you're the one who doesn't think before you talk. You accuse the other person without any reason.

What did that lady say wrong about? And why are you so mad at her for? What do you know about her and her life? Is it you are a teen being pregnant and trying to get on welfare as well? Oh no, you sounded more like a woman, a superwoman! What about you?

What have you done and what have you not done that give you such self-esteem to post such a comment? You are impolite, aggressive, and sarcastic but act like you are the highly educated jury, the one who always judges people by hearing something you don't want to hear. You should be the one who is ashamed of yourself.

Ah, but I don't suggest you to ask God for forgiveness, because you should ask yourself and that lady whom you insulted for forgiveness.

My mother-in-law is on welfare and has been all her adult life. She has never worked a day in her life. She came from a loving Christian home and chose to be lazy and let the government pay for her. She has it better than I do!

I too, lost my job, but my husband is still working, and we are barely making it. Because we don't have kids, we don't qualify for food assistance. We are having a legal issue with my mother-in-law and she can go to legal aid and they take care of it. But my husband makes too much for legal aid even though he made under $21,000 last year. That is ridiculous!

So the rest of us working poor just have to somehow keep trudging forward with no hope in sight, while people like my mother-in-law have access to everything! It's not fair!

And all her friends are druggies just like her. She also has an extensive criminal background as well as mental issues, but since she has access to an attorney and we don't, she managed to get the court to allow her to keep living in a house that we own.

We tried to evict her because she failed to pay the taxes on the house. That was our agreement, in lieu of rent she agreed to pay the taxes which amount to $100 a month! She lied about paying them and lied to the county treasurer, telling them she was me to get the tax stuff. so we wouldn't receive them. So we found out too late and now owe 2400 in back taxes.

So we tried to evict her so we could take our house back. But because she has an attorney he managed to get the judge to let her stay in the house pending the trial in October.

So yes, it's safe to say that I hate welfare because all my tax dollars are going to lazy people like my mother-in-law who reap benefits that I don't have access to!

my daughter was a healthy go getter until she got into an accident. she has steel plates in her face and she gets bad migraines. Now she has a cyst in her brain, she has swelling of the brain and has seizures. her meds make her shake all the time, but i guess you would say to her, you don't deserve welfare.

anon33460: I have to say, you must have never done a thing in your entire life that you are "ashamed" of or feel like you should not have done. You must be that person that everyone comes to for help, because for you to "talk" the way you have here, you must be that one person everyone can come to -- that person they should all look to. The one and only who can help all those who may just need a little, not even enough for anyone to feel, just enough to get that container of powdered formula so any leftovers can go towards that one outfit that does not have stains, holes and tears.

That one outfit that is needed in order to show an employer that, even though that outfit is not what is going to kick butt on that sales floor, that outfit may show that person is willing to show their best side.

I certainly hope that you do not accept any exceptions that the IRS offers you when it's tax paying time. No way. Not you, right? You pay all that is rightfully your responsibility. You pay full price for items on sale at the store.

Everyone, this is the person who should be your role model. This anon33460 person is the one person who has never taken a discount, never taken an exception. This anon33460 person is who we all should strive to be.

I too, have never been on any assistance other than my son being on peachcare. You, anon33460, whoever you are, should think long and hard before you talk about what you have not done.

When was the last time you bought a warm meal for that guy standing on the side of the road asking for work? Shame on you for making anyone feel like they do not deserve what this country has made available to help them make it. A warm meal for a child is something that I could never turn away from making.

Anon33460, wherever you are tonight, I hope you ask God for forgiveness.

I hear a lot of people talking a lot of nonsense about people on drugs on welfare.

statistics say most people on welfare are elderly and children. if you know a lot of people on welfare who are on drugs then the company you keeping is a problem because after losing my job and unemployment, i was stuck with welfare and guess what? I'm not and never have been on drugs and there is no way to milk the system.

For those people who think it is so easy, a majority of welfare does not go to cash or food but to medical care such as medicaid which very few doctors take so before you talk and assume what you hear, do some research. i did and wrote a sociology paper on it for my sociology class.

I am 29 and have never had to have any help but since I have been out of work for over a year I finally decided to get the food stamps. I signed up for hud also and I will have to say to the people with good jobs that cry about the system and blame other people, you're just wrong. You couldn't take it if we had no help at all. Could you just imagine the poverty and crime levels?

Also the system has gotten a lot better than when I was a kid and my mother was on welfare. Here's my proof. My mom got $2,000 a month in the late 80's and with the cost of living being so much higher we get $500. We also had to turn HUD down because they said our rent could not be over $450. We pay $650. Any common sense would say that that's great we would only have to pay $200 a month. Not how it works. They call it fraud if you pay the difference.

So our only option would be to have the landlord lower the rent to $450 or move. We just signed a year lease so figure it out.

So for the people who know anything about the system and read my short story I have a question. I start a job on Monday so I won't see any money for a couple of weeks. I am behind on everything along with borrowed money from friends, and could use an extra month of food stamps to help catch up.

What do they ask when you tell them you found a job? Do they call your new employer and verify your start date then cut you off the same day you start? Would I have to pay the stamps back in cash if I wait on purpose so my family can eat? Honest if you have to be negative keep it at home please.

I am trying to get off the program and have only been on it two months. Its not like I am sitting around trying to scam anyone. Just need a leg up in an economy that fends for itself.

Stop blaming Obama for an issue that has been around since the welfare program was established in the New Deal! And welfare is an issue concerning the requirements and funding has been traced back from the Roman Empire to now.

Don't blame Obama. He's doing what he can do but change does not happen over night.

If you don't like what's being done, send him a letter and stop complaining. Do something to make the issue known. He can't read your mind. Get it together #202! I voted for Obama and I sleep just fine. Try buying a memory foam! Oh, and get up and get a real job!

for those who hate welfare. you can move to another country if you hate welfare.

to 202: you're a police officer and you think these people like to be on welfare? hello! people go on welfare because they have no choice.

remember, not all cops are good cops and not all people on welfare have good intentions. so stop being biased. just because you're a cop doesn't mean you are right.

you are not above the law. and I'm glad i voted for obama. have you forgotten who messed up our economy?

All you complaining now, wait until they cut off the unemployed after 99 weeks. Welfare will be the new unemployment. There are no jobs, and you cannot blame them. Last warehouse job I applied to had over 400 applications. Other thing is you have to be a minority or illegal immigrant to get a job nowadays.

If you want a job go to Mexico and become a Mexican citizen, then come to America illegally, then you will get a job.

I make 62,500 a year. I am looking into how I can quit my job and get as much of my life paid for by others as I can. Thing is, I have paid for these services my whole life and have not ever used any of them so I am due a payback. Keep working hard people, I am depending on you.

I think welfare should be addressed on a case by case basis.

I've been working paying into the system since I was 16. I never thought my fiance would beat me up and kick me out of our apartment once he found out I was pregnant, but he did. So I had to quit my job and move back to my home state to be close to family.

No one would give me insurance and no one wants to hire a pregnant woman with a broken hand. So what? I shouldn't use the money that I paid into the system to help me out? I don't agree with people who just have kids to get free money, people who feel entitled to a handout.

But what about the people like me who get dealt a short hand and have no where to go? You shouldn't judge a book by its cover. I used to feel like welfare should be eliminated and it killed me to walk into that office, but now I'm glad that it is here for the people like me when we need it. Not everyone is looking for a handout -- just a hand up when no one else will help.

I used to one of of those guys that complained about all my tax money going to free loaders.

Last year I was the owner and president of a company that made almost a million dollars a year ago. I made 100K a year. I have a college degree. The person who bought my company has defaulted on the payments.

I have a lot of skills but I cannot get a job. I go on several interviews a week. Nothing. My wife has been laid off and all her unemployment benefits have run out. We are losing our home and car. Luckily we have family or we would be living on the street.

Welfare may be the only thing that keeps us from starving. I did not see this in my future a year ago. --PB

Welfare was designed to help those in need, who have no other means due to the unexpected in life. Unfortunately, the basis of welfare is now a way for the majority to take advantage of the system.

Statistically, it doesn't matter what race you are or what background you come from. It is clear that those who have given up on hard work or only know how to lie, cheat and steal are the ones that are reaping from the government's help.

Yes it is true that the funds go back into the economy. But in reality, the ones that you may know first-hand that are living off the system and taking advantage of it are dishonest people.

I went to the welfare office back in 1991 as a young pregnant teenager. I had a history of sexual abuse and no place to go. The program helped me for four years, by getting an education and helping raise my son when his father wouldn't.

I married for 13 years after, had two more children and lived the so-called good life. To only have my husband commit adultery for several years. When I left him to start over, I needed a warm place for my children and food. I went to the welfare office to find that since 1991, things had really changed. I wanted to go back to school and they told me I had to work 32 hours or more a week and that school didn't count.

How is it that I would only receive $640 a month for rent and utilities and $405 in food stamps to help me and my three children. If I had no car, relying on public transportation, how would I be able to get back in forth to my children?

I was to work 6-8 hours a day, get them to day care and be back in time to not get charged for being late. Then the kicker for me was the subsidy program for daycare never had their end of the paperwork correct and yet I was denied further help due to their error.

Lost my daycare and therefore lost my job. We were then evicted from our apartment and left homeless. Needless to say, due to the Once-In-A-Lifetime homeless assistance program that I had used back in 1991, I was denied help. I was left with a trying situation to keep my children off the street. Yet, an education is not important to the government. That makes no sense to me.

So I joined school anyhow and filed my taxes and lived off of those means, until my husband and I reconciled and are now on our way to working together.

My story is not any different than a lot of Americans. Each of us have our own life stories. We all have to carry our own cross in this world. Having faith kept me going and belief that I can beat this. I can overcome whatever is thrown my way.

I will say that I personally never planned for the future, and that I didn't have savings or retirement. If anything, our society needs more help in getting people on the right track. Life is hard and not everyone was blessed with being raised in a "good" home.

The economy has hurt a lot of families, but instead of knocking our fellow brothers and sisters, let's help each other.

If someone is on drugs then we should get them off. Don't give them handouts to continue the vicious cycle. Test them twice a month and if they are tested positive deny them the assistance and put them in a rehab.

Really, America, there is far more we waste money on. We as a nation look like fools, when we can't help our own people. In the end, the other countries are not going to help us.

In the end, we will have to rise up as a nation, like we did when 911 hit. Now is the time to help your fellow neighbors and stop being so selfish. All I know is we are all guilty of this country falling apart -- by not doing our part.

If I could forgive my husband for betraying me, if I could forgive my molesters for taking away my innocence, then why can't you forgive each other and help one another. Peace

welfare is a waste of money and should be taken away. it's disgusting to see the girls i graduated with getting knocked up and living off my well earned money. grow up and take responsibility. if you have sex, that means you have the chance to get preg. if you can't handle it and be an adult to provide for the child/children, take care of it.

All welfare users should be drug tested - everyone i know who is on welfare is a drug user. they spend their own money on drugs then use working man's dollars to eat.

I worked all my life and not just 40 hours a week. With two kids and I am also a tax payer, and I also support my very sick mother-in-law and I have no college education, because I could not afford it and I have worked my backside off like from 6 a.m. until like 2 a.m.

Recently I was hit by a truck the same day I was released from the hospital with a serious female issue. I was going to be returning to work the next day.

Wham! Just like that I was out of commission and in severe pain, in and out of the hospital and on tons of pain medication and now I am not sure if I will be physically able to return to work.

I ended up losing my job, which I loved too much and had to tell my clients that (I did hair for my second job, which I also paid taxes on) I was unable to do their hair anymore due to serious injuries.

I tried applying for unemployment, which my employer told me that they would not fight it, because I was such a fabulous worker and that I did nothing wrong that they just did not think it was financially feasible to keep me on and pay the other employees overtime to cover my work.

They also stated that I was the most efficient worker and did everything by the book and more so.

Well I got denied due to me being unable to physically work. I can't stand for longer than three minutes and I can only sit up about 10 minutes (if I am lucky). I have two small children who really need their mommy and I am unable to do everything I used to with them and it just kills me.

I am praying to god that the welfare office will guide me in the right direction and help me provide for my family until I am able to return to work, which I miss so bad.

I am what you would call a workaholic. Not only was I working two jobs, but I was taking care of both kids, cleaning the entire house everyday, buying food, taking care of my mother-in-law (physically and financially), balancing the check book and paying all those fabulous bills every month.

Now that I have been seriously injured in a car accident, nobody wants to help me when I did nothing but take care of everybody else and pay for everybody else. I am really desperate and I am scared that I can't afford my bills.

I currently have a shut off notice on my electricity bill and I have less than seven days to magically come up with $400.00 or my house has no electricity.

My mother-in-law a diabetic and is insulin dependent. The insulin must remain in the fridge (insulin costs about $100.00 every three to four days, which we pay for along with the strips for the machine to check her blood sugar). I am up a creek without a paddle and no canoe.

I am so scared. I have never been put in this kind of situation before. I have always just worked like two or three jobs at a time for the past 15-years. Please can someone help us?

The reason I am on this site, is that I am about to lose my unemployment benefits and have no where else to turn for assistance. However, I am feeling discouraged because I think I will hardly qualify.

I used to be one of those people who said people on welfare, act. were just "milking the system." I had a job making 65K + a year, single mom and doing well for myself. I was laid off after 12 years and once my unemployment runs out, my kids and I will be in the street, not everyone has family to help out.

My point it is that before you judge, think about it because you never know what can happen to you.

I am not currently on welfare but I may soon need to be. I am a nursing student who's trying their best to get themselves through school. I am not a free loader, and I have never in my life needed to rely on other people for my own well being. However, being that I was laid off from my job, and have expired my unemployment benefits, I may have no other choice.

All these people that think that all welfare recipients are simply looking for an easy ride are ignorant and their pseudo-American beliefs are flawed. You don't know your neighbor's circumstance, and you sure as hell don't know mine.

If you hate the thought of your tax money funding people who can't survive on their income, move to a communist country. That's all I have to say about this.

I'm a police officer who doesn't make a lot of money. I don't get assistance but don't knock on people who do. you negative people need to just shut up, you are the ones who voted for Obama. you made your bed -- now lie in it!

Demonstrate some personal responsibility and stop expecting your neighbor to foot your bills.

Just a quick thought for all of you people complaining about welfare "free loaders."

First off, I just want to say that I am very lucky because I was blessed with a decent career which includes health insurance + the whole nine yards. But many of these people who are collecting government aid are faced with working dead end, minimum wage jobs with no insurance.

I don't blame them one bit because who is to blame are the capitalists who feed off of the public like parasites.

If people on welfare could go to walmart and make 14 dollars an hour with health insurance they would. If I ever lose my job and the only option I have is eight bucks an hour you better believe that my wife is going to start pumping babies out and the fat cat bankers and hot shot corporate scumbags are going to be footing the bill.

So if you really want to do something about the welfare situation in this country, offer higher paying jobs with insurance by unionising the lower class workforce or quit griping about the peanuts that they take out of your check and count your blessings that you got lucky in life.

If you ever bothered studying economics you would understand that when money is spent in public welfare, it is recycled back into the local economy in which it was appointed such as grocery stores, walmarts, etc.

When big business goes bankrupt, billions of dollars are embezzled out of the country, thus leaving the American economy making the top portion of the economic classes the loser scumbags that are killing our economy. So it appears that you are the ones who are ignorant.

Get rid of welfare and all these handouts. If they're on welfare/food stamps they should be sterilized!

Here's some advice to all americans.

Try to not let yourself get into a situation where you need the government's help. I know it's hard.

When you're young and the boy says he loves you, just to get into your pants and wham! You're pregnant, and you think america's going to bail you out. True, they will, and do. So much section 8 housing, for all these women who enjoy having all these kids, the daddies coming over in expensive cars. Momma wearing clothes better than mine.

I have worked all my 25 years since I was 16. Can I get help? No! I own a newer vehicle, I own my home, paid off the mortgage a few years ago. I was never able to have children, so again, I cannot receive any type of insurance, plus I lost my job.

I still have those wonderful bills/utilities we all have. My car is not paid for, plus I don't even own a cell phone, nor do I have cable. When I'm out job searching I stop at the local library to use the computer. I shop thrift stores for my clothing and shoes.

Now what I want to know is, if the government has no money to pay anybody to work, how the heck are they able to send millions of dollars to some country to help with a disaster? Or how about all these millions for grants they tend to give out? I have applied for grant after grant, just to be turned down. Or these grant places want money up front. If it's a free grant, how do you apply for a free grant without giving out your bank account numbers?

I want a piece of this free american pie. I have worked, scrimped, saved and barely have my head out of the water. I want some of it now. I can't wait any longer. Any advice out there, folks?

Oh by the way, I don't drink, do drugs, prostitute, or do anything bad. I'm not joined up with a gang, I don't steal or kill and I'm a very honest person. So what gives?

Hey guys, it's the government's job to give you free stuff.

wow. there are a lot of different opinions on here! i I stumbled upon this site while researching for a school paper!

I, for one, am not putting anyone down who is on welfare. In my case, I am a 31 year old mother of two, one of which has a disability.

I have worked until recently in the past couple years, when life changed for my family. I had to quit my job to be able to tend to my child. Finding others who were willing to care for him while I worked was not possible. Not even day care.

My husband works every day, like 60-65 hours a week, and I am a full time student working on my bachelors which I do a majority online so I can be home and only gone four hours a day, two days a week. But it is still hard finding a sitter for even that short period of time.

My husband was in a bad accident and spent a month on life support. this put a halt on our income and, not knowing what else to do, I applied for welfare. I mean, the mortgage had to be paid and the kids needed to be fed -- right? Well here's what i was told: we qualified to receive a check for $401 a month and food stamps, and my kids were eligible for medical, because we did not have that offered through my husband's work. Seems easy, right?

Not in the least. Because my husband was not able to work for the check they were offering for two months, I would have to work, 30 hours a week, for it. Do the math -- it is not worth it. We ended up taking out a loan to cover the cost of the mortgage (which is way more than $401 a month) and the rest of our bills.

We live by no means better than anyone, and pay our taxes. I thought that when we needed the help it would be there -- not without a cost, for sure.

My point is, that if welfare is supposed to be there for when one is in need, then why is it so hard for someone like my family to receive the help? Yet others, and many I know, can walk in the office and walk out with checks, hundreds of dollars in food stamps, and medical for their families, with no questions?

I know one family that receives like $800 in food stamps, a check for like almost $700, and medical for the whole family. Neither the mother or father work, three kids are living in low income housing, paying no rent, on drugs, abuse the medical running to the ER every other day with some made up reason to get medicine, having kids because apparently if you have small children you do not have to work it off.

Cell phones, no bills except electric -- and they also receive a utility check from the housing they live in.

Yet people who are working can't get the help to get out of the rut and back on their feet. I just don't get it. Not all people abuse the system, but it's the ones like I mentioned who make it hard for others and give people who actually need the help a bad image. I find it appalling.

Sounds like to me the american government is more interested in spending money on games, guns and other countries rather than making their own people live a great life they deserve.

In australia, a mother with three kids gets $1200 every two weeks, including free groceries, washing machines, white goods furniture, cars for some, free mechanical repairs, so much to help single mothers. no it's not a free ride but australia looks after its people, more than what america should do.

Bottom line is everyone is willing to help someone in need but it needs to be done locally: Family, friends and community. Not send the money up to the federal government so it may make it back down to people who need help.

Also, if you are on assistance with a baby and you get pregnant you are off. You need to learn from your mistakes and if we keep helping people that do not they will not.

Also when you get a job we decrease your benefits and as long as you better your life while getting raises at work we will slowly remove you within a time frame. If you quit a job to go make less money to get better benefits you are off.

the welfare system should promote hard work, not be so cut and dry that if you get a 25 cent raise at work then you get the boot. That is what makes people say don't give me a raise or i will lose all my benefits.

I'm so sick of this welfare crap. This is how it should work: girl gets pregnant, boy doesn't want to be responsible. Boy signs away all rights without any chance of later going to courts and asking for any. Girl chooses to keep the baby, must be held responsible for cost of raising the child.

Welfare should be a minimum wage job, i.e., picking up trash on the side of the road, cooking at soup kitchens for the homeless, do laundry in the nursing homes. must work 40 hours a week. needs to return to the taxpayers for what she takes. can only collect welfare as long as she continues to work forty hours for the check. no food stamps and medical for the child only. Everyone can do something and give back to the community that they are taking from. i would be willing to bet you would see the welfare numbers drop if these losers had to get their big fat biscuit eating butts off the couch and really do something for the $8 an hour they would earn and maybe the rest of us could benefit with a tax break.

I worked 20 years and paid into taxes and I am a single parent with no child support, no job for a year, rent so high along with everything else and I can't believe there is no help for people like me. it is a shame and I don't know what to do next!

Welfare gives woman an excuse to stay stagnant. Example: One woman, three children, 28,000 dollars owed for college education, section 8 housing, 52 inch flat screen T.V., new furniture, homeless husband living with her collecting benefits, night job off books, homeless brother living with her collecting.OOPs

Her time to start working. She got a job finally, is now pregnant, four on welfare, college pay back impossible, already complaining about job. But all is fine. Why? She's collecting welfare times three adults, soon four children, in section 8 housing, no one working on books, no one paying their way.

Worthless, useless lives. Why? Poor women have more pride than thieves who steal from us all.

My daughter is a single mom for nine years, was never able to collect anything, not even child support. She works a hard 55-hour week, owns a car, has her own apartment, takes two vacations a year with her child and is giving her a work ethic and a good education.

My job is to reinforce that life is good, children are for those who can afford it, and who can give them a true family unit.

Single mothers are not the norm. I tell her that frequently. And that work produces a good healthy lifestyle. Not babies,without fathers, or money!

For all on here who think welfare is a free ride you need to actually research what you talk about.

In Ohio where I live, to receive welfare, a person must have children, little or no income, no insurance, and be very used to getting the third degree about everything. They ask personal questions such as health and ability to work. I have three children of my own and my boyfriend has three. We do the best we can to support them.

I am buying my own home, I am a student trying to get on my feet. My ex-husband abandoned us and told me get over it. I didn't have children for someone else to take care of them. I have supported us by myself for over eight years.

I do get food stamps, medicaid and cash. I am not lazy, nor do I intend to receive it for the rest of my life.

I have this same argument with my brother all the time. You people who have such a great life sure do have enough time to judge the rest of us.

Maybe if you would criticize less and help with the progress more it would be more beneficial to everyone.

It's hard to hear all the complaints because all of you are giving excuses and trying to find the easy way out. I'm a single mom working 65 hours a week. Barely making bills because rent is 800 daycare is 600 and bills are 800? Not including gas, food or clothing?? Who helps me? No one because the government needs to help people with excuses.

Post #187. Here's a simple solution. Move the hell out of where you're living now. Everyone on here cries about how they pay taxes, pay rent, some lady spouting off about how she pays her car payment every month but then tries to make her point about getting help.

You all do it backward. Stuck in the rat race. Learn to pay yourself first. Stop living off of liabilities. Stop keeping yourself down from learning the true meaning of wealth. Stop being ignorant.

I'm a 23 year old living in a small place that's miles away from anywhere that i could find a good job. there are no jobs here, and i have no vehicle.

To make things worse i am unemployed and have no GED. this place doesn't offer a GED course and in order to get one I'd have to drive 30 miles away to get one. I can't do that because I've got no vehicle.

i need some help, and i don't know what else to do. the future seems so bleak for me.

I think some people need to get over themselves. Welfare used for many years as a crutch, should be scrutinized -- not people who have worked many, many years and paid into the system and only need it temporarily (say less than a year).

That's what it was designed to do. Sadly, many people are abusing this system and making it harder for people who really need it.

I have to interject and clear a few things up.

No one on this thread is claiming that those who have worked, or are trying to work, shouldn't get assistance.

What they *are* complaining about are those on welfare who have no drive or make no attempts to work, get an education, or stop getting assistance. Yet, they keep popping out kids and expecting the government to pay for it.

If these people are smart enough to work the system, then they are smart enough to try to earn a living.

I've been here in this country for the last 15 years and from that time on I've been paying taxes and worked my butt off to survive and have a better life. i don't believe in the spreading of wealth, period!

The government should stop this welfare business -- period! if they want to turn our country back into progress again, they should stop all this spending business when there is no money to spend anymore!

Stop borrowing from another country and stop punishing the american taxpayers. Washington, please stop encouraging bad behavior.

Just to let you know I had my daughter when I was seventeen and my son when I was nineteen. I never received any help from anyone I have always worked.

In 2008 my husband had seven grand mal seizures with no insurance, and we still could not receive any help. In December of 2009 I was let go of my job of seven years and my husband lost his a week before me.

I did what I had to do to feed my family. I applied for health insurance through the state to help pay for my husband's seizure medication that he has to have and they also gave me some food stamps.

To all you ignorant people out there, not everyone abuses the system. Some people are having some hard times and need a little help to get back on their feet. I have worked from the time I was 14 and I am 36 now, so I think I have paid plenty in to the system, and so I am not going to feel bad because I am getting a little help right now.

Also I drive a decent vehicle that I have busted my butt to pay for every month and I will keep on driving it. So you should mind your own business because you don't know what people are going through.

I am not saying that there are not people out there who abuse our system, but there are people who have had a bad streak of luck and are just trying to survive!

i am 18 i am still in high school with another year to go. i work part time as a waitress making 2.13 an hour and i live in georgia. i do not have any kids but I'm trying to make it on my own. do i qualify for help?

I just turned 18 and found out i'm pregnant. I have no income and neither does my boyfriend. we've been looking for jobs and applying at places that don't even make a lot of money. But we still haven't gotten a job.

I'm trying to get on welfare but i don't know really much about it. Am i eligible for it? Even if i haven't had my baby yet? We need a place and we don't have enough money for anything. We need help.

I read almost all of these posts and I can sympathize for those "down on their luck" who need some assistance. However, I am in complete agreement that those receiving assistance should be better regulated.

I drive through Section 8 subsidized housing everyday and I see satellite dishes, cars with 'bumpin' sound systems and rims, residents sporting the very latest cellphones, and every other amenity the average citizen could afford. Yet these 'residents' are provided lawn maintenance (grass mowed, leaves raked, etc.), reduced or free electricity and water and free or greatly reduced rent!

I pay full price for everything and I make choices everyday not to spend more than I earn, pay my bills, and of course taxes. So why not better regulate those who get this so-called "assistance" from the taxpayers?

I want new 28 inch rims for my car but I can't afford them, yet if I could pay 50-70 percent less on my rent, utilities, and yard upkeep I could afford those things!

The system is out of control and in need of better regulation! We have created generations of government dependents who feel a sense of entitlement to these handouts and we cannot sustain this forever!

It angers me when someone else feels entitled to what I've worked for. If you were to take the money out of my bank account, that would be theft.

I am a single mom who worked to put myself through college. It took longer than usual but I did it. I didn't keep having children, nor did I blame anyone or expect anyone to take responsibility for my situation.

To call me selfish because I want to keep my money to provide for my son and keep up with the cost of living is arrogant! I donate to charities that help down and out families. I don't need someone to tell me who to give to and when.

If I see someone homeless, I give them a hot meal when I can afford it. What? One of my past jobs was as a cashier at a major superstore.

I went home angry every day because I saw what people bought with food stamps and then saw what they pulled out cash for. If only I could live on steak, cigarettes and beer like that.

And in response to those who have worked and fallen on hard times, that was the intent of welfare: to help people back on their feet.

I do believe in helping those who are unable to work. There is a big difference between unable and unwilling to work. Most of the people who are on welfare have never held a job and some are drug addicts. This is very upsetting to many of us.

It would behoove the government to drug test all recipients of welfare and if they test positive, then no more free money. People who are unwilling to work are a terrible burden to the taxpayers. Laziness should not be rewarded and the US government are enablers.

The government should set limits but unfortunately, just like everything else the government does, it falls through the cracks and without checks and balances the taxpayer will always be burdened.

Welfare is OK if you need it. I had a child when I was 17. by the time my son was 11 years old I had used up my first two years in between that time I was working and helping myself, but only because welfare helped me get a job at a casino.

I have had to get back on after five years because I was not able to find a job. Well with some confidence and a work plan they will help you a lot. my worker gave me a voucher so I can take my certification test for massage therapy. It is only to be used when needed. I also did not have any more children I could not afford. I don't see how anyone can abuse the system because in Nevada they put you through a lot to get it.

I hate that people judge so much and are jealous of people who have six kids, are single and on welfare.

I assure you that woman's life is no walk in the park. She is only bragging to you because she can see the shock and envy in your eyes. That's what welfare moms do, especially when they have nothing going for themselves.

I had a friend who has three kids younger than mine and who is on section 8 laugh at me because i had no furniture but I put her in her place quickly and told her I pay my rent myself and work for a living. I will get furniture when I can afford it. I don't have the government paying my bills.

I certainly would not want to live like that nor would I be jealous. To the person who said they see women using wic vouchers and jumping in their cars. Did it ever occur to you that may be in someone else's car? In Nevada they make you sell your car first if you have one before giving any kind of help.

I get tired of my hard earned dollars going to irresponsible individuals who are driving a lexus, eating good food and wearing expensive clothes. Is that fair? I think everybody should earn and pay taxes not to be a burden.

Work harder so the millions on welfare don't have to! I know a woman with six children who is 27 years old. She has never worked. She receives more money per month than my wife who is a fourth grade teacher, with her masters degree. Anything else seem wrong here?

I would also like to add that my wife works a minimum of 10 hours a (week)day, not including grading/lesson plans at home. it just seems that we are rewarding laziness here. My wife and I were discussing how it would be more beneficial for us to purposely get fired from our jobs, divorce, and have six children. Pretty sad coming from two college graduates.

What really perplexes me in this is somehow the lady with six children received an income tax refund? Seems like you should have to have actual income to receive a refund. I mean, we're giving her money, taxing what we give her, then giving it back? Or perhaps she's just getting the tax credit for them?

In any case, it seems that after six trips to the delivery room she would owe the hospital. But she assures me everything was paid for by the taxpayers.

Needless to say our government is retarded in more ways than one, and this is just a drop in the ocean. I will say that after the sixth child they 'spayed' her or whatever you call it with humans. Breed on vermin!

They should fix anybody on welfare! If they are having kids when they are 15, what other dumb choices are they going to make? Fix them now before they produce anymore like them!

I know that some people abuse the system and so I don't blame those who are angry about that. In my situation, I have worked my whole life and was laid off a job of seventeen years from a local city government here in California due to cut backs. The city I worked for didn't pay into social security or disability.

Unemployment is so high here in California and I haven't found any work now for over a year. I have gotten unemployment but that is just about over now and I've had three extensions already. On top of that, I have had health problems due to diabetes which has affected my vision, and I've had to have several surgeries to my eyes to repair the damage which I still have one more due in april.

I did receive an inheritance when my mother passed but I've used almost all of that up having to live off it and pay for my own medical insurance at almost $600 a month. I cannot collect disability because I didn't pay into it. I can't collect ssi because I don't have enough work credits even though I worked for 17 years (remember my city didn't pay into it). So I'm almost out of money, can't pay my bills, and will soon be outdoors with no health insurance and now where to live.

I am not lazy and am not looking for a handout or a free ride. I just need some help to get back on my feet so I can once again become a contributing member of society. So what about people like me, are we to be left out on the street to just wither away?

I get tired of my hard earned dollars going to those lazy few on welfare. I understand that some people need assistance in getting back on track. I feel everyone should work and earn their right to live in this country.

There should be a mandatory enlistment policy for all residents. I think you should "earn" your citizenship through service. As far as homeless or jobless, this government could put all those on welfare, capable of work, in some type of government/military service. If they are going to get a check they should earn it.

As a single mother in my last year of college going for my bachelors, food stamps have helped me out tremendously. I have worked since I was 14 and I will continue to do so.

Not everyone on welfare abuses the system. If anything, they make you work at government sites like sanitation for your benefits, and most people do not stay on welfare for a long time.

to all the under 21: Keep your head up, and don't make the same mistake twice. use protection and get your college degrees.

to all the naysayers: maybe becoming a mentor to a troubled youth or someone who is less fortunate than you may help the problem. Stop being selfish. i volunteer at my local community center because i want my young people to make better decisions for their future.

I can honestly see both sides of the story for welfare. I understand that people are upset that others are taking taxes just to sit on their butts and I know some people seriously need this program to get back on their feet.

People need to understand that some people truly are abusing the system. My mother is and has been since I was 10. I'm now 19, turning 20. I know we could survive without it but she's not going to do anything about it because, yes, she is lazy. Yes she wants her drugs and easy money and all her food but some of us do need it.

I'm not like my mother. I have just found out I'm pregnant. I'm getting married soon and I don't live at home anymore. I pay rent, car insurance, cell phone bill, and for food and I'm doing perfectly fine. My friend's mother says she'll lose all respect for me if I do go for welfare but what if my saved money and the money I take to spend on my baby disappears?

I mean, if the costs are greater than how much I'm saving than eventually I'll run out. I'm working as much as I can and my fiancee has a full-time job but soon we'll need to move because I'm not allowed at my friend's house with a baby. (Which is just rude.)

I'll be paying higher rent, out of work for a while, and taking care of the baby the best I can. Does that mean I'm wrong to ask for welfare if I can't support my baby anymore? I'm already having to postpone my wedding or cut it down to an extremely small wedding.

I might even just get married at town hall for a $25 fee if that's what it takes. I'm just sick of people ragging on other people because they think anyone can survive without help or they say people need to go back to their parents or stop making the mistakes of having children.

My family isn't any better off unless I become like my mother and go back to her to cheat the state. I refuse to do that so I have no support from family, friends, and I can't cut out any more costs besides my cell phone which is my only way of talking to doctors and other important things. (No house phone) So stop nagging people. Plus, if you're doing well without welfare, then why are you even on this site and reading the comments? Do you just want to gripe or something?

To comment 163: Look, just because people are lazy doesn't mean you have the right to tell them they're not trying hard enough and that they're not accepting a minimum wage job like McDonalds.

At one point in my life I was in a similar situation as that same guy. Employment rates were low and I needed a job as soon as I could. I tried temp agencies, McDonald's, other fast food places, grocery stores, and on every application I told them I expected minimum wage. I got two interviews and I had called back every place within a week of applying but they still didn't hire me. Even if places are hiring doesn't mean you'll get the job. It takes an interview and you have to lie your butt off or they don't take you.

McDonalds asked me why I wanted the job. I thought I should be honest and told them that I needed a job so I could put myself back into school, pay my bills, and build my future but because I didn't tell them I was majorly interested in food, they didn't hire me.

Some people just need extra help and I for one don't care if I have to pay taxes for it as long as it's not overly abused. Welfare is never going away so get used to paying for it.

No. 167: I most sincerely hope you never have an elderly loved one who needs medical care. I hope that, when you are older, you don't need medical care, either. I hope you have plenty to live on and never need to wonder whether you will buy food or medication that month.

My generation didn't mess everything up, either, but I don't mind helping people who need it.

To all the ones who "worked from the age of 2" and "made a life for yourselves" Why the hell are you here? Unless you were able to make 74K (poster 163) without being able to read, things seem to not be completely going well for you. And I laugh.

Your generation screwed it up for us and now we're going to use the tools available to get us up and running in the world you created. So, if you would please just go die so we no longer have to pay for your welfare, medicare, or any of the services that are out there, we would all appreciate it.

i agree. i work at a supermarket and see too many people coming in with wic, and go out to their brand new tens of thousands of dollars car. it's absolutely ridiculous.

How about adding in these for requirements:

1. You cannot be over 250 pounds.

2. You must pass regular and random drug tests.

3. You get a year to get your life in order and then all benefits stop.

4. You cannot drive a car that costs over $15,000.

We have too many entitlement programs and too many people who want to be on them. This just perpetuates itself into a downward spiral. Thanks, liberals. How about you learn how to balance a checkbook before you spend my tax dollars?

How is it that the majority of those posting are for the most part under 25? Do you all have cell phones, cars, ipods, TV, etc. and are now looking for others to support you via welfare which is paid for with their hard earned dollars?

Grow up already. I left home when I was 19 and I worked for some pretty terrible/abusive people. I lived in a dumpy apartment with no furniture other than a bed and a nightstand for a very long time. No tv, dining table, lamps, pots, pans, dishes, etc. Nothing! I saved my paychecks to pay my rent every month and lived very frugally on minimum wage.

Absolutely no extras but I had a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in at night and food. I took two buses to work year round and little by little I bought the things I needed for my apartment. It never even occurred to me to ask for welfare, food stamps, or any other kind of assistance.

Bottom line is that I did make mistakes in life but luckily no one else had to pay for my mistakes. I could barely afford to support myself so kids were out of the question.

Life is about accepting responsibility for your own decisions and mistakes and not forcing others to pay for them.

Comment 162: You're a young and able person and despite the high unemployment there are plenty of jobs available. Try McDonalds-- they're always hiring. Regardless of the unemployment rate, if you're willing to work, you can find work.

You're just another one of those people who cries because they can't start out at $20 hour. Sorry, but life doesn't work that way.

I started out at McDonalds and now make over 74K a year at 24 years old. You know why? Because I'm actually willing to work and took what I could get for employment and worked hard regardless of the pay.

Now in addition to working hard for my paycheck I go to school to further better myself which is how I stumbled upon this article. Get over yourself and take a minimum wage job. Just like all the fat people crying with excuses: it's because you're lazy. That's why people are fat. That's why they don't have jobs.

Sorry comment #160, but it's thinking like that that makes me sick. You cannot and will not ever have the power to judge who deserves benefits and who doesn't.

I'm an 18 year old male who was kicked out of his household, whose insurance was canceled by his own parents, and never got the chance to finish school. Why? because I'm gay. Sorry, I guess that's the bad choice I made and I should suck it up so I'll have a wonderful life as well huh?

You shouldn't even be on this website. Do you spend your free time judging people? Why? I thought you were busy having a wonderful life, conquering the world? Save your inspirational speeches for better times.

I'm 18 years old with no job experience living in a county with the highest unemployment rate. How the hell do I get a job, when my parents won't even give me documents I need to get a driver's license, much less a GED?

These benefits were created for people who don't have control over circumstantial situations, meaning, I can't control the fact that I'm all alone and can't get help.

I have a couple of family members who send me food once in a while. I'm about to apply for welfare and am very nervous, but then again I have no other choice and want a job desperately. I say rock on to the others who are still hanging on and turning everything around. Good for you.

What I don't think that many of you on here understand, is that welfare is not a bad thing. The people who are griping aren't mad at everyone on welfare. What is the kicker is that people are abusing it! The abuse is most likely not coming from anyone who is literate enough to use this website or any other website to "Blog".

However I do concur (agree) with those on here who feel like we are getting taken advantage of. I have been working my butt off since I was 15 to make a life for myself. I have no children in tow because I knew that I could not manage my life and those of my children. I didn't abort nor adopt. I just made other decisions for myself.

Thirdly, I am still in school and I still work.

My husband and I have one car that gets us from point a to point b, we both work, go to school, pay our bills, and afford health care and food on our own.

You can do it without the government's help! You can conquer this world with no one's help, you just got to want it. I am sorry if this is offensive, but I am sick of looking around at people who feel sorry for themselves. Suck it up! Life is about choices. You made some good ones and bad ones like everyone else but we are doing something about it by not reaping the so called "benefits" from the government! Stand strong on your own two feet for once and stop feeling sorry for yourself.

You should never spit up in the sky because it will hit you in your face! In other words, pray that your luck never hits bottom so you will never be the one in need!

I am a student at the University of Phoenix for Criminal Justice, I am 19 and yes, have a three year old son. I will be done with school in two years, and i need welfare to continue my schooling to become the best person and giver to my son i can possibly be, so when I'm done with school i will be off welfare and be paying for others to be on welfare just as i was.

We all need a boost sometimes so, to all the people who think we young mothers are abusing this privilege to this system, you need to know true facts about someone before you go judging people on welfare. I'm sure there's some things we would look down on you about also.

I have, as someone said above "back problems". I don't think people understand what you mean

when you say your back hurts. Its one of those things that you have no idea of how bad it is. And just because it happens to many people, that doesn't

mean its normal, that's better described as an epidemic with no said cure. I think someone used having back problems, knee, shoulder problems in the same sentence. lol, if you think your Spinal cord is in the same group as knees or limps, you're ignorant. Anyone ever had a severely sprained ankle? That's what a pinched nerve feels like-twenty four seven, with burning and tingling going down your leg that is relentless and will not allow you to sleep, I stayed up for 40 hours once. I can't even get an mri because i have no insurance and am losing everything. And as far as all these people on here saying, I'm going to school, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, i don't want to pay for you to get help, shouldn't have had a baby, you've got a bad back; bunch of cry babies.

I'd trade my right leg for a good back.

I'll tell you what, I was making 1300/week before I got injured and Id like to see what would become of

most of you loud mouth ignorant punks on here if you broke your back.

One said, people came back from wars and were shoveling coal with one hand. I hope you get into a car wreck and break your back and are forced to quit school and work at a BK the rest of your life because you were in too much pain to study.

You pay taxes to help people just as they pay taxes to help you. What is being described here is "every man for himself" by people who haven't had something bad happen to them. Ignorance is the only problem with this country.

In response to post 152: I think welfare is actually a good thing. I think the requirements should be more strict. As well as people who have gotten laid off or suffered foreclosure.

As for the comment made earlier, I am pregnant and applying for welfare. But I was a hard working student. I lost my job due to the economy. I was working as a receptionist for a hair salon (so I could do school work on breaks) and I lost my job because a receptionist was no longer needed.

The father of the child was laid off of his construction company. They lost a lot of work and just couldn't hold so many people, with little to nothing work.

He was laid off because he was one of the younger workers.

Yes, I may be pregnant. But we had a home. We had jobs. But due to the way the economy has been going we recently became homeless and on the street living from place to place, from friend to friend, from family members.

So its not like I was whoring around expecting to get on welfare. Welfare is for those that actually need it. Not these worthless people not willing to get jobs. But for people like me and my husband, who are trying to get back on our feet, and have a normal life once again. Not struggling worrying where our next meal is coming from. Where we are going to sleep. or Where we are going to next. Am I well nourished? Are we going to lose this baby?

Life is a hell of a lot harder when you are in the situation. Than what you would think. So shut up, quit complaining. And be thankful there are programs like this in case you ever lose everything you own in less than a week because you lost your job, your home. Everything.

I think welfare should be for people who have a job and got laid off and don't know where to get money from. Even though welfare is a problem for hard working people and that money comes from the taxes. It's helping people get on their feet but if that person that is on welfare and they say they are looking for a job but they are really not, then shame on them using the government for an excuse

I'm currently doing a project on the welfare problem, so i want people's opinion on welfare and if they think welfare for people should be banned, even if they are not trying to get a job, please post your comment and give why. This will be greatly appreciated. thank you!

I hope these lazy people enjoy my paycheck! This is addressed to the people who use Welfare in a Fraudulent manner.

I know there are some people who really do work hard and try to make it without assistance. I have no beef with you. I wish you well and hope God will help you out of your plight.

My beef is with these young women who get pregnant and say "I work my job as a waitress but it's real hard to be on my feet all day, especially the farther along I get in my pregnancy". They should have kept their legs closed and thought of the consequences before they got pregnant.

And the there are the other sorry people who have two to 10 kids and say "I can't feed my babies or can't afford a baby sitter." They should have kept their legs closed!

I shouldn't have to pay for their stupidity. I feel no child or elderly person should ever have to go without food or healthcare. But I do think if someone is on welfare they should be forced to have a hysterectomy or vasectomy after two children.

And there also the people who say I am on disability. I can't work, i need help, give me a check. And yes there are some people who are blind, paralyzed or have certain other medical conditions that make it extremely difficult or impossible to work. Once again I am not speaking to you people.

There were veterans who came back from World War I and II who would shovel coal, dig ditches, etc. with one arm. But nowadays some people say I can't work because I hurt my back, or knee, or shoulder, or I have bad nerves.

We're becoming a nation of crybabies! I'm sure these same people watch t.v., get on the internet, or talk on the phone. They could work as telemarketers, watch monitors, or work on their computers from home. The majority just don't want to work.

And yes I know there aren't as many jobs as there used to be. That's because our idiot president and past president are destroying our country and shipping all the jobs overseas and we are letting them do it.

Who cares as long as the government is giving me a check and paying for everything, right? Soon they will be telling you what you can wear, eat, say or do. But who cares as long as they give me my check, right?

What a sad, pitiful nation we are becoming. I worked as an EMT making 8.00 an hour and took care of myself, wife, child, paid for college for two, bought food, paid bills, gas, vehicle, insurance, hospital bills, etc. And some of these people say they can't make it? They make me sick. It's people like them who are destroying our great nation.

The hard working people are sick of paying for them to sit on your lazy butts. If they need help, they can take their check and use it to get back on their feet. Then get off of it.

Quit stealing from the honest, hardworking people!

people don't know how hard it is to raise a child. i got pregnant. yes, i made a mistake but i don't believe in abortion so now i have a beautiful daughter.

i didn't finish high school so we're living off of one income for three people. it would be nice to get some extra money to help with getting my GED and finding a job.

and people come on here trash talking people that are on welfare. Hello! you live in america. we're helping to take care of each other. that's what it's all about.

so before you start judging and pointing fingers, put yourself in the shoes of someone who isn't perfect, who's made a few mistakes, and didn't have everything handed to them.

To all of you on welfare: I am so sick of hearing that this program is in place to "get people back on their feet".

All this program does is delay the time it takes people to grow up and be responsible for themselves.

I'm sorry but life is hard and it stinks. Don't suck my money out of all of my work, and yes i go to school, have no kids, and i'm 21. This system is a race to the bottom and makes it incredibly difficult for a college student who makes decent money to pay for school since it's going to this wasteful program.

Life stinks. Life is hard. I'm sorry but I do not want to pay for your mistakes and misfortune. I'm not heartless, but i'm working and struggle to keep my own bills paid, so why should i help you?

I am a single mom with three kids. I did not intend on being single, but with an abusive spouse that is the way it turned out.(My kids were only four, one and a half, and six months when their dad left.)

If it weren't for the welfare system, I would be a low income wage earner having to live off family and friends. I was able to finish college and get a degree because of welfare allowing me to continue my education rather than working full time.

I then got a teaching job right out of school.

I got off welfare, and even paid back a portion of money that was given to me. I have been teaching now for 13 years. I contribute much more in taxes than if I had no education.

That is what the welfare system should be used for. I worked hard, then got off. Not everyone on welfare is out to cheat the system.

I agree there should be some more strict regulations, such as drug testing, but I'm happy if my taxes help even one person better their life, or the lives of their family!

I think everyone has misconceptions of state aid. I am currently on the WIC program and use medicaid. I have been working since I was 15 years old! I have always paid my own bills, by working multiple jobs.

I was on birth control and got pregnant at 23. I continued to work until the seventh month. I had sciatic nerve problems and wasn't able to serve tables anymore. I looked for easier jobs and no one would hire me since I was seven months pregnant! I had no other choice since I could no longer pay my medical insurance and was starting to get behind on bills. My fiance had to pay what he could on my bills as well as his.

If it were not for Wic and medicaid, my child would probably be in poor health condition due to no medical care.

I do agree that some people abuse the system, and I do think that drug testing should be required for everyone in the household in order to get assistance!

To those of you who are saying horrible things about the program, you need to quit! There are people who really do need the help. I am a proud mommy of a new baby girl, Ashlyn!

It's so simple! Don't have kids if you can't afford them! How difficult is that?! And you people who have kids just to exploit them for a quick buck make me sick! Get off your lazy butt and find a job! Work for your money like the rest of us. We don't work to support all of you.

People need to get off their butts and get a job. and as for the teenage mothers. use condoms or keep your legs shut! Are they all that dumb? it is not my job to pay for them and the kids they keep popping out!

If you are going to have sex and you have no means of supporting yourself or others you better be on birth control. I'm tired of paying for your ignorance or lack of taking responsibility for your actions.

Not only does my taxes pay for your food stamps and medicaid, my property taxes pay to educate your children. I am single, educated and female with no children and it stinks to pay for your mistakes. And because I make 80K-plus per year, I pay a high percentage of your welfare.

I am sick of it. Get a job or volunteer. You need to contribute something to society besides a burden on our welfare system. If you cannot afford one child you sure in the hell should not be having a second. Welfare should only be for those who truly cannot work because they are disabled or find themselves unemployed for short periods of time. It shouldn't be for girls who get pregnant on purpose or "Oops" how did that happen.

Quit blaming your problems on the guys. You are the ones who don't use birth control or protect yourselves. If you are not married don't expect any support from the guy. Get a clue and get off your butts and get a job. I know a ton of women who work full-time, go to school and raise children and I don't hear them griping about getting a free handout from the government.

You get no sympathy from me for your ignorance and laziness. I feel so sorry for your children and for the society that they live in. What the hell do you teach them -- how to wait in line for welfare and how to get out of hard work?

I'm sick of the burden but obviously you feel entitled.

anon63007 - Before you go off on your rant, you may want to look at the statistics. Over 60 percent of those on welfare are on there for 12 months or less. By law, passed in 1996, the maximum time for welfare assistance is five years and only 12 percent of the people are on there for that long. Of those, the majority of them are elderly or disabled.

Yes, there are a few cases similar to the one you mentioned, but they might be much lower than you imagine, they just get more publicity. When was the last time you watched the news and saw a story about a single mother who came off of welfare and out of poverty and now has a steady job that supports her family?

It seems there is a lot of misplaced anger on this page, fueled by misconceptions. Maybe your anger should be placed where it belongs.

ie. spouse, job, political greed, etc.

Wanting to go to college is not a good reason to receive assistance. Besides the job market is saturated with degrees. College is a business of service. Try not to buy into the view that college degrees are necessary and useful to survive.

Life is difficult and the choices we make increase or decrease the struggle. It should be no surprise that one day we all move out of our parents houses. Budget!

Welfare was designed as a supplement to insufficient incomes. The cost of living has been rising faster than incomes for decades. Don't wait until disaster or hardships force you into a less than desirable situation.

Be honest with yourself, only you know if you need public assistance.

Please do your best to keep your necessity temporary.

I've known several people who have been on temporary assistance and all of them were ashamed to be on it.

I have never, nor will I ever accept public assistance, but if you need it please use it sparingly.

By the way, corporate welfare greatly overshadows social welfare. Perhaps it's time to refocus our anger.

Stop the hate, it only clouds judgment and understanding.

Half these people aren't even 24 yet, without a job and that didn't even try to get a job looking to be on welfare? i think that's a big joke! they're probably sitting at home, playing xbox and watching "I'm a teen mother", because half of them are, and not giving a crap. and then when they want money they look for welfare from the government.

maybe for the people who take welfare for a step up to help them get ready for the car expenses and etc. then i feel bad i'm posting this, but for those who just go on here and say, "oh i need money. i want a 2010 mercedes benz and then i want to go spend my money on drugs and useless things and forget all about my responsibilities and my future job. so can you help me?" that is what gets me mad! that's being sarcastic but that's just what gets me mad!

I am 51 year old, divorced.I do not get any help from the ex,I had a bad lawyer. I was stay at home mom all my life while raising children.Recently I finished school and became an RN. I have applied to countless RN positions,but no success. I have no money and don't know what to do. Can I get a temporary welfare?

anon59977, there is a very important statistic you are missing in your post.

39 percent of people on welfare are black, 38 percent are white. sounds pretty equal right?

you left out the very important fact that only approximately 13 percent of Americans are black. 80 percent are white. This means that a black american is four times as likely to be on welfare than a white american. Not very equal. :(

I don't mean this to be an offensive statement to black people at all, I'm just stating the facts.

I am a 49 year old forced out of work, a sticky situation, but unable to get unemployment. I am on the verge of losing my apartment.

I have held on since September and now I have to seek assistance until I get employment. Welfare is a help -- not a way of life -- and that is exactly how i intend to use it.

I raised two children until now with little or no assistance and now find myself in need. So, no welfare as many other agencies are in need but it is unfortunate that many take advantage of these agencies.

I do hope that it does not affect me as well as others who find themselves in need of temporary assistance.

Hello, I am a few months shy of being 21 and am facing a difficult time. I can't find work in my town and am not allowed to travel outside of it for work because my parents said they won't drive me.

I don't have my license, don't have a job and they said if I don't find work they're going to throw me out on the street. Would I be qualified for some kind of welfare or Hud kind of deal. I just need a place to sleep with a shower in a somewhat populated area that has enough job opportunities to get up off ground. Can anyone help me with my dilemma?

I'm 21 years old. I don't qualify for loans, I can't go to school because financial aid doesn't cover me in full. I have a lot of debt and I am living from house to house.

I have yet not found a job because I think my previous job is giving a bad reference for me or just bad luck. I feel stuck. I don't know what to do.

I don't want to apply for welfare. I don't think I'm eligible since I don't have kids. anyway, my life sucks.

i don't see a damn thing wrong with getting a little help when you need it. now i do think it's wrong whenever people live off it. pill heads who even try to sell their food stamp cards just to get a some drug money! it's wrong if you live off it and don't even try to have a job or anything. but whenever you are in school, and trying to do something with your life its perfectly fine.

Ha ha! I just saw a bumper sticker that says "Can't feed em? Then don't breed em!" Made me smile.

I think welfare should be discontinued. Why should I pay for you and your kids to live (food, housing, day care assistance) just because you decided to pop out children that you can't afford? Get a clue!

I went to college, took out loans since my parents couldn't pay for it, and yes I owe $20,000 in student loans, but I am making $60,000/year my first year out of school. I unfortunately owe an additional $1,200 in taxes this year. That's $12,000 in taxes a year! To feed, house and clothe these people! I know my taxes go elsewhere too, but welfare is senseless spending on the government's part. Take it away and I guarantee you these bottom feeders will rise up, get jobs, and go to school and become productive members of society.

Seriously, it is not that hard people.

Welfare, by race.

When combined as black and non black, a larger percentage (60.2 percent)on welfare are non black.

Stop repeating the lies and hate.

White 38.8 percent

Black 39.8

Hispanic 15.7

Asian 2.4

other 3.3

I agree and disagree with what people are saying about welfare and taxes. You think that just because you apply for a job or several jobs you'll get it, but no, it doesn't work that way, other factors need to be taken in consideration. It costs money to go to school and if someone is working minimum wage, it's impossible to pay for things and save for college.

Everything is going up in price except people's income. Taxes not only go to welfare, but it goes, to government employees income, politicians, corporations and financial aid. Many of the college students who didn't come from rich families and didn't win the scholarships (because we all know that scholarships are contests) use financial aid (which is a form of welfare). Yes, I work hard and after three years of working I only got a $0.10 raise (is that fair, no!)

I was a student but I couldn't afford it so I had to drop out. The only way to get back in is to take out loans (which I don't believe school is worth getting in debt, I rather go in debt paying for a house or car since I be in it longer than school).

I would rather have my hard working money going towards welfare than to continue filling up the pockets of crooked police officers, crooked politicians and scheming, unethical corporate executives.

If given the choice I would keep all of my money but since we don't have a choice I'd rather give it to welfare recipients (lazy or not). What would you do?

In the recent CNN Special, "Being Black in America," Julian Bond addressed this issue: We, as a country, must stop creating opportunities for parents, black, white, or otherwise, to use their children as chattel.

For example, a 26 year old mother of six (our state will not pay additional assistance for a seventh child) becomes pregnant again.

Her youngest sibling (one of seven) is about to turn 18 and her mother will have to move from her federally funded two-bedroom home to a one-bedroom. Solution? Mother (Grandmother) petitions to adopt daughter's seventh baby! Paternity? Unknown!

Children are not property, and Americans should not expect remuneration for simply exercising their perceived right to procreate. Nor should others benefit by proxy.

All rights come with contingent responsibilities! Condoms and birth control pills; in combination these two items can curb the tremendous social problems welfare and the pseudo-disability (a/k/a "single-parent") these policies have generated.

I realize that some families simply cannot, for a time, make ends meet. These situations should allow families to qualify for temporary assistance. However, there exists a significant percentage of families that qualify as generational welfare recipients, and children are commonly used as pawns in the "qualification for benefits" game.

Sorry folks, is you are not mature enough to anticipate the tangible and intangible costs of raising children then you are not mature enough to bring a child into this world - period.

And, if your plan for raising that child or children includes living on welfare and draining every other resource available to "at-risk" parents and families your plan is flawed. You, (and your children), will be living in a state of bleak and meager subsistence.

If you cannot afford condoms or birth control pills you can be certain you will be unable to afford to raise a child.

why all of these requirements and still people are abusing welfare and taking it from people that really truly need it?

I've read some of these posts and didn't see anything like i've seen.

I know a girl on the cash assistance program gets quite a bit of money because she has two kids, ages 1 and 2. She got pregnant twice because she felt she could hold on to her man, needless to say it didn't work. She lives with her mom (doesn't work) and her mom's parents, who are elderly and not in the best health.

What little the elderly is bringing in is what they are living on. The cash assistance is for spending on good times, time on the phone, smokes, going out, nevertheless not on her children.

I applaud anyone that uses the system for the necessities otherwise not able to afford, to get back on their feet, but for someone to use their children to get money from the state to do with whatever they feel like at the time, pees me off.

I am a 21 year old single mom of an 18 month old. It was an unexpected pregnancy. Up until this month, I was a full time college student, but I had to stop going due to money being an issue and the constant court fees with my ex (my daughter's father). I work part time, and have been with the same company for almost four years. I live at home with my mom and two sisters, but I would like to get out on my own.

What would I be qualified to receive?

Reading through all these comments, people do need to think things through before talking. Yes, teens need to be more careful when it comes to sex and getting pregnant, and most aren't near ready for it. I went to school with a girl who unexpectedly got pregnant in 10th grade. She and her boyfriend both graduated in the top 10 percent of the class while working and raising their son.

With support of friends and family, it's not impossible to make it being a teen parent. People with nothing to say but downgrading them just makes it harder for them. Not everyone who goes on welfare stays on welfare, most just need it temporarily until they can get back on their feet.

I'm not looking for free handouts so I can sit at home playing games all day, I'm looking into this so I can try to better my life and my daughter's life and get out on my own and not live under my mom's roof anymore.

"If you're in college and not working, not fine. School is important, but if you can't afford to go, don't go." It is because of you close mind thinking that America is losing its status around the world. Do you really think using most of our budget in defense is going to keep our status in the world? Come on!

Think and stop listening to ignorant propaganda that is spread on talk radio. Education is not only important, education is fundamental. If we waste potential professionals our whole society loses. What happens when all those college drop-outs can't find more blue collar jobs? Aren't you seeing how the economy is changing? We are all in the same boat buddy whether you like it or not, we need to prevail as a nation.

Negativity and selfishness has rotted several societies in history but I won't let it destroy America. If there is something I am determined about in life is to fight against ignorance and selfishness and I will use all my intellectual potential in doing so.

Have fun having a miserable life blaming welfare and the government for all your problems. Meantime I will enjoy paying every penny of my taxes knowing that it's helping children get an extra meal and a decent education.

My brother and his wife are on kid number three. They both have an education and refuse to work. However, they are more than willing to take money from anyone.

She keeps having kids because others care for the first two. They watch TV and play video games. They are making no attempt to get full time jobs.

She just quit her part time job because she is pregnant again. Three kids my parents are paying and caring for.

Should they care for these children? She can continually have kids because she isn't doing anything for her current ones. So no, it isn't the kid's fault, but then again, if she doesn't have to take care of them or pay for child care, then what motive is there for her to stop?

They are the type of people who will not do anything for themselves as long as people are helping.

I think welfare should be for families that really need it, and I think that the welfare office should be checking to make sure the money is going to the family and kids.

I don't live in the greatest neighborhood and I see people selling their food stamp cards for half price so they can go get drugs with their kids' food money.

I'm only 19 and in college and I'm working at a minimum wage job. If I can do it, these people getting free money should be able to do something with their lives. They need to stop having kids if they can't take care of them. I'm tired of my tax money going to drugs.

For those looking for welfare, your best bet is to visit a local welfare office and ask your questions. Keep a tough shell. As you can see in the many comments on this thread, you will get a lot of criticism. But do what you must do.

Keep your children's faces before you. Keep your goals before you. There's no reason why anyone should go hungry in this wealthiest of nations. Be strong in your assertion of your basic needs - food, shelter, clothing. Don't let anyone else belittle your self worth because you've exhausted every other effort on getting what you (or your family) need.

Life isn't predictable. Tragedy happens all the time. It's not always something one can blame. They will say what they will.

As such I am not wasting my time coming back to this post, and neither should you. Be happy.

To those who are talking about people shouldn't have to depend on the government and your kids are your responsibility and no one else's! That's right, your kids are your responsibility but you shouldn't be ignorant to say public assistance should not be used. You don't know my situation or anyone else's. So stop and think. Some people really are in great need of this assistance! ughh people piss me off!

I think if I couldn't pay my bills or feed my kids I would cut out the internet and sell my computer.

Let me say, I am married with three children. We had trouble paying bills, so I went out and got a second job. it paid minimum wage, but it was better than nothing.

Now I work on average, 100 hours a week. She doesn't work by my choice, but now we pay all bills on time and have money left over.

In fact we took two vacations last year. We don't drink, do any type of drugs, or waste money on pepsi, chips and eating out.

It's a term called budgeting. There is no $20.00 an hour job going to knock at your door. Sometimes it takes working several minimum wage jobs, but I made decisions so I will manage them. I have never asked for help in my life nor will I.

It's not anyone's responsibility to raise my kids but mine.

How about personal responsibility? There is absolutely no need for government assistance if people learned the virtue of personal responsibility.

If you can't afford kids, don't have them. If I spank my kids, it's called child abuse, but if you can't afford to provide your kid food, shelter, and clothing, that's not abuse?

I know it's radical, but we should really place a limit on how many kids people can have. Something like, you can have two kids. Any more after that, you have to show financial proof you can afford them. I really don't see what's wrong with that. I'd rather a financial limitation on kids than someone have five kids they can't afford and the children suffer and go hungry.

I have to be drug tested at my job once a month. Taxes from my paycheck go towards welfare. Do people on welfare have to be drug tested? No. How is this remotely right? Welfare recipients need to be drug tested.

I sound selfish, but I don't want to take care of you if I know you are *not* working and aren't trying to.

If you hit a rough spot, that's fine. If you are *trying* to get a job, that's fine. If you're in college and not working, not fine. School is important, but if you can't afford to go, don't go.

I was lucky, and I am very privileged, but I also worked very hard for what I have today. I'd rather the state government be in charge of it. No offense, but those of you outside my state, get your help from someone else.

First of all let me start off by saying some seem to be very uneducated. Not all, but most.

I think it is safe to say, if you are going to share your negative opinions, you should at least be knowledgeable in that subject area.

I have been in college for a few years, not that that makes me better than anyone else, but I recently had to do a community project. That project consisted of learning about the welfare system and working with individuals on the program.

For those saying that welfare is using too much money, Only 1-2 percent of the federal budget goes toward welfare programs!

For those who think that population is mostly teenage mothers, Teenage mothers make up only 7.6 percent of the mothers on welfare!

Not everyone in this scenario made a mistake that got them here. Some did, but many people make mistakes. You have too.

Example: One mother I worked with has children, was married, and in the army. She was doing very well but then her husband died. She couldn't help that happened, and now she is left to take care of her kids on her own.

Please do your research before posting.

i am a 15 year-old girl. i am very saddened by what a lot of people seem to be saying. it made cry a little.

my mom and step-dad get up in the morning around 4 a.m. every day, and they go to work as a cook and a cleaning lady just to make minimum wage, and they don't get home until about 6 p.m. we got evicted from a few houses because they were laying people off from her job.

she got a new job, but they began making budget cuts. my mom simply didn't have enough money to pay for my two other sisters and i to live with her. my oldest sister had to go live with her boyfriend and hold off on college for another year.

my sister and i were sent to live with my real dad and brother. eventually my dad kicked us out and we were sent to live with our mother again. after months and months of waiting, we finally got accepted to receive health care insurance and food stamps. my mom got remarried. she and my step dad work very hard. there was a time in our lives when everything was great, but life happens.

my sister is bipolar, and i have a few issues myself. we really need all of the help that the government provides for us. my mom breaks her back and so does my dad. they are not slackers. my real dad provides $100 for my sister and i each week for child support. at least he is supposed to, but he doesn't. this goes toward the rent, which just increased by $300/month.

life is very tough and my oldest sister is now in a very prestigious college and in debt. my other sister is a 16 year old senior in high school having a hard time finding a job to save up for a car and college.

i feel bad for all the single mothers that are young and having a hard time. i think that a lot of people abuse this system, but i also feel like a lot of people really need it. i am sorry for the hard time that others give them, but life is tough.

get over what others say, and if you really care, do all that you can to get on your feet. i think mistakes happen, but deal with them in the best way possible for you. i know that one day my family will be able to stand strong on our own again, but that day is not today. My parents pay taxes as well. some of these taxes just come back to us because we are receiving help from the government. they feel bad about taking others' hard earned money, but we would not survive without it, so thank you very much. (:

to the 27-year-old with two boys: that is so nice you are able to work for now, but I suspect the time will come where you will hit a hard spot, especially as a single mother.

Most of the women on welfare are not just young mothers (they make up 11 percent) Almost 85 percent are fleeing domestic violence. They once worked hard, had husbands, church, community, jobs, but something interfered, so therefore, because America values its citizens, we need to help them get up and be productive again.

We need to work together as a community to stop the "reasons" why people need the system. In fact, that is what the system does. It helps these individuals move on to more productive lifestyles.

If you even knew how much these people received and how hard it is for them to survive you might be very ashamed.

The comments about people sitting on welfare and doing nothing are very ignorant. The welfare system does not allow you to sit and collect unless you have very serious disabilities verified by a doctor. Then welfare is a gateway to SSI. These people simply cannot return to work the same way they did.

Welfare is just a tool meant to propel you back into school or work. The amount given to you is so little you are left homeless. It is just enough to pay for bus fare, electricity maybe and partial rent maybe, and they are so strict that there is no way you are just sitting. That is just a myth from people who do not know the system.

I believe that everyone has their own mistakes that they have done in life. Sometimes you hit a bump on the road and may need this assistance. I got married very young had my planned baby, but because of circumstances of life i am going through a divorce at the moment.

i have a full time job and many bills to pay, let alone all the baby expenses. I'm making it OK so far, but as a usc i have the right to ask for help since it's being deducted from my paycheck every week.

So all these people saying that they hate the system and the way the government works need to get a life and leave all these people alone. If you are in a good economic state, good for you. not everyone has the same luck. remember live and let live.

i am currently doing an argument essay on why there should be limitations on these dumb government programs. I am 20 years old, i go to college, i work full time and i also just had a baby daughter yesterday morning.

I am not going to sign up for any of these programs because i know there is a way to make everything work. I hate seeing people sit around all day living off of other people. Like this guy that wrote on 102 comment. come on man if you weren't so busy writing in and complaining about not being able to get help, you could have been out finding a job.

How can you get the internet anyway if you're so broke? I understand people with disabilities. My neighbor has it, but when you're too lazy to live on your own, you should have never gotten off your mom's nipple.

I don't understand why you must have a child to receive any help from welfare.

I am a single person living on my own with no children, and I can't afford it. I need help just as much as those dumb girls who laid on there backs and got knocked up.

The only difference is I am smart enough to know that I cannot afford to have a child, therefore I don't have one. I have been out of work for over four months and I have looked continuously! There is nothing even relating to a job in this area, or any area at that.

I don't know what else to do. There are days I go hungry, and I have even taken myself down to the soup kitchen to eat, even though that is very embarrassing. I have to do what I have to do to survive. Now I am completely out of money for food, gas to look for a job, clothes and everything and I can't receive any help from anyone! Thanks to this wonderful USA.

For all these rude people on here talking about us young mothers on welfare that is so wrong!

I'm a full-time student and a mother of 1. I live with my mother and everything is gravy. How dare you make it seem like all of us just sit around on our butts, taking in the easy way out!

Everyone isn't able all the time. You make it seem as though you've never done something wrong or needed help. It's just ridiculous because as long as you're sitting around writing crap you couldn't live a day in half of our shoes.

I worked from the age of 14-18. Now I'm turning 19 and my son was just born. So all that crap about people trying to get out the easy way, think twice next time and realize what you're saying because you'll be the next one looking around for help. It's given for a reason!

18- Tampa, FL

Welfare's got to go. If it's gone, and people are suddenly all, "what? Where's the free money?" then it can maybe be recreated for the people who actually need it, and who will also be kicked off it the month they are in better financial standing.

O.K.people who don't need welfare shouldn't be on it. My parents are but that's because they are both disabled from a car accident and i have two brothers and one sister, i have a part time job and i only get about $65 every 2 weeks. and that doesn't help. we need it. if you screwed up, got knocked up, that is your own fault -- fix it yourself. don't use everyone else's money who needs it.

For the love of god, minimum wage is different for everyone. I have a $400 paycheck (and that's full time). I live on minimum wage.

I have a car payment, insurance, cell phone, rent, bills. What's left of my $400 paycheck is called gas money.

Is it possible to live on minimum wage? Yes. Is it difficult? Of course. This is minimum wage for me. I don't even have money left over for food. But I manage with what little I have.

Do I mind that my paycheck is being deducted due to taxes so I don't see all my hard earned money? Yes, but at least I know there's a program there for me if I hit an intense rough spot.

Question is, when are they going to adjust the program so those abusing it will get caught?

I don't buy into this "use a condom!" deal and this whole people on welfare are dead beats. I'm 24, have a planned baby coming and just recently lost my job due to unfortunate circumstances. I didn't qualify for food stamps or cash aid, although I am on medical since I have no health insurance. Not everyone is eligible.

This system is meant to help people get back on their feet, then get out of the system, not to stay on it. Unfortunately there are too many people abusing the system.

Not many people would dislike this program if they did what they actually had to do and busted the ones abusing the system, because yes, it ticks me off that someone with five kids and never worked a day in their life can get more than me on a working salary, and can get the help that I need.

I have two jobs, go to school full time, pay for a car, and other bills that i have. sure i'm a middle class citizen but does that mean i should be a statistic for america?

for the person who said you can't live off minimum wage -- yes you can. you have to budget yourself. you need to go without tv, drugs, alcohol, all that stuff.

also for those of you who have been kicked out of your house or have a kid and want help. let me give you advice: get a job and get someone who can actually take care of you. also if you get kicked out that's your own fault, don't do stupid stuff.

i don't care if you can't get along with your parents. they love you because you're their child, you don't have to be home all the time. it's a free place to stay. get a job.

I think welfare is so wrong because i am not going to pay for lazy people who, instead of doing all that they can to look for a better job, sit on their butts. Also i have seen too many people cheat the system. All these people need to think of the people who are paying for their lazy butts.

Welfare is a tricky thing. Lots of people get on it who should not be on it at all. Those who make enough but cannot make ends meet need to re-evaluate their lives and create a better budget.

I grew up with two teachers for parents. Teachers do not make a lot of money. My mother stayed home with us. I am the oldest of five children, and she stayed home with all five of us. My father was the only one working. He made it.

We did not have extra money to spend at all, but we were able to survive. If he can do it, you guys can do it. Work hard and you will prevail. If something in your life isn't working, correct it. If you can't afford the mortgage payment or the house payment or rent, change where you live. Sell your car and get a cheaper one, save your money as best you can. Shop at discount stores. Do not buy the ipod you want when you want it. Save up your money instead.

The world is not impossible to live in. Stop looking for quick fixes.

Try to live on minimum wage. It is impossible. Nowadays people need welfare. If it's there for for the taking, go for it. It's not that people are lazy, it's just free money, but no matter what race, amount or kids, it makes us as a country stronger.

One day your kids, or their kids, or their kids' kids, or a family members,or a friend's kids' kids might need some help. This country will always be growing. I say the more the better. God bless America.

i'm 24 and work 50 hours a week. I hate my job and want to go back to school to be a nurse but the school won't give me any aid because i make "too much" ($26,000/year). All you on welfare can kiss my butt.

I work hard and still get screwed. Put in some hard work and stop stealing my hard earned money! I really despise you. Why do you expect me to work hard and then hand over my money to YOU, who are too lazy to work or have made stupid life decisions so now they can't afford their lives?

And guess what -- I'd like to have a kid but can't afford it so I don't!

First off i want to address an issue with everyone. a lot of people go through a lot of things so maybe it's not necessarily that they're not trying, but one time in your life you're going to need help. i have two jobs and i'm 17 with a baby on the way and i still would like to have help from welfare to help me get on my feet because my mom is not there.

so all you budget high class females and males who think they can do it own their own, guess again, unless you're getting major money coming in. I'm going to live my life to the fullest. for all of you who have a problem with welfare, you need to get off of this page.

Yours truly-- Trina

18 years old, kicked out of my parents house, no job, attending college, live in california, no criminal record. Eligible?

Didn't you kids have sex ed in school? You learned about birth control pills and condoms! Even if you skipped this class -- use common sense! Quit having sex and kids if you can't take care of them financially. Welfare is not taking care of them, that's your idea of trying to, because you're still kids. Stop having babies!

Sadly, most of these comments are from underaged mothers who are asking for welfare. I will not judge but i must say that this "welfare" way of thinking has gone too far. It is not the government's responsibility to take care of you because it is not their money to spend. If you can't afford to have a child then use condoms! I am 18 years old and have been working since i was 16. I'm currently a full time student at a prestigious school in Texas and pay for my own tuition but not because my parents can't help me but because I want to do this for myself. Make wiser decisions and maybe just maybe life gets easier for you. In the meantime, look for a decent job and stop taking the easy way out with welfare.

we all need a better form of welfare. Really, any program in which the government provides money or services to citizens who are in need is a welfare program. Those who don't have a job need to either move or search harder. I know that isn't easy but if you just put your mind to it then it will happen!

Stop bouncing from house to house! Get a job. Welfare won't support you forever. if we get a president who says no to welfare, what will you do? Go live with your mom?

Do you really think she wants to have to shelter you and your family? Do you really like walking around saying when some one asks you, so what do you do for a living? oh I'm a welfare junkie! It's not right to take other people's money! It's just like stealing!

I'm not accusing you but welfare needs a different foundation in a new direction!

i'm 17, and will be 18 in December. Can i receive welfare so i can get a car, so i can get a job and start my life. my mom can't help me at all.

i have one comment: stay in Mexico!

get a job, stay in the country where you belong, and don't screw stuff up in our country. why should our taxes pay for you people because you have kids you can't afford?

i'm a 19 year old college student. me and my boyfriend are looking to find help in paying for school and our place and car. we need help. the money he gets every other week isn't cutting it. we have no children. is there any way we could get on welfare for the time we have left in college? need help.

I am 28 years old, living at home with my dad. He's 65 with liver disease and i take care of him, and have no income. do i qualify?

i am a 24 year old iraq war veteran. when i came home my wife filed for divorce and took me to court for child support. i pay 260.00 a week for 1 child and bcd, no maintenance or alimony. after paying that i am left with around $100 a week to live off from. and i work a 40 hour week as an electrician. does this qualify me for public assistance, being my gross income is still above the requirement?

I'm 18 with a six-week-old son. I'm not working because I'm trying to finish school. Well my boyfriend and his family are illegal and I live with them. Can I get on welfare?

Get a job and wear a condom. If you're 16 years old and have kids, as well as looking for a welfare check. I can already see that you are the type of person that is going to live off government checks for the rest of your lives. If you are able to work, then find a job. And stop having kids if you can't afford them.

Hello, Can you get welfare if you're a 17 year old mother? I have a son who is almost 1 years old. Me and his father are still together. We're living with just his mom at the momment.

I'm 21 years old, I go to college and am currently married. My husband can't find a job and his unemployment is too high for us to receive any sort of help. I work a part-time job at minimum wage and we're just squeaking by with what we have. How can I qualify?

i'm 19, and my parents are leaving to go to mexico and they don't know when they are going to come back. i'm going to college. i do have a job but i don't work every day -- i just work like one time each two weeks. i don't have anywhere to stay and i don't get paid that much money to afford a place so i am trying to find a friend whom i can stay with but it doesn't seem to be working because nobody will let me stay with them so i am asking the state for help.

Most of these stories are well I have a kid or i got kicked out. Quit screwing around and you won't have to worry about it!

I'm 20 years old, living in Texas, and currently married. Both my wife and I are citizens of the United States, and we've just moved into an apartment together this past June. Unfortunately, my wife hasn't been able to find a job yet, and I'm working with minimum wage ($7.50 per hour in Texas). It's nowhere near enough to cover all of our expenses (I get around $950 per month, but expenses are over $1000). Am I eligible for welfare? And if so, how can I apply for it?

I am a 16 years old with a 1 year old son. can I be on welfare?

Anon48367: If you have a job, it would be very considerate of you to help your son's grandmother with the house expenses. Food stamps are not enough. Many parents charge their adult children rent, and if you are enough of an adult to take on the responsibility of a child, then you should be enough of an adult to help pay the expenses you and your child are incurring in that home.

I am 16 and will be 17 in December.I have an 11 month old old son and I live with his father, aunt, mother, great-grandmother and cousin. His mother receives food stamps for me and my son as well as her son. Should I have to pay rent even though she receives foodstamps for me?

i'm 20 years old and i'm six weeks pregnant. i live at home with an alcoholic mother, i have no job and i don't go to school. my boyfriend lives with my mom and i and he has a full time job but doesn't make enough money. i have already had a miscarriage and i do not want to go through what i went through last time. i need help asap my living situation is not good at all. please help.

I am 18 years old. At 17 i was kicked out of my house. I have no job, no money, I have not many clothes. I need help. Do I qualify?

i'm 18 years old and attending college. I have a job but do not make enough. Looking for a second job but that's not going too well. I don't live with my parents and they are not willing to help with the expenses. I'm paying for a car, insurance, and braces and school. I need a place to stay but I don't have enough money for all that. do i qualify for welfare?

I am 28 years old and pregnant. I work full time but my employee doesn't offer maternity benefits, and the last person to take time off after having a baby got laid off. i want to know if this would qualify me for benefits. I want to be sure my child gets proper care and food and i am afraid i won't find another job quickly enough.

I am 54 years old, and for the last seven years (until she died) I was full-time caregiver, 24/7 for my mother who had many health problems, but did not want to go to a nursing home. During that time I had no income -- my mother and I lived on her small pension from my deceased father's employer. Before that, I worked for fifteen years in retail. I have had no income this year, which I have fruitlessly spent trying to find a job. I've been going to free job search workshops at the Employment Development Department and joined a woman's job search support group (formed by women who were laid off last year from a credit union when taken over by another company -- despite over 200 years combined experience in banking, only one of them has found a job). It finally clicked that the reason we are not getting hired for jobs that we are more than qualified for is that employers would rather hire inexperienced teens, people on welfare and food stamps or felons -- because businesses can get paid up to $2400, or in some cases, $9000, for hiring such people who often have few job skills (reason why they may have ended up on welfare, etc.) So next time you are "helped" at a business by an employee who doesn't seem to know what they are doing (for example, I've read reviews for one place where I applied at, but of course wasn't hired, about cashiers who don't know how to make change), you can see the results first hand of how this practice of not hiring applicants who are best for the job, ultimately can hurt more people than it helps.

I'm 19 years old and living with my grandmother who gets social security only for her. She barely get enough to survive on let alone try to take care of me. My father pays $75 child support a week and it doesn't do anything for me. It's in my grandmother's name. I was told by welfare i can't get it because he pays $23 more so right now i don't qualify. However if i stop the child support, can i get welfare? Because if the child support stops then i would not be getting any money at all and I'm currently in school and have no way to pay for transportation. So can i get welfare if there's no more child support being paid? Please someone answer me back asap!

I was recently laid off and am having trouble finding a job. I know that when i do find a job i will not make as much as i was making with my last employer. While i was employed my wife and i were able to afford and pay off two decent cars. We also bought a home that now we struggle to pay mortgage on every month. While it may look like we are well off (just by looking at what we have) we are not anymore. The only income coming to us is my wife's pay and my unemployment benefits which is not much to be able to pay what we need to. Will we qualify for welfare assistance showing what we have like cars, a home, and a small emergency fund?

can my child get cut off of welfare medicare and if so, how?

my boyfriend is 22 and completely independent. He pays for his own college, food, gas, clothing, bills, everything. He is on his own, living in his step father's garage, but as i mentioned, completely independent tax wise. He is unable to find a job and currently attending college. Is he eligible for welfare?

It seems that people judge others way too much. I currently work for federal express, and my fiance is working 30 hours a week and going to school full time. we are young adults with a lot of responsibility and not much money. We do not mooch off our parents and work our butts off, and we still can't make ends meet. don't you dare make the judgment that we are lazy people when in fact, we have jobs, and we are going to school to do better in life. Sometimes you just don't make enough. sometimes it just doesn't work out and you need that little extra to get you through life, and that's what this welfare system is about. it's about helping people. i pay my taxes just like every other person, but sometimes, people just need to be a little more understanding. i commute 45 mins to work, six days a week, most of the time twice in one day. i pay my tolls twice a day and i spend so much in gas alone. i need a place i can call home that is closer to work, but i just can't make the payments. life is hard and in this depression, us teens fresh out of high school don't get a break. give us a chance.

Yes, you all can obtain benefits!!!!! Keep leeching off of me and the rest of the tax payers!!!

I am a 18 year old single mother in the state of kansas. My insurance did not cover my pregnancy and will not cover my child. we applied for healthwave and WIC but didn't receive and help. I am going to college soon and I cannot juggle a child, college and a job. my parents paid most of my expenses and i would like to receive help so they can have more money for their things is it possible for me to be eligible for welfare?

i'm 21 years old from texas and i'll soon be moving to minnesota. i currently have a job, but will be leaving real soon. i won't have a job when i get to minnesota not even a car. is there any way i can get welfare until i can get on my feet with a job? thanks. --sam34

I am 19 years old and i am going to school. However my parents want me out of the house. If i do leave my house, i will be homeless because i do not have enough money to rent a place for myself and i would like to keep going to school. Would i be qualified for welfare?

I feel like I'm out of place, but I feel the need to ask this silly question. My fiance and I are on our own. We're well into our twenties and going back to college while working mediocre jobs. Work's fine but my hours have been cut drastically and I'm the provider of nourishment while he pays the living expenses. My question is, we don't have any children and thankfully we don't. Making ends meet is extremely hard, if a child or more were in the picture, I don't see how we'd survive. I know, I know -- you do anything and everything to provide. True, but anyway, my question is: with us not having any children, how likely would it be that we receive assistance like food stamps? It seems that in order to receive any assistance, a child must be in the picture. If this is the case, it's unfair to those who cannot have children and still have trouble providing for themselves.

Can a 25 year old, unemployed son, living with his parents get assistance? It can't be right but my friends' son is. He receives health insurance and $200/month in food stamps! Doesn't it depend on household income?

The welfare system needs reform! Grow up and don't get pregnant unless you can afford to take care of your child! Americans, and I'm one of them, are so lazy and think the world owes them a living.

I'm 19 and currently living with my boyfriend. I don't have a job and had to leave school, because I couldn't get enough money to cover all the expenses. My aunt and uncle were granted custody of me at a young age and because of that, I was forced to declare independent status before I could go to school. I'm trying to get a job, but it's not going well and my boyfriend and I are running out of money. Am I qualified?

>I know a lady who has six kids she has been on welfare since she was sixteen now she is 38. lives better than me who is making more than $50000 a year. <

No, you don't.

One person can receive government assistance "welfare" for a total of cumulative total of five years, and that is it.

Nor do they live better than you, even with six kids. The average amount of cash assistance is $150 to $200 per person/month. In this case that would mean $1300/month for seven people.

If you are a single mom and you can't work, then most of the time the state can help you out. You need to show that you are willing to work. I am a mom who is a waitress with two kids and receive food stamps because I don't make a cretain amount of money. When both kids were not even born, I worked and received help. All you have to do is be able to talk to your case worker and if you are nice to them, they will usually try to help you.

My mom works hard everyday and commutes a lot of hours. She cannot sign my loan papers to go to college and its really hard finding a job as im 18 with a GED. She wants me to get this welfare stuff because she has been paying taxes all her life, working since 14 and knows its a hard work environment. Funny thing is though... I have pride? Life is funny. So im stuck in that situation. Broke as hell also.

Not all people on welfare are "gold diggers." as a matter of fact some are teens with need of help until they can face the world with their own with their new child. And if you have a comment on " it their fault for getting into this mess" don't judge. every one has made dumb decisions but should one be judged for the rest of their life ? Please try to look at all the facts before stating ignorant opinions and comments. You don't know what anyone is facing in life, most are just easy to judge " let those who have never sinned throw the first rock" i'd rather be on welfare then in a way pay back with my own taxes than to borrow money from people i know and never pay them back like most people have done to me

I would be willing to bet most people on here asking for welfare can afford the internet, cell phones and computers. But feel they are entitled to them. Then they ask hard working people to pay their way because they are too lazy to work.

It's getting to the point, everyone wants help but no one wants to work for it. What happened to morals? Get out and get a job and stop wanting everyone else to pay for your problems or mistakes.

I am 17 and I do not live with either of my parents. I am currently living with my friend and her mom and I am not working but I have to move out. I am trying to go back to school and get a job at the same time. I have a history of mental illness. But I do not have insurance so I cannot afford my medicine or afford to see a psychiatrist as I am supposed to be doing. I really need to know if I am eligible for welfare in the state of Pennsylvania. Thank you.

Hi, im 16 years old, going to be 17 in september. im a mother of a 17 month old and 4 months pregnant. I was wondering if i was eligible to get welfare for my son?, since i know i can't for myself until in 18 unless i get emancipated "Correct"??

P.S. please no negativity..thank you!

my husband just left me and our twins (2 1/2 years). I'm German and in the process for getting my Green Card renewed. The twins are American citizens and I need to know if they can receive welfare. As for now we are staying with my sister in law, b/c we can't afford our own place.

My boyfriend is in jail and I got laid off of work with 2 kids. Will i be eligible for welfare? Also since he signed the birth certificate does he have to pay the welfare people back when he gets out of jail?

Hello, I am 25 and no longer have a job, my mother has passed away leaving me to take care of my 65yr old father, Ive been looking for work forever to help with bills and was sondering if there was any help for me

im 19 and i don't have my g.e.d or my diploma yet...im 2 months pregnant and im on wic and i will soon be getting my owm food stamps...i heard that in order to get cash assitance from welfare that i have to put the baby's father on child support, is this true or can i still get it?

OK to the woman who is 29 years old with 2 kids and is dumping on teenager parents should shut it about not bein able to support a kid without help. Im 16 years old and my daughter is almost 1 im not on welfare and im gettin by pretty damn fine without it. i have a job im a full time student and i take care of my child ALONE and im not complaining. Also to the ones who are on welfare: don't let people dump on you about it if you need help, you need help. at least you didn't choose to end a babys life to benefit yourself. keep doing what you're doing because even if you need help now. your child will still thank you in the end for taking care of him however you could.

I am 18 years old and being evicted from my house soon. College has always been my dream and I am planning on attending a community college full time. *I do not have enough* money to live while going to college or rent out an apartment. Is there any way I could apply for welfare?

Any information would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

i'm a single mother to be. i just found out that i am pregnant and already 26 weeks along. i have no idea who the father could be because i was being dumb up until a few weeks ago. i was wondering if i would be able to receive welfare.

I am blown away by a young friend in our neighborhood - she answered my email:

Mss misty - truthful or not, i'm 26 years old and i honestly don't believe that i'm too young to have a child. no one is ever truly ready for kids, but this baby was planned, i don't consider my pregnancy a mistake, and i didn't accept your comment because i don't need negativity; that part of my life is over.. i have more important things to worry about right now and i'm not planning to live in a camper forever, i will not make my child suffer if people can't be excited for me i would rather they just keep it to themselves. and another thing i've worked hard for years! so now that i may need state aid...why shouldn't i be entitled to it...i do help contribute to it.

She misses the point I tried to tell her - that her boyfriend already has 4 kids - does not support them. She did bust her lip in saying - she is entitled to welfare! Believe me - she will ride it out on welfare for ever...Disgusted.

Welfare should have a new welfare moms psych evaluated.

Are there limits as to how many children a parent or parents on welfare can have? I understand that limiting peoples' right to have children can be unethical, but isn't it also wrong for adults on welfare, who cannot support themselves and their current children, to have more children and therefore ask for more money? Is there a law where their children can be taken away from them?

I feel that there are too many people out there who are abusing the system and are having children to get more money and not work. This is why I feel that welfare and other social programs are getting a bad "rap".

I am a working American citizen. If I become a Mexican citizen then come back and become an American citizen I will not have to work and get better health care and probably more money for free right? Is the catch I have to have lots of babies?

All of the people that are posting for some information are under age. That's y you should of thought in having baby's so young. I'm a 27 year old single mom of two boys. I don't receive any kind of help. I work so hard for the money. I also going to school for my LVN certificate. All the people that are working are paying to support all of you guy's. The government help's all this young people that are having babies. I think that's one of the reason that more and more young girl's are becoming pregnant. Next time use a *condom*. There is no way a young couple can raise babies on there own.

i am 19 with a 3 year old son. we live with his father and his grandparents. i have a part time job but my boyfriend (son's father) does not, but we still pay rent to my boyfriend's parents. are the 3 of us eligible for welfare?

I am 17 and I do not live with either of my parents. I am currently living with my cousin and he is working but we can barely afford to live in our apartment and put dinner on the table. I am trying to go back to school and get a job at the same time. I have a history of mental illness and I am supposed to be on medication but I do not have insurance so I cannot afford my medicine or afford to see a psychiatrist as I am supposed to be doing. I really need to know if I am eligible for welfare in the state of California. Thank you.

I'm 20 years old, i have a baby 4 years old and my husband is working for $250.00 a week, our rent is $1,000.00 i'm on food stamps and medicare, i'm not working so i just wonder if i can go and apply for welfare?

I am 18 and got kicked out of my house by my abusive mother. I don't have any money to get an apartment for 300 a month. On top of that I still attend high school as a junior. I don't have a job either or insurance. Not even a car. Am I able to get welfare? Please help!

I am 17 years old. I live with my mother, stepfather, stepsister, and halfbrother. My best friend's mother wants her to move out of their house and move in with me. She is on probation and we're fine with her moving in. The only problem is we won't have enough money to support another mouth to feed. Can we receive welfare? If not, do you have any suggestions that may help us?

We're a single-family-income household of 3 in Rhode Island. I work and make about $25000/year after taxes. What is the most amount of money that you can make and still receive help? Can we get welfare?

I am 18 years old, I am 4 1/2 months pregnant and a full time student. I'm due in September, so this fall I will be a mother as well as a full time college student, when I can return. I have medicaid, wic, and food stamps but this is not enough for a single young mother. Can I receive welfare, if so what steps do I need to take and when?

I'm 18 years old and 8 months pregnant with my first child. I am living with my boyfriend and his mom and I have been for about a year now.

Me and my boyfriend are both employed at part time jobs. Lately there have been little bumps in my pregnancy like too much amniotic fluid causing me too look and feel larger and having more appointments than usual. It's getting kind of hard to stand there being a cashier.

So I was just wondering if I left on unpaid maternity leave, do you think I would be accepted for welfare?

i'm 19 years old and my mother is 44. my father died on oct 22 from colon cancer. i can't find a job anywhere. we are struggling to pay rent and utilities. at this time we have food stamps. we get 323 dollars. i'm grateful for this, but can we apply for welfare?

ps we live in boston,mass

To anon7303:

I would ask the Welfare Office directly. I think you would still be able to, but I think it depends really on the severity of the crime committed. Sorry I couldn't help too much. Better contact your local Welfare Office just to be sure. Good luck!

To anon26702:

No, you need a social security number first. You need to apply for one and then they will access whether you are eligible. Being 16 and pregnant simply doesn't qualify you.

To anon25027:

No, that is wrong. I applied for welfare (food stamps) in the past but I was *not* eligible. Just because you have a baby and are a pregnant minor, does *not* mean you are eligible. You have to be an emancipated minor, and or disabled, unable to work for one reason or another.

Being a mother simply doesn't qualify you. there are loads of single mothers over 18 that have applied. What makes you so special?!!

To anon26702:

No you may not. If you are an emancipated *adult* that needs welfare, you need to get a Social Security Number. Contact a lawyer to know how this process goes. Then, they will access you to see if you are qualified for welfare. Otherwise, you will just be denied. I have tried it myself.

i am 16 years old. i'm a single pregnant teen. my baby will be born in march (next month). i do not have a social security number. can i still receive welfare for my son?

First, to answer the question from anon23947, yes you are eligible. You are considered exempt from the eligibility requirements according to regulations if you are under the age of 17 I believe, have a child under 12 or 18 months of age, or are pregnant.

Second, I was wondering about the legality of receiving benefits when the primary custodial parent who is not working, but has the ability to work, is receiving welfare benefits for two children, one of whom is 13; and the 13 year. old is living with her grandparents and using their residence as the legal residence while the custodial parent is living in state funded housing. She has been receiving benefits for many years.

if you're 17 about to be 18 in 4 months, no income, single parent and giving birth in 5 months am i eligible for welfare (food stamps, medical and money)?

I know a lady who has six kids she has been on welfare since she was sixteen now she is 38. lives better than me who is making more than $50000 a year. can they put a gap of children someone in welfare should have because i am tired paying for people like that.

Are there any free web sites that will post a posting for deadbeat parents?

In the state of Va. what is considered child abandonment, and the other parent(father) can petition for full physical custody. Non-custodial parent(mother) in arrears of 42k child support,lives in another state, has not exercised court ordered visitation in 5 years, only a phone call every couple of months.Also looking possible parental rights removed from NCP (mother).

How can a single mother with one child, in arrears of child support live in a section 8 housing and receive welfare?

Hello, I am a single father and have 1 child. I collect food stamps from welfare. I did my income taxes and reported 7750 that I made as a self employed babysitting. Do I still qualify for this welfare or would I have a problem?

Can you have felony background & still be on welfare?