The Stereotypical “Welfare Queen” vs. The Truth: What You Need to Know About Public Assistance Programs

I would be willing to bet that at least 50% of the people I know personally believe in the “Welfare Queen” stereotype. You know the one: the overweight, African American woman, dressed to the nines, wearing expensive makeup and hair extensions, talking on the latest, priciest phone, hauling around three or four kids – all wearing designer clothes, unloading a shopping cart full of junk food, soda, steaks, lobster, hard liquor, cigarettes and all kinds of things responsible, hard-working people can’t afford on a daily basis. We can all see her, can’t we? And she makes our blood boil when she whips out that food stamp card, doesn’t she?

The “Welfare Queen” has become a common, American stereotype and for many, a justification for believing and treating people who receive public assistance benefits like lazy, non-working, junk-food-buying, worthless, useless and immoral, lying, cheating, cookie-binging-induced fat asses. For those who feel justified in taking a sound bite and running with it, here are some FACTS (you know…those pesky things that get in the way of Republican attempts to manipulate the American people) about food stamps and public assistance:

• Receiving public assistance and abusing drugs do not go hand in hand.

Since 1996, Republicans have been proposing drug screening programs for those applying for public assistance. However, the proposals and later legislation did not pass in most states because the laws did not require "suspicion” in order to conduct the tests. They were to be conducted randomly, which was deemed unconstitutional by a 2003 Michigan Court of Appeals case. In other words, bill writers equated the need for assistance with the abuse of drugs.

It wasn’t until 2011 that states began to pass drug screening legislation and to date, 15 states have passed laws that require drug testing prior to being deemed eligible for various welfare programs. However, the results have been contradictory to the premise. Data collected by ThinkProgress in 2015 from seven states that were conducting drug screens showed that while hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spent to catch and boot all those nasty druggies from welfare, they were finding very few. The rate of positive drug tests to the total number of applicants ranged from 0.002% to 8.3%, which was LESS than the national drug use rate of 9.4%. In other words, what the programs proved was that welfare applicants were LESS LIKELY to be drug abusers than the general population – NOT the other way around! This conclusion cost these states nearly $1 million collectively and that number is growing.

In 2014, Missouri 38,970 people applied for welfare. The state spent $336,297 on drug screenings and of those tested, only 48 were positive. Between August and December of the same year, Mississippi spent $5, 290 to uncover TWO drug users. Not only are these states finding out that drug abuse is relatively low for welfare recipients, they are paying way too much for simple drug tests.

• Food stamp recipients are NOT eating better than the average family.

T   There is a belief among many that people who receive food stamps can afford steak and lobster for every meal. In truth, the average dollar amount per recipient, per day is approximately $4, which means that a family of three receives about $360 a month for groceries. Just like the average person, recipients can save up for a special meal, but caviar and escargot are not the typical fare.

• Food stamps pay for food and nothing else.

      Even if you have seen a “Welfare Queen” with alcohol and cigarettes in her shopping cart, her food stamps don’t pay for those things. Food stamps can’t be used for anything that is not food, nor for any prepared foods, such as hot, to-go style meals you might purchase in your grocers deli.

• Recipients do not spend all their food stamps on “junk food”.

Another common misconception is that too many people use their food stamps to stock their kitchen full of unhealthy food – as compared to those who don’t get food stamps. Some have gone so far as to blame the obesity crisis in the U.S. on food stamp recipients, including the news website, The Daily Caller. These notions are patently false.

Unfortunately, conservative zealots, like those at Breitbart, would have you believe that food stamp recipients are spending an exorbitant amount on sweetened beverages (including fruit juices), desserts, salty snacks, candy and sugar - a whopping 20% of the budget, they say. Breitbart makes this claim based on a USDA study analyzing purchases made from January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011. What they don’t tell you is that the study compared expenditures of food stamp recipients and non-food stamp households. It concluded that the diets were much the same, with 40% of each budget being spent on proteins, 20% on those “junk foods” listed above and the remaining 40% paying for items such as dairy, rice, beans vegetables and cereal.

On top of that, some believe that food stamps should be restricted to purc  hases deemed “healthy and responsible” – that because these people are receiving free food, it should be limited to things like government commodities, which include cheese, rice, beans, potatoes, etc. There are some that feel that if people are not allowed to buy food they enjoy, they will be more prone to work harder to get off food stamps. Those people are, of course, completely wrong and ridiculously ignorant.

• Illegal immigrants are abusing public assistance programs.

    
      This is one of the biggest and most commonly held misconceptions and even otherwise intelligent people fall for this lie. The primary reason that so many people believe that illegal immigrants are coming into this country and immediately asking the government to fund their existence is a confusion of terms. There is a difference between illegal and legal immigrants.

Legal immigrants are afforded rights to some public assistance programs. However, low-income legal immigrants are less likely to apply for benefits than low-income citizens. In addition, The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (more commonly known as the welfare reform act) provided some new guidelines for non-citizens (including legal and illegal immigrants) applying for assistance, including:

1.       Most legal, non-citizens entering the U.S. after August 22, 1996 are NOT eligible for most welfare benefits, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), SSI, Medicaid, and State Children’s Health Insurance Program, until they have lived here for a minimum of 5 years.

2.       Illegal and temporary immigrants are ineligible for all benefits, with the exception of emergency services (i.e. access to homeless shelters, medical treatment, etc.)

3.       Prior to 1996, legal immigrants were eligible for most services immediately, but not necessarily food stamps, as the program had more stringent qualifications.

4.       Illegal immigrants with U.S. born children ARE eligible for all benefits for THAT child.

Receiving benefits for U.S. born children likely causes a lot of confusion, as illegal parents can be seen using food stamp cards and the household in general may benefit from programs that the child(ren) is eligible to receive. However, the bottom line is that ILLEGAL immigrants do NOT have access to welfare and even legal immigrants do NOT have access to benefits until they have lived here for 5 years.

I felt compelled to comment on these lines of BS, particularly because I have received public assistance in times of need and do not feel one bit ashamed about it – no one should. Once you know the facts and stop blindly believing the conservative manipulation, it’s clear, for the most part, that these programs are still being used as intended. For those who are full of callous judgment, all I can say is that I hope that should you ever need a helping hand, you are not judged as harshly as you judge others. For those who are in need and use these programs to get back on their feet – never be ashamed of doing whatever it takes to make sure your family’s basic needs are being met.