TANF: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

A gem from Reddit: There was a thread asking people “what’s classy if you’re rich but trashy if you’re poor?” and the top reply was “getting government money”.

During the Reagan era, I was a self supporting, very poor college student. I managed with the help of food stamps, Pell grants and a work study job. When I was badly injured in a car accident and couldn’t work, I lost my food stamps due to the new requirements that food stamp recipients work. If not for handouts from a friend who worked at the local Jiffy factory, I wouldn’t have had any food to eat. I went on to graduate and have a great career, but those years were truly hellish. Just hearing this story brings back the frustration and anger I felt back then.

Great segment. John Oliver is a national treasure. He wasn’t born here, but he’s a true patriot.

As a white guy that was seriously injured and had no choice but to apply for welfare in California many years ago, it's ridiculous the way people are treated. I was constantly "tested" as to if I could work. I went to the office of vocational rehabilitation every 2 weeks which for me at the time was extremely difficult, I was receiving 400 per month. Obviously couldn't pay rent, and I was declared unemployable by the state of California, but still couldn't receive social security. Luckily I had friends that helped me immensely, but that whole system is brutal. To this day, I get angry whenever I hear people say "they should just get a job".

"This country is basically just a Third World country with a snappy theme song." Very well said 🏆

In 2007 in Kansas it was so almost impossible to get any TANF. Just to get $250 a month for a family of 3, they wanted us to fill out 20 job applications a week. We were on food stamps for a few months, just like most families who get benefits. It was temporary, but ended up having to reuse diapers because SNAP doesn’t cover anything but food.
Nobody should have to live that way. This country is basically just a Third World country with a snappy theme song.

You can always rely on John Oliver to make you pissed off about something you didn't even know existed 30 minutes ago.

I will never get over how well done this show is! The research, writing, and presentation...John Oliver's rage feeds my soul!

I was granted food stamps in north Carolina, because I am diabetic and couldn't afford my meds, food, and doctor's visits. After a year and a half I got a letter from dhhs saying that I was never supposed to get any kind of help at all. Over the next several years I had to repay every penny I was given in assistance. I still can't afford my insulin, food, and doctor's visits. Haven't bothered trying to get any kind of help since.

I'm grateful I live in The Netherlands. I live on my own and became dependent on welfare from my local government. The people at the department were very supportive and helped me every which way I could possibly need. After exactly a year I found my dreamjob, thanks to their assistance in applying for it, and I was no longer dependent.

I used to determine eligibility for people and how often it fell short was not only horrifying, but I spent more than a few days crying in my cubicle when it inevitably became “how do I make too much money.”
For reference, a single parent can’t make more than $400 a month to get TANF. Rent here is 1500 for a one bedroom. These same people end up hating and distrusting us (or even kill us) because our representatives spend this money however they want.

Finding out you were kicked off of government assistance while you were in a Coma has to be one of the worst things to happen to you! As someone who lost their job after coming out of the hospital after getting brain surgery, I Sympathize with her!

Tennessee: "We need to protect our children by banning drag shows!"
Also Tennessee: **Sitting on $790 million that could help children hoping no one finds out**

Thanks for highlighting this story. As a Mississippian, it’s amazing how our leaders look at defrauding this agency. It is wild. And there is no in-state accountability for the elected officials who pushed these actions which means the federal govt has to do the right thing. I hope that my fellow citizens keeps this in mind when we go to the polls this fall. It’s appalling & quite frankly sad

Welfare to work programs have always pissed me off. They want you to work to take you out of the system, but low paying jobs don’t help you either. If you’re not born rich in this country, you have to fight for everything. It’s exhausting and the rich want to keep us exhausted so they can keep counting their money.

My child's father is a danger to us both, but because there isn't enough evidence for them, they required that I pursue child support to keep getting TANF. I ended up having it cut off because it was safer than him being able to come after me for visitation.

The twist on the narrative even worked on those who needed it. My grandmother raised 5 kids while working on her GED and working as the secretary to the police chief after divorcing her abusive husband (who never paid child support) and got welfare to keep afloat but now my relatives ignore that and claim welfare users are lazy!

After husband/dad abandoned us I had to attend a jobs plus program, a program amazingly out of touch and condescending. It showed my group how to dress for an interview with clothes from the fifties, told us we had to be clean and neat, and gave us two weeks to fill out 20 applications, none of which could be online, which is the only way to apply for most jobs.

My grandfather left his family so that my grandmother could claim aid to dependent children at the height of the great depression after he lost his job on the railroad. He lived in a park and my grandmother would bring him food. The obsession with poor people being lazy while rich people are "hard working" while they rob the system is part of American culture.

This hits home for me My grandmother has Parkinson’s she can’t walk now. She applied for Medicaid and was denied. She couldn’t afford vital medicine that may have helped her keep walking. Her husband committed suicide and she is very old. I live in Hattiesburg the town of Brett’s alma mater. I understand that this is just a relatively obscure anecdote but I thought it was relevant.

As a German working in a Jobcenter (where you get money if you're unemployed) these stories about the USA always leave me baffled. I know our system isn't perfect and there are a lot of ways to improve it but compared to this it suddenly looks like the best option out there 😂

This happened to me in West Virginia. After a divorce, I was a single mother of two and worked a job that was just spare money for the marriage. It was not enough to sustain us temporarily. I applied to get help, and was told I made to much money. I was not receiving child support yet also. I could not understand how I made to much! Like how in the world could a single person, earning minimum wage with mortgage and two children be making to much money? Especially when you need to work to qualify! What the heck?????

I would love an episode like this about disability income. The more I look into it the more it's on this level of ew. Everything from the idea it gives you the same level of comfort as when you worked to requirements to keep it. And this "ticket to work" system they just started. Does anyone really want to be disabled?

I lost my job and didn't have savings or an income 11 years ago in Arizona. It was extremely difficult to get food stamps and I had to apply to jobs every week. The phone line to call to renew benefits often didn't work. It was a nightmare. This country is damaged in a way that needs to be remedied from it's core.

“Ronald Reagan made it worse.”
That one line perfectly describes all of this country’s problems.

That Ronald Reagan joke was way too accurate and hilarious 😂

I was living in NJ until a year ago. I am a single woman with a disability and was living in poverty because of it. Though I had a small income, I was below the legal poverty level. But I had "too much money" to get disability money or other support funds. I did get SNAP. A grand total of about $16/month.

I can relate to this entire video. In the 90s in WASHINGTON STATE, Me and the mother of my child called off our wedding and went separate ways. Sadly for me, she got on state assistance. The State ended up withholding 50% of my wages PRE TAX leaving me to try to support a wife and two kids on $600 a month. Instead of being provided to the mother as Child support, most of the money was kept to "Pay the mothers debt to the state" (Moneys collected to pay debts fall under the purview of the Federal Fareness in Collections Act which strictly prohibits using family members as resources to collect money) . The mother, not receiving child support, spread around that I was a deadbeat father. I complained to the state and was treated as someone trying to get out of paying child support.

He should do an episode about disability help for people with autism, cerebral palsy, etc. Some of those people (including my sister) are not disabled enough to qualify for some of those programs even though they need them

The woman in this scandal, Nancy New, was my high school’s superintendent. New Summit in Jackson MS. She also took funds from our public education system to buy herself a house in the richest neighborhood in Jackson. She was able to do this because our school got special funding. Why? It was a school to help kids with special needs. The school ultimately went under after she and her son were found out. Also, she just sucks in general. I remember at my graduation, she said that there was a typo in the play I performed. “Reagan’s favorite highlight of the year was performing in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Oh that’s wrong, I was an English major, it should be ‘Midnight’s Summer Dream.’” It was so embarrassing to watch an adult be so confidently wrong. She also always brought investors to the school and would prop me and other students up as “success stories” it felt very strange. She then made us go to the state capitol to bring our autistic students for an Autism Speaks event. The kids were very stressed out at this event and I felt awful that I had to be there. Even at 17, I knew Autism Speaks was a terrible organization. I hope this woman goes to jail for a long time.

the more I watch LWT, the more I realize that a majority of problems in the US stem from an overwhelming sense of "I can do it, so can you" and outright refusing to put themselves into other people's shoes, while constantly making it harder for people to do the thing you want them to do, because a vast majority of people didn't get born into a family full of millionaire businessmen.
The same people look at Denmark, see the extent of the social security put in place so people can get the help they need, throw out all the positives and focus in on the outliers and negatives, like people who abuse the system, and the high tax-rate... missing the fact that there are punishments in place for people who abuse the system, and the high tax-rate goes back into funding the social security systems rather than going off to fund another fucking stadium that a football team "needed".
It is willful malignant ignorance at its worst. Corrupt as hell, and buys into its own propaganda about "if I can do it, so can you".

"Reagan made it worse" should be our new national motto.

My husband and I work our butts off and after being screwed over by another company we worked for, we are so in debt. We have tried over and over again to get help to get back on our feet and have been declined even though we were below the minimum wage at the time (I had surgery and walked into the office on crutches and also provided proof of a loss of hours and hourly wage). You can work all you can, but it doesn’t matter. I thought welfare was suppose to be people who needed help and as hard working people who don’t make the minimum wage over what they accept, you would think we would get help. We don’t.

The woman in a coma reminded me of how I was diagnosed with severe and chronic pneumonia and I applied for disability and was denied for missing an appointment that I missed because I was in the hospital with pneumonia.
I replied and after 9 months got it immediately after a disability Dr saw my lungs. My check was a couple of hundred dollars less because my neighbors, friends and even strangers (I was basically reduced to panhandling while unable to have access to treatment and oxygen) so if not for an asthmatic friend giving me inhalers and my mom's oxygen concentrator and leftover nebulizer medicine I wouldn't have stood a chance and was hospitalized monthly (sometimes twice).
I was told had I been receiving government food stamp assistance my monthly check would have been more but, because I was receiving the aformentioned assistance it was considered assistance! How backwards is this countries logic when it comes to the most vulnerable in our society.
It's a bit of a digression but, I should have starved or suffocated due to how little the government cares about people who have a hard time just staying alive.

A friend told me that she couldn’t attend college full time or she’d lose her TANF funds so they’re not interested in u finding a career. Plus she couldn’t let them find out that the father of her kids loved at home. So they’re not interested in all families, just certain families

America should really commission a review of all of its welfare programmes.

Ah yes, my weekly fix of "the US is falling apart at the seams but John Oliver disguises it as a comedy show"

Here in Belgium there is a well known "trick" for wealthy/rich people to let their kids study on government money: They "kick" their kids out of the house but let them live in another place that is coincidentally owned by the family. Then the kid gets all kinds of wonderful government benefits since he is officially poor now.

Thank you to John Oliver's team for this excellent report, and also thank all of you in the comments who are responding with stories of how ridiculous this system is. For those of us who were alive in the 1990s and remember the awful political environment of those times, which led to this disaster, it is gratifying to finally see this widely discussed. For most of the time since 1996, the narrative in media has been dominated by people who claimed that so-called welfare "reform" was a "success"; no one looked into the appalling details. It's not only Republicans who pushed this line, either, since it was all approved by a Democratic president, and accepted by many other Democratic politicians who didn't want to be seen as "soft" on supposedly "lazy" welfare recipients. It is also good to see an audience reacting with disgust to the rhetoric that was so pervasive in the 1990s; I hope that more and more reflects the popular sentiment.

Even when we met requirements to get gov. welfare, we didn't bc the whole process was exhausting and anxiety inducing. It wasn't worth all that stress. So we did without. Many times we had $30-$60 for 2 weeks of groceries for 2-3 people. For a few months when we were on assistance, they only gave us $7/month for food stamps. Not worth all those forms and time for $7.

I love when a rich representative or Senator who literally wants for nothing tries to tell me that getting assistance means I'm lazy and will just continue to take the assistance as much as possible.

Oklahoma’s “Forever. For Real.” program was a half day “class” (lost wages anyone) and it was mainly pushed as a way to save from paying full price for a marriage license.
Yes! Spend half a day’s working wages to save ~$40 on a marriage license.
My wife and I went to the class in 2015, and we walked away wondering why the state spent tons of money on a half day class based on “be kind to your partner, and avoid divorce at all costs”.
We are still together, because we support each other, unlike the state of Oklahoma!

My husband and I were able to get emergency assistance once. This was back in 2010. We got completely screwed by the great recession. I lost my job when the media industry collapsed. We had done everything you're supposed to. Had savings for six months of expenses, cut unnecessary spending, treated looking for work like a job. We did everything we were supposed and still wound up having to move in with my parents.
Two years later, we're both working as close to full time as you can get at Walmart and still had to choose between food and rent. We were going to the food bank. We had to drain every single account we had. We were literally down to using loose change. THAT'S when we got emergency assistance. Even in a blue state like Illinois. We got a single month. Which was enough to survive. But it was so degrading applying and literally begging for help.
13 years later, I'm doing okay. My husband passed away and I'm pretty sure the fact we couldn't afford medical care for so long contributed to it. But I do have a good job and now own my own home. But I still remember what it was like to struggle like that and how people kept making it feel like it was our fault. What this country does to its poor is a crime.

These episodes always upset me deeply. They are a reminder of how much America/religious right hate me, a poor single mom. 😢

Thank you for doing this. This is incredibly important work. The fact that the most popular comment is about not even knowing what TANF is, says A LOT about the U.S.

Just imagine the positive and successful impact of how having more Americans appreciate our past (and present) select strengths of our Presidents. Great message, John Oliver!

As an elected official the programs we create are not monitored for effectiveness by those of us who created them. Unfortunately, many well-intended programs are poorly run, misused, corrupted and suffer the unintended consequences of well-intended pragmatic thinking turned horribly wrong when a diverse and polarized public reacts to it.

One of the things they could've done to help was not get rid of emergency allotment snap benefits which helped hundreds of thousands of families with food money. It's not cash but at least they don't have to worry about going hungry and having food money frees up money that would've been spent on food for things like gas, bills and other needs.

It's no surprise why John and his team win awards every year the amount of analysis in this show is so insightful.

I work full-time, and my wife watches our daughter. I have a decent job right now, but without the help from programs like WIC, I doubt we'd be able to afford many of the things we get help with like, fruits/vegetables, eggs, and even extra things like music and swimming classes. It's such an amazingly helpful thing in our lives, and we're so thankful for it. But believe me - I wish we didn't have to rely on it.

“College aid helps prevent out of wedlock pregnancies”
Me, being kicked out of my room for the fourth time this week so that my roommate can have sex: “Mhm. For sure.”

Every time I watch an episode like this I’m even more grateful I don’t live in the US

That was brilliant, John. Thank you for telling like it is with a great sense of humour.

I received TANF briefly in MO and the state enforced my child support order just long enough for me to repay the TANF and then never enforced it again.

“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor” ― Voltaire

Thanks John for updating us on this. I was wowing when these criminals were going to be charged especially Brett Favre.

American society is just very cruel. In many other countries, it’s not “an issue” to make healthcare and childcare accessible to all (meaning, it’s either free or very cheap), or to provide help for poor families. But here in America, the poor are seen as leeches.

Ahh this got me. I was brought up as a poor white kid n south MS. I don't think my Ma ever heard of or applied for this program. My parents divorced in 98, not b4 my sperm doner took every cent out of their bank account and split. Agreed to a super low amount of child support and alimony. My mom worked 40 hours a week. She was not allowed to work while they were married. She made very little per hour. He didn't pay what he promised and was court ordered to. We had Medicare which meant we could only go to the doctor a certain number of times a year. Glasses once a year. If my brother broke his playing around....no new glasses til October. Food stamps were so low we ate at my memaws a couple times a week. When she got her taxes in she used to to catch up on all the bills. We couldn't play sports of join school clubs because we didn't have the money. The food stamp office staff told her "you're a white woman, go find a husband to help you". MS is a mess.

Gods bless Jon's simultaneous good use and absolute abuse of HBO's money!

Our benefits scheme in Australia is pretty pathetic and broken, but at least the funds aren't being directly diverted to millionaires for sport facilities.
They just do it underhandedly, and indirectly, but still.

As a Dutch person I was so shocked when I moved to the States.
The US is the biggest economy on the planet, yet there is such an incredible amount of poverty, with basically no substantial social safety net.
It was a real culture shock. The states only is the greatest place on earth if you’re upper class, otherwise I’d much rather be in a place like the Netherlands.

After a few years working at a shelter I realize that many people start life far behind others due to lack of resources and support. Some people are going to spend their whole lives trying to catch up and remaining behind. They don’t have stable primary caregivers. They don’t have anyone to lean on. No way of getting a good education, food, clothes, etc. So they can’t get good jobs, good incomes, none of that. They are always stuck in a cycle of poverty with little to no way out.

We need Katie Porter, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Bernie Sanders to expose this abuse and propose solutions to Congress. Seriously, the corruption has to stop. We have to vote into office more people dedicated to working FOR the good of the people, not crooks and corporations.

Telling psychological or physically disabled people to "start a career and get into gear". Good job guy! I'm sure they just never thought of that.

Brett Favre’s Net Worth was last recorded at around 100 million with yearly promotional/residual earnings in the millions as well, and he’s dipping into public assistance funding? How is this not a criminal offense…

We live in an unfair system where the people who need help the most are the ones least likely to get it.

My political awakening happened in a welfare office at 25 with two kids and an abusive ex husband who had frozen me out of our joint accounts.. it was the moment I realized that the right had lied about generous welfare benefits for mothers in a rough spot.. it doesn’t exist.. getting any help meant I had to do full time welfare school (lol) and have my small kids in daycare.. luckily I’m middle class and it was only a short lesson on how awful America is and it worked out for me financially without any help from the state. It did lead me to becoming a leftist and realizing the right really doesn’t care if kids go hungry they want to force women and children to stay with abusive men.

No ads, detailed, well researched, funny and serious... A very good show ! Thanks
Unfortunately in the end, nothing will change. Such is life. Humans think about their own survival first and the ones that get in power are either heavily corrupted or megalomaniac. We watched, we are angry and sad about our system but there really is nothing we can do because we are already the ones not voting for the worse candidates, in associations to help etc...

The fact that you actually listen and understand when to take a step back and speak is awesome. I also think you should consider hosting public debates for the Presidency etc etc...

My family was lucky enough to get TANF (probably cause we were white in a southern state) while my dad was sick and dying and my mom was in college. My parents didn’t have us 3 young, my parents were both 29 about to turn 30 when my older sister was born. We just fell into an unfortunate circumstance, my dad got extremely sick and my mom had just gone back to college when we were old enough for daycare/kindergarten. This was all also smack in the middle of the recovery from the 2008 recession. Without TANF and the massive help my grandmother gave us, my dad would have died and we would have been homeless, even with just TANF and not my grandmothers support we would have been out on the streets. I can’t imagine how bad things would have been. We need to give more money to this program, give money directly to families without any requirements of how it should be spent, and make it with no work requirements. My mom had to look for jobs while looking after 3 kids aged 6-2 alone and going to college, it must have been hell on earth for her and contributed to a later drug issue she had. Real people, children especially, are being hurt by this program meant to help families. Get your shit together you corrupt fucking politicians and fix this.

I got fired a week before having a baby. We were trying to get disability for my husband, but that took another three years. In the meantime, I thought perhaps we would qualify for TANF in PA. Nope. I received child support for my son from my first marriage, and that was too much. 😑 Oh, and that bit about having to chase down birth fathers keeps women impregnated by abusers (a common tactic to ensnare the woman) from accessing TANF, since this will attract the attention of someone who she may very much not want to. 😬

I would think that keeping people stable and off the street has got to be one of the best ROI we're going to get as a society.

I make $21 an hour and don’t have kids, and am scraping by. How in the FUCK is a mother of 3 who makes $9 an hour not qualify for government aid??? I am so beyond taken aback by that one, holy shit, I hope her and anyone in similar circumstances gets the help they need 😢💔
Her and those kids deserve a better financial situation fr

In 2014 to 2015, while living in Florida, I know this was more for food stamps than for tanf but I had to continuously lie that I was not getting any work in order to maintain the $200 a month I was getting for food, I was surviving on odd jobs, and plasma donations. If I made a $50 claim that month, I would see A decrease of $50 in the food fund. mind you I was living in my car in a car that was the only to be repossessed at any time, it was a hellish time for me. I’m glad where I am now, but I really don’t wanna go back to that.

My mom did manage to get public assistance when I was young after we left an abusive situation with my stepdad. Unbeknownst to us however the state then garnished "back child support" from my dad in an amount that exceeded what we had received in assistance. We didn't even know they were taking money from him until we got in contact again when I was 12. It caused a lot of bad blood between my mom and my stepmom because they thought they were sending me lots of money, and my mom was claiming she never saw a penny of it.

"I'm too poor to by food."
Republicans: Work for it work for it turn your dreams into reality

We are going through this now in Missouri. We have 6 kids, downsized to a 2 bedroom apartment because hubby was out of work for a year to take care of me after the birth of our last child. He didn't get any type of unemployment or paternity pay. Just no income for a year while I was stuck in bed. At the time, we had money saved up enough to get us through that particular year (not everyone has a house to sell to feed their family) and we had to LIE to get into our apartment. Because 6 kids is too much for a 2 br apartment. But, we had 3 kids "staying with grandma" overnight just so we could claim they don't actually live here.
No foodstamps, no medical insurance, no assistance whatsoever for a year.
Now hubby is working again. Makes about $13.50 an hour for a family of 8. He makes too much momey to qualify for assistance. Which makes no sense because the standard says $up to 4 children and $34,000 a year. He made $16,000 and we "make too much"
It was "suggest" I get a job. Because surely paying someone to raise my 6 kids is cheaper than staying home and caring for them myself? 💀

that analogy of TANF, and government aid to low income families generally, as a claw machine with stuffed animals is so unbelievably apt

In the 70s, my Mother received food stamps and a welfare (TANF) check each month. She had 3 young children including me, the youngest.
She wanted to take accounting classes, but every time she signed up, they stopped payments. She finally went into the office, with 5 year old me in tow, and yelled "You just don't want me to be able to get off this assistance and have a better job than you!"
We were on it for less than 2 years, and she retired as Risk Manager for the large city we lived in.
I'm so proud of my Mom.

Imagine the studio musicians that showed up that day and ended up having to record those insane "songs."

Applied for state assistance back in 2021 when I was told that I was being put on hold at work due to pandemic complications. I had very specifically not lost my job, but was going to go 4 months without income. I was rejected from aid because I was told I needed to actively seek a full time job. When I explained I already had full time employment I was told that I didn’t need government aide and my case was closed. Through it now and all is well, food bank really helped cut down on costs and was able to secure some part time work for that period. But it was so frustrating to just be immediately rejected without consideration as to why I was applying, especially when it’s already so demoralizing to apply in the first place.

I work in social services. TANF has been made nearly impossible to get on purpose.

It's always a good idea to watch your shows, it's important news, some things could always be covered more but you are at least putting the thoughts out there to make people think more.

Unfortunately, when a politician sniffs money they’re halfway ready to accessing it. It seems that having an athlete mixed in the nastiness just makes it easier. I’m sure that no politician, government worker or Brett Favre considers what they’ve done is evil, but the fact that they kept doing them over and over knowing the consequences to people in desperate need makes it evil. Saying it’s legal makes them look stupid, sophomoric (well, everyone’s doing it mom!!) and evil. Keep doing what you do so well John❤

I had to give up on the idea of getting married because I would have lost my disabled son's medicare. I lost TANF because my son's father paid $40 a week to help out. I refused a raise because I would have lost my disabled son's state sponsored medical. The largest misunderstood thing about welfare is that recipients don't work. We work, but wages are so low we still qualify. Those days are long behind us, but all this happened after 4 years in the Army. It was a wild fight that kept me single, afraid to make more than $9 an hour and penalized for getting $40 a week in support. And this was in Tennessee!! Those bastards, $790 million dollars???

Isn't it ironic that the government is doing so much to ensure women see their pregnancies through to term, but then suddenly turn skeptical and distant when those who are struggling to support their children apply for government aid?

John, you and your team do the best investigative reporting. Thank you for honest reporting.

I would like to tell that politician from Florida the real natural order. Seeing somebody that has too much and simply taking it from them. And often times not leaving them alive. We live in a civilized country to avoid that from happening. That’s why those programs are so important. By the time those rich bastards realize what’s happening it’ll be too late for them. They should promote those programs at every turn.

I used to work in social services in inner city Dallas. It was made clear on week 1 that pretty much nobody would ever be getting TANF. For the two years I was there almost nobody qualified for it.

"You shouldn't live off the government" says the politicians arguing for more tax breaks for the wealthy population

I work as a TANF caseworker and I fully agree with everything said here. The entire program needs an overhaul.

When I was at my most down and out, I went through the utterly humiliating and exhausting process of trying to get assistance until I could get back on my feet. I remember sitting in an overcrowded waiting area and overhearing an elderly couple worrying about what they were going to do. They needed help paying their electricity bill, but the cutoff for assistance was $535. I don't mean they had to have a bill that high--I mean that they could not make more than that in a month to qualify.
$535. Period. For two people who probably also had plenty of medical bills.
Just let that sink in.

8:38 Now I understand why the creators of South Park have been having issues competing with fact when writing fiction. Whatever you come up in your mind, history has a "hold my beer" moment.

Here in Canada it’s called “EI” or “Employment Insurance” and you can apply for it so long as you weren’t fired from your last job and you left amicably or were simply laid off. It lasts for exactly one year, before you must apply again. The amount you get is the equivalent of part time job at minimum wage or less, and you are required to declare ANY money received from another source, so that it may deduct from what EI sends you. You must prove every week that you’ve been actively looking for a job, and if you fail to check in or send your report or you suddenly start making over half what EI would send you, you’ll be dismissed from the program immediately.
The kicker? Everybody pays into it as a paycheck deduction, every paycheck, reliably.

Thank you for shining light on this I am a Mississippi indigenous citizen and we are struggling so bad here I'm so happy you finally care America but better late than never

People desperately hold on to the stereotype that poor people are lazy because they don't want to confront the idea that they could fall on hard times due to no fault of their own at any time.

Seriously though...I just lost Medicaid and food stamps on March 31. I make about $300 more per month than my rent costs. That has to cover all of my bills. I have been a miserable wretch all month as I knew this was coming. I need to somehow come up with $100 for health insurance (forget my eyes and teeth, both in terrible shape) and at least $200 to pay for food. I don't know how I'll feed my cat, Sox, who is the happiest part of my life. He also needs shots that will be $40. I'm 41, don't have kids and have worked all my life since age 16, including 50-60 hour weeks while I was in college. Always full time. But I don't qualify (in Colorado, if you make more than $150/week you're dumped off of food stamps; Medicaid is a little better but I still make "too much") so I have no idea what to do. I require a couple of medications for bipolar and other mental health struggles. I'm going to slip between the cracks.
And in August, when they jack up rent, I may end up homeless and surrendering Sox to a shelter. Why is this my life? I went to school. I have a BA. I've always worked hard and helped my family or anyone else who needed it. I was raised to do so. Kroger doesn't pay anything close to what's necessary for their employees to live. I'm nearing the end of my rope and I don't know how I am going to continue to survive. I'm not suicidal...yet. Sox is snoozing next to me now and he has always had a good life with me, and I'm afraid I won't still be able to take care of him, especially if I'm on the streets. All of my "free" time is spent trying to figure this out, stressing and worrying. I lost 12 pounds in the past 2 weeks...my secret? I don't have enough to eat. My hands shake all the time because I don't eat enough. I hope they never see it at work because I'm sure I'll be out of a job. I work a 2nd job already, too. I don't own a car, and I'll be bicycling for the rest of my life at this rate. When is this going to end? How do I keep surviving? I'm a cheerful, loving, kind person. I try to practice compassion with everyone I meet, which is good in customer service, and it's also just how I am. I certainly have my faults...everyone does. I just don't see any way out of this anymore.

Thanks John for finding out most are not aware of it. But its also important to see if these problems are being addressed nationwide and the law makers who messed up from the beginning. These policy makers and bureaucrats should be help responsible and bring them to proper accountability.

Keep doing what you're doing. We need someone to expose this stuff. The TV news doesn't tell the truth. They talk about nonsense.

This is shocking to me. When my father died in Washington State, we got $1800 a month per kid under 18 and it lasted until we turned 18. I don’t even know if my mom had to apply for it? I need to go ask her so many questions now.