Pennsylvania to impose asset test for food stamps

[JPZenger]

75. Good new article on this topic from Phila. Tribune writer

http://www.newpittsburghcourieronline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6222:proposed-change-in-eligibility-rules-endangers-food-stamps-for-170000-pennsylvanians&catid=39:national&Itemid=2

Excerpts:

"John Manton is struggling to hang on unemployed, without health insurance, worried about keeping his home. He’s now also concerned that proposed changes to eligibility requirements for food stamps will leave him worried about something else: putting food on the table. He receives about $37 a week in food stamps toward food bills that average about $51 a week. That assistance would vanish for Manton and about 170,000 other Pennsylvanians under a proposed change in rules that would require food stamp recipients to pass an asset test. Under the proposal, seniors and individuals on disability would lose their benefits if they have assets valued at $3,000 or more, excluding their primary residence and personal property. For everyone else, the cut-off would be $2,000.

“I have about $3,000 in the bank,” he said, noting that he was keeping the money for emergencies and large expenses. “Twenty-five hundred dollars is earmarked for the new real estate tax plus I owe another $835 for the homeowners insurance.” Unemployed since April, Manton lives on $195 a week in unemployment benefits. His last day on the job at a legal services company, a position he had for more than three years, was April 29. He’s been looking for work ever since.

He feels he needs to hang on to a little bit of money. “What people have in the bank is all they have in the bank and $3,000 is not a lot of money,” he said. “If you go the hospital for some emergency, they want $385 for the ER plus the doctor’s fee, plus the tests, plus whatever else they do to you. So, you’re talking $900 right there just to go to the hospital. Suppose your pipes burst? You have to have a little bit of money to fall back on.” But, that little nest egg would bar him from getting food stamps if the new rules are approved.

The change could be put in place as early as March. The department has the authority needed to make the changes without approval from the state legislature. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the food stamp program, does need to sign off on the plan, something Horstmann said she expected to happen."

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Part of the problem is that our Governor and legislature gave the Secretary of Public Welfare complete authority to make any changes he wants without any other state approval, as long as it saves money.