The New Tom Corbett (TM), Now With Less Meanness and Some Compassion [View all]

[JPZenger]

Corbett's new team of advisors have been working hard to try to put a new face on him - one that is less mean and actually tries to show a little compassion to the less fortunate. It started with agreeing to accept federal money to expand Medicaid/Medical Assistance (with tons of conditions to calm down the tea-baggers). Also, it has involved traveling to locations other than fracking conventions and expensive chamber of commerce dinners.

Now, the Corbett Administration has actually raised the possibility of dropping the strict asset test that he instituted that resulted in 111,000 PA. households being denied food stamps/SNAP benefits because they didn't get all of their paperwork done. While a few other states have limits on the assets a household can earn before they can receive food stamps, PA. has one of the toughest standards. It actually was proposed to be even stricter before protests caused a slight relaxation in the limit.

The policy is particularly strange because the federal government pays the actual costs of the benefits, but the state pays most of the administration. Therefore, the state was passing up opportunities for residents to receive federal dollars, in a way that increased administrative costs for the state.

Sorry - I forgot to add the link:

http://articles.philly.com/2013-10-24/news/43327521_1_asset-test-snap-benefits-deserving-low-income-people

Excerpts:

"The test, begun in the spring of 2012, says that households with people under age 60 are limited to $5,500 in assets in order to qualify for food stamps, now known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). For households with people 60 and older, or a person with a disability, the figure is $9,000. Houses, retirement benefits, and one car are not counted as assets. Any additional vehicle worth more than $4,650 is counted...

While some look to find fraud in SNAP, advocates point out, the program is actually undersubscribed, meaning that 20 percent of people who are eligible for the benefit in the state don't apply for it...

In Pennsylvania, the asset test has had complications. During the first year of the asset test, 4,000 households lost or were denied benefits because they had too many financial resources, according to DPW figures. But during that same time, 111,000 households were denied benefits because they failed to provide proper documentation for the test. Advocates said that by weeding out a relatively small number of people with too many assets, DPW made getting SNAP benefits so complicated that deserving low-income people became inundated by paperwork and lost their benefits.

Pennsylvania ranks among the slowest states in the nation for getting SNAP benefits to the needy within 30 days, as required by federal law, according to an Inquirer examination of USDA data last June. The USDA ordered the state to do better."