Written by a 21 year old female.

[Little Wing]

the DHHS building parking lot is right beside where i get groceries. i do not see those types of cars parked there. maybe our workers there are just smarter than average? i do know from friends who do foster care that they have to bring their children to that building for visitation with birth parents regularly. kinda thinking the nice cars you see are not owned by a family of three that get's $500 a month to live on. how would that even be possible?

 

[Bowden]

so people are saving up ten years of welfare for cars? interesting.

No, some of them are scamming the system.
I see it in the grocery store.
People that look like the ones that SheriV described buying groceries using SNAP/EBT, then pulling out 100.00 bills to pay for what SNAP/EBT will not.
Then they get into very expensive looking cars and trucks and drive off.

Here is one that I really find illustrative.
ITIN fraud as to how many people look at scamming and engaging in fraud as acceptable behavior.

snopes.com: Thousands of Tax Refunds Sent to the Same Addresses

The IRS Immigration Fraud Scandal

"If the opportunity is there and they can give it to me, why not take advantage of it the worker said."

You also saw this type of attitude when EBT malfunctioned.

Food stamp recipients flood La. Wal-Marts after EBT glitch - Washington Times

 

[SheriV]

I suppose its possible but I'm guessing the foster family doesn't typically have oversized rims on low profile tires..

also the parking is segregated to some degree by different entries to the building and different parking areas for different departments.

I suppose I could be wrong about the cars but I'm certainly not wrong about the people inside.

Like I said, don't get me wrong..shit happens and people need help. I can only use my own household as a real example where I know all the circumstances but we had a big structure fire and lost everything we owned (including my car that wasn't insured for the fire). People in my town donated a LOT to us...some of which we re-donated when insurance stepped in. We are eternally grateful for the help we received. I know my oil bill has doubled while I've lowered the thermostat and our income hasn't really gone up with rising costs. I recently asked for the last three years of electric bill statements from my electricity supplier. My electric bill has doubled while KW hrs have decreased. A gallon of milk has doubled in the last four years...

I get it, the economy blows, wages are stagnant ard things for the lower class are incredibly bleak..like I said. I have no solution nor do I pretend to but I also won't pretend that there aren't generation after generation within families that are welfare recipients whats the excuse for that?

 

[Little Wing]

I suppose its possible but I'm guessing the foster family doesn't typically have oversized rims on low profile tires..

also the parking is segregated to some degree by different entries to the building and different parking areas for different departments.

I suppose I could be wrong about the cars but I'm certainly not wrong about the people inside.

Like I said, don't get me wrong..shit happens and people need help. I can only use my own household as a real example where I know all the circumstances but we had a big structure fire and lost everything we owned (including my car that wasn't insured for the fire). People in my town donated a LOT to us...some of which we re-donated when insurance stepped in. We are eternally grateful for the help we received. I know my oil bill has doubled while I've lowered the thermostat and our income hasn't really gone up with rising costs. I recently asked for the last three years of electric bill statements from my electricity supplier. My electric bill has doubled while KW hrs have decreased. A gallon of milk has doubled in the last four years...

I get it, the economy blows, wages are stagnant ard things for the lower class are incredibly bleak..like I said. I have no solution nor do I pretend to but I also won't pretend that there aren't generation after generation within families that are welfare recipients whats the excuse for that?

my foster parents would have been considered rich but got foster kids for free labor. you have to register cars, insure them... aren't these people connecting any dots as to why is sally welfare insuring a mercedes?

To be eligible for temporary cash assistance -- known as CalWORKS in California -- families must prove that they are both income and asset poor. To qualify for assistance, a single parent with two children, for example, can't earn more than about $12,000 a year or have more than $2,000 in other resources. In addition, the total fair-market value of all vehicles owned by a household cannot exceed $4,650 -- a figure that hasn't changed in more than a decade. In real terms, that means even a 10-year-old Honda Civic with 100,000 miles could disqualify a family from public assistance.

 

[SheriV]

I just don't know

my BMW is registered to my husband and I know I could simply say we are separated. It is insured in both our names but there's no database to check that.

Our Jeep is valued by the town at around 2 grand but I could easily sell it for a little over 4 (its old/an 89' but has a brand new "tub" a nice lift and large off-road tires).. I can pick up a good honda for 2 grand that needs mild repairs bringing it up to a little over 3 grand that my town could erroneously put the value at around 5-6k

The town values my home at 70% of value at 190k but a recent appraisal put it at a little over 350k ...
In my state with four children we would have to earn under 60k a year gross to qualify for free lunch. I only know this because I was just looking at the forms at the beginning of the school year.

My point is, I don't think it would be difficult to game...

 

[Little Wing]

sounds like a lot of work to cheat someone out of peanuts.