What it's Like to Live On Welfare

I climbed my way out of a hole before. I dusted myself off and kept going. I have fallen again in a deeper hole and struggled getting my way out. I have been to the point where I lived on nothing but pop cans from week to week and ate nothing some nights so that my kids could eat. Why? Because I didn't qualify for food stamps after paying my rent, electricity, water and sewer bills. Bills that was where my money went. I had no phone, no internet and no car.

I lived in a rural area and the snide comment from a friend who had all those available stated, "You should get another job. Quit college and get another job." Quitting college was what I did. I got two jobs and paid the babysitter my money that I obtained from the one job, as that job did nothing but pay the babysitter. Welfare programs do not cover day care when you make an amount of $800 a month. Your foodstamps are also cut which living off of only $200 worth of food is pinching pennies and buying the cheapest items that you can in order to make it stretch for a period of a month. It was either that or sit in the dark, go without a place to live or not buy a car to get out of the hole I had fallen into.

I had finally saved up enough money to obtain a vehicle and drove myself to an appointment at the welfare building. I pulled into the parking lot and was relieved that the pile of rusted metal had made it that far. As I was walking across the parking lot, a brand new car whips into a parking space just before me as the driver paid no attention that I even existed. I wore that day some of my best clothes that my closet had to offer of hand me downs, good will hunts, and clothes that I still wore from high school. Out stepped the driver adorned with Nike shoes, a expensive person and gold jewelry on every finger and around her neck. Her makeup was caked on, her perfume smelled expensive, and her hair cut was not an at home job either. She snorted when she looked at me, rolled her eyes and continued on her way to the doors. I could tell where her money had gone. Strange, I thought to myself I didn't know that for sure.

We approached the desk at the same time and I allowed her to go first. She labeled her attitude as high standard so I allowed her to continue with the privelige.

The receptionist spoke with her as the comments from who I deemed as Miss America replied, "I can't afford that, and here is the receipt for my shoes that I just bought." The receptionist accepted the receipt and told her that her check for refund would soon be in the mail. The receptionist also told her that her food stamps would be going up and that her worker needed to schedule an appointement with her quickly.

It was my turn now and Miss America had left and drove away in her fancy brand new car. The receptionist was rude, and pointed out that my food stamps would be going down since I had obtained a vehicle. I tried to point out that my vehicle had no value, it had barely got me there. The receptionist told me to talk to my worker and I asked when I could make an appointment. I was told next month. I also had lost my check for the next month, and medical would be cancelled the following month.

My disease that I was diagnosed with had now progressed and I collapsed at work. I had no medical, couldn't afford the medicine to make myself better or even think about getting treatment. The doctors explained to me that I had an incurable disease that would go into a term of remission and then back to unhealthy terms. I had to deal with it.

I asked to go to college, and I was told that wasn't what I was suppose to do. I was to get a job as soon as possible and it should be a job that I could handle. I went on to a new field trip of finding a job that would tolerate myself throwing up in the bathrooms, running high grade fevers and collapsing and allowing me to still go on being employed.

In the state of Iowa if you do not reveal those standards to your employer and you are sent to the workman's compensation doctor and those symptoms are found to be preexisting you do not get workman's compensation. It was preexisting. You are also fired on the spot and every employer in the future has right to know such a thing from the previous employer.

I was truthful at the first interview and told them I would be fine as long as I sat down for a few seconds. Social Security would not deem me disabled. I had no other choice but to find a job that would cooperate. I was told flat out, we do not hire unhealthy people. I asked why? I was told that there were plenty of younger and healthier people that could walk into company and fill the position and even if I was hired I would be replaced quickly. I would only be temporary until someone could fill the spot. I needed the money badly so I opted for the temporary choice. The job lasted a day. Long enough that Welfare claimed I was employed and my assitance was still cancelled.

I went to my local Promise Jobs office who works with Welfare reciepients to get back on their feet and make them self sufficient. I asked for a training program that would help me get a job that I could handle. I was told that was not available. I decided I wanted to go back to college and I was told that should not be part of my plan for my future. I needed a job.

In other words I was poor and I was chosen to remain poor while Miss America was allowed to have enough assitance to climb to the top and still gain food stamps and a FIP check. I went ahead and signed up for college. I was cancelled completely, and then I called my worker to see as to why I was cancelled. I was told that I had been told I was not to go to college I was to work only. I cancelled college. Then I was told that I should find a job that I could handle and I said if I had been able to attend college I would be able to qualify for a certain job that I could handle. Pushing a button would a job I could handle, but to get that job one required a peice of paper... a degre. The worker actually snorted at me and said she didn't have to have a degree to get her job 27 years ago. I pointed out to her that would be great could she tell me how to get hired. She again snorted and said that she guess that I would probably need a degree to do her job.

I obtained Welfare to gain assistance to get by in life. I was constantly ridiculed when I went to cash the check. When I had to use the food stamps in a line at the grocery store, someone was sure to holler get a job! My car broke down adn I couldn't get to the interviews. The babysitter quit watching the kids as she wanted to be paid more. I had no outlet to make myself self sufficient and I was stuck in the hole that was growing deeper.

Finally I went to college and then went for an independent study online so that I could work while the children were in school. The new employer allowed me to have the children dropped off at the place and continue to work as they waited for me. I was layed off as there was no more work to do, I had done all the work that was available.

I was no longer elgible for FIP. I could not get food stamps as my income which had ended was too much I had to wait another month.

My point is that there are people that do live on nothing but Welfare, they keep themselves in a predictament that will not allow them to become self sufficient. They are labeled as welfare cases and no one will hire them even when they do try to get a job. They are low maintained people.

Of course third world people would probably give their left arm literally for $100 worth of groceries. In 1717, I bet they didn't have food stamps, but one could literally hunt for food to feed their family. There were no laws that governed when you could hunt, just where not on the king's property. The woods were free game, a field a terrain was free game one could fish without buying a fishing liscense. That is not available in 2007, there are liscense to buy, there are tags to buy to hunt deer.

Obtaining welfare is not a crime, shameful or should be created to become an embarassment to the public as long as those that receive it really need it and are not like Miss America.