Amazing. I pay my bills on time, don't miss appointments and am staggered that 1/3 of the population can't do this.
That's not rocket science, it's basic living.
It's incredible how the right wing in the USA thinks there are millions of undeserving people getting lavish government assistance. Your social programs are meagre compared to those offered by other wealthy nations, and because of your extreme income inequality, you have a larger percentage of the population in real need.
3
America must be very ashamed of it's Poor. That would explain that in terms of the provision of Welfare for the Poor, there are less and less claiming or being able to meet the requirements to obtain it.
Obviously, that must mean that there are less Poor and that the Welfare supplied is only given to those it is meant to help...the Poor.
The American Welfare Models are doing their best to reduce the poor who receive it and unsurprisingly its working!
Making America a more equal, less poverty affected and better Society ON PAPER than any Society could want...
…and supplying a much better outcome than can ever be achieved by reliance on that cumbersome "Reality" that others like to argue about.
Ptooey to that !
My ex wife, who I was still friendly with years after our divorce, developed muscular dystrophy in her early sixties, which progressed until she could only stand bent over parallel to the floor from her waist up. She used a motorized scooter in order to get around.
Amazingly, she was denied Social Security disability and told she didn't qualify. She went through numerous appeals that took involved reams of paper work and took months to process. Finally, with the help of our oldest daughter, she was able to file a final appeal.
The appeal was successful and my daughter received the good news and a check at her address......two weeks after her mother had died of colon cancer. That's how cruelly unforgiving the process is.
4
@Bodyman A friend of mine with terminal cancer had to keep working, because her health insurance would have endes, if she had quit working.
She was turned down for Social Security Disability and died without ever qualifying.
This is a cruel, cruel country.
If you think this can never happen to you, think again.
As a white male with two bachelor's degrees, I had a high status 20-year professional services career, but I developed major depression and anxiety that basically cost me my career and all my assets. Eventually I could barely hold a thought in my mind and spent days looking out the window with no idea of what to do. I was on the verge of homelessness which would certainly have led to suicide.
In the midst of a bewildering loss of my entire identity, qualifying for disability was a humiliating nightmare of strategically worded forms and intimidating "evaluations." I was lucky to have a doctor and therapist who handled most of it, not to mention education and skills of my own, but the process was still byzantine and terrifying.
Without the help of competent professionals I would not have made it. I couldn't do it alone, even with all my lucky advantages. I cry even now to think about how easily I could have died.
Most "poor" or struggling people don't have anything like the resources I had, and it takes a staggering amount of work and strategic thought to qualify for support programs. It's admirable that any of them get through the process at all. It's heroic.
Anyone who thinks such people should just "get their act together" has no idea what it's like to be in that position. They are lucky, ignorant and sheltered, if not downright vindictive.
(BTW, I'm better, but till have far to go.)
4
When I was a student at Sacramento State in the early 70's, I had food stamps for about 6 months, (it was legal then). When I went to renew, the people in the office made me feel so awful I left and never went back. Later on, in my teaching career, many if not most of my students families qualified for free and reduced lunch, we were a Title 1 school. Every fall we would have to get our eligible students to sign up, many were embarrassed and it was a struggle to get them what they needed. And this of course affects their ability to focus and to learn. We put way too many roadblocks in their way when we should be facilitating in EVERY way their opportunities to succeed.
2
After retirement, I was a volunteer helping a Haitian refugee family, most working in entry-level jobs. It can be extremely hard to figure out how to get benefits if you are not fluent in English. I remember spending hours on the phone, filling out detailed paper work, and being frustrated by incomprehensible letters of rejection to help one woman with an ear problem get covered. After much work, we found a doctor downtown who would take Medicaid, who discovered a hole in her ear. It took a lot of work to get her treated.
3
People who have high paying jobs or just plain have money don't think about other's that don't I live off less than 12,000 a year live alone always pay my rent and bills am over 65 but I find myself always haunted by other's especially ones who have children and worry for them when did people stop caring
2
It would interesting to see the results of these surveys if conducted after April 2020 when more people were in need of applying for assistance due to Covid.
1
American retail and restaurant companies need to do a much better job by their employees. Their attitude is short term. We will hire kids, or immigrants grossly underpay them, not give them performance reviews, or raises, and we will wait until they get tired of this and then say "Next!"
These work environments are harsh places where underpaid employees have no voice in how they perform their own jobs, or even whether they can perform them safely and without injury.
In order to avoid paying fair wages, these companies basically put their staff in a constant state of fear of losing their jobs, by picking on tiny errors or problems and claiming high performance standards. This will make an employee quick to forget that another year has gone by and they still hadn't gotten a fair wage or a standard evaluation tied to a consistent and fair pay scale.
The companies always generate lots of policies and marketing material that make them look good, but ultimately never address the fact that they consistently grossly underpay frontline workers.
In my case, I was most often assigned garbage and cleaning duties at a medium sized corporate chain coffee restaurant chain, but I got to see how their operation worked and how they treated their employees. The biggest factor these companies all avoid dealing with is their pay scale, and all of them make it look as if you are lucky to be there by their marketing materials.
This all true from personal experience. And you left out several additional hurdles. First is comprehending what any communication means, as the language is opaque and vague - confusing even for a native English speaker. Second is that some agencies send conflicting letters. On more than one occasion I’ve received two letters on the same day, written on the same date: one telling me I’m approved for benefits, the other saying I’m declined. Third are all the other little things they do to further deter you. They send letters to arrive on Friday so the offices will be closed for 2 days after. Their phone systems are overwhelmed so it is virtually impossible to speak with someone: you have to hold for 45 minutes plus. When they re-certify you, which they do every 6 months now and which involves filling out all the paperwork again, they cut your benefits while they review the paperwork. They do this even if you have submitted everything on time. Then they take ages to do the review, or they keep requesting additional documents. You get the withheld benefits when (if) they finally approve you, but of course that doesn’t help during the time you were without them. And then to top it off, when you have your certification interview they treat you with suspicion and contempt - the assumption is you are a liar and a cheat. It’s an exhausting and demeaning process. And after all this the benefit amounts are paltry. Doubters should try living on them. Then they might understand.
3
"These requirements were created in part to ensure that only people who truly qualify receive benefits. "
No. These requirements are created almost always to impose artificial hurdles that impede people's access to these programs. These hurdles are intentional, designed and intended to prevent needy people who are otherwise qualified from actually enrolling, or continuing, to receive benefits. This is intentional, a desire of the bureaucrats and political forces without the resources to entirely block or cancel the program, but wanting to limit it for some political or 'moral' reason. Selfishness, buried in the bureaucratic minutia of "they can't get something I don't" or hidden as "they don't deserve this" pettiness. Small-minded, vindictive, and ultimately selfish restrictions, trying to force the poor to struggle for the 'crime' of being poor and powerless.
2
In Virginia, we have quarterly reporting requirements for SNAP, Housing Subsidies, and probably every benefit available. It seems that the state legislature and the culture do not want to help anyone poor, but they cannot eliminate the safety net, so they make it as hard as they can to obtain the benefits because there is a small but loud group who protest cuts.
We live in a country that creates poverty. That must be addressed. We have excessive historically high inequality, with a handful of the super-rich who do not care how they have created this mess and what harm results. For example, Jeff Bezos at Amazon has made billions more during the pandemic as people have turned to Amazon to do their shopping much more than ever before. Still, he has done nothing to protect his warehouse workers. He hasn’t even provided masks in his warehouses and order processing centers, changed work distances, paid sick days, paid hazard pay, nothing at all. Yet he could give every one of his employees 1 million dollars just from his pandemic profits. He would still be a multibillionaire at the end of it. Yet his employees have to get food stamps, health care, and whatever other help they can because pay at Amazon is low. The NYT should create a Low-Income reporter position to get this unpopular topic covered regularly. We need to know.
1
Being poor is the worst. I grew up really poor in the 1980's, with two mentally ill parents. And I hated it as a child. I am now in my late 40's and I have spent my entire adult life struggling not to be poor again. Fortunately, I have persevered for 20+ years in the same industry and became a professional. I finally make 6 figures, but just for laid off again, right before Christmas. Fortunately, I have savings, but in the past when I was laid off, I had to soak up all my savings and survived with food stamps and unemployment benefits. And if I lose health insurance? What then? I'll have to pay $1000's just to keep my mentally ill son's medication paid for, the only medication that keeps him stable and somewhat adjusted. When his mood disorder swings, his depression is terrible and I've spent time with him in the hospital, because he was going to take his life. The issue I see with the US, and battling the poor, is that it actually costs the country more to keep poor people poor. So many, including my own family, struggle with mental illness. And what would it cost the tax payers for uninsured mentally ill patients to wind up in the hospital with no means to pay their exorbitant bills? I'm rambling, but I believe that health insurance should be considered a basic human right, not tied to employment but provided for all.
1
As a social worker in rural SC some years ago, I was often flagged down by an illiterate man in my caseload. He saved government mail for me to read to him, stuff he didn't want his neighbors to know. Even now, families in his neighborhood live as much as 30 miles from social services like the SNAP and TANF programs. Most do not have cars. There is no public transportation.
Kinda dumb. I was homeless for two years, living in my car. Its all about adapting to situations and learning to live frugally. I worked full time, never went hungry, took care of my bills, showered daily, had a lot of money I put into savings, and actually had a great social life. Its when I actually got an apartment is when my finances fell apart. When people become less materialistic, driven by greed, and learn to live with the basics we all will be better human beings. We must not give into the commercial - corporate - government brain washing in America. Being poor may be caused by socio-economic status, but that doesn't mean you are stuck there. Don't give up, become resilient, and pull yourself up out of the hole. You can't get ahead relying or depending on others to help.
Here in Canada, where the social safety net is much more robust (including free health care) there is still a prevailing attitude that people abuse these programs because they are lazy or 'bad' people. Sadly, this public perception makes it politically more popular to increase the demands to qualify and decrease the funding to these programs. I haven't met a single person that is proud to declare they live on welfare or boasting of how easy life is now that they live in constant poverty and can be cut off at any moment for some bureaucratic reason or policy change.
As neo-liberal capitalism enters this stage where people are increasingly devalued over wealth accumulation and corporate profits, we are going to see more people fall into poverty and the demand on this safety net increase while tax cuts for the rich and corporations will cause governments to say "we don't have enough money" to justify further restrictions and cutbacks.
If these priorities don't change, the grinding suffering of poverty will only increase on ever larger groups of people.
2
I worked for the SSA for 43 years. With respect to earned right (Title 2) benefits, the Social Security side, evidentiary requirements have been streamlined to a degree, but it is not unreasonable to ask someone to provide documentation that they meet the criteria, whether it's proof of age, citizenship, marital history, or disability. And these are benefits that people earned by paying into the F.I.C.A.
For the T16 (SSI) payments, which are basically welfare, it is not unreasonable to ask people to document their citizenship, alien status, income, rental liability, family size and so on. Do people expect to walk into a government office, one that is charged with the responsibility of administering a benefit program with accuracy and integrity, put out their hand and walk out with a check?
We realized that some people, due to their impairment or lack of education/sophistication had difficulties with this, and we tried to work with them to make the case. In the old days we sent a rep to their home to help. I did this for 22 years. Care to guess how many times I found that our disabled applicant was out working? Or the aged parent was actually living in another country?
Trying to run a program to meet the needs of people while protecting the taxpayer is not as easy as one would think.
2
What would work best would be to pay workers a living wage and have have the billionaire CEOs provide health insurance for their employees, so their lowest paid employees don't have to go through the challenges of applying for programs like SNAP and Medicaid.
2
I was on food stamps, Medicaid, and unemployment in Arizona. When I enrolled in these benefits, I was shocked at the process. Time became a privilege as I waited four hours on hold. I set alarms to wake up 5 minutes before the phone lines opened so I would be one of the first in the queue. I remember I had to inform the unemployment person that the CARES Act had been passed. Recognizing that I was a privileged person (as someone who could recieve help from my parents if I desperately needed it) seeking and recieving benefits, with the brain space and time to navigate the ridiculous process it took to recieve these benefits, I was shocked at the difficulty. How can someone with minors, multiple jobs, etc would ever be able to take the time to both figure out how to navigate thoses applications and then complete them. It is extremely unfortunate that we make it so difficult for people who need it. My privilege allows me to reflect and be grateful for my experience regarding these social services, but I got to see that they were poorly organized and badly facilitated. I can only imagine the difficulty people who have no familial support, less time, and less education face when they apply for social services. It is time, and it has been for a long while, that we change our services so that people who need them get them more easily. Differences in expected EFFORT is a moot point when some families have no TIME, because you need time to put in effort.
4
The last graphic hit home about the ease of obtaining public assistance. It’s not easy. It’s confusing. And the workers are often unfriendly. I used public assistance when I was in grad school and the process was sometimes more difficult than grad school. I worked in an urban mental health agency where the majority of clients used public assistance—it was a real struggle for them to obtain documentation and to attend requires meetings to continue their benefits.
2
Thank you so much for this important piece. When my children were growing up, I was a single mother on welfare with food stamps, Medi-Cal and Section 8 housing. I am incredibly grateful for these supports. I was not in a position to earn enough to provide for us and pay for childcare too; and unfortunately their father was 'lost' to drugs, alcohol and homelessness.
However, applying for and sustaining these benefits was an exhausting, tension-filled, panic-inducing experience. Every letter I received contained an ominous threat of loss of some or all benefits if not responded to at the correct time, in the correct format, with the correct supporting documents. Trying to reach a worker to reschedule (by phone was the only access at the time) was a daunting, hours-long process.
There were so many unnecessary stressors in that experience.
Today I am a professional working in behavioral health. The challenge of getting my doctorate in midlife was a piece of cake compared to the rigors of navigating the California welfare system in the 1980s and 1990s.
Your researching and writing this article is a much-needed lens for those who've never been there to view the welfare experience in a relateable way. It is also a healing experience for those of us who have walked that path. One can feel so unseen and mischaracterized. Brilliant! Kudos and much gratitude to you for accomplishing this monumental task.
4
The statistics provided with the article weaken one of its points, which is that lower income people struggle more with routine tasks necessary to maintaining their financial well-being. The differences in failure rates across income groups are relatively small.
@PWR "The differences in failure rates across income groups are relatively small." That's roughly right, but you missed the point of that survey. The point is that all of us have trouble with one or more of these tasks, but for the poor, the outcome can be catastrophic. A quarter of Americans have unopened mail; but it's only if you're poor that that is likely to result in losing aid. The point is clearest with the last question, about missing a doctors' appointment. As explained in the survey, that question is a *proxy* for missing other appointments. 31% of Americans miss doctors' appointments for various reasons. "But missing an appointment with a government office could cost you food assistance, Social Security disability or welfare benefits." That's a consequence that only arises for the poor. The point of the survey is to help readers sympathize—we *all* have these difficulties, but for the poor, they can lead to much more dire consequences than for others.
2
I wish these people who think it’s too easy to get Medicaid or other government benefits could actually go through one of these easy (sic) application processes. I have been blessed to NOT need these programs, but I have relatives who have and can attest it is damnably difficult to impossible. No one who knows anything about this would say it is easy, so I guess these people are either ignorant or cruel.
3
I think there are two separate, but related issues at play here: Eligibility requirements and administrative requirements.
Eligibility is generally simple, though the threshold may be contested, and what happens when someone bounces back and forth across that threshold may get complicated.
Administrative requirements are the burdensome (and direct/opportunity costly) part. This is where the bureaucracy really comes into play. And in with bureaucracy I'll include an unwillingness to work with the applicant - things like making copies or scheduling at a good time.
That said, I do take issue with the question about leaving mail unopened. I might leave some mail unopened for a while, but I usually know what's in it when I do. It's quite a different story to leave something critical unopened. I'm pretty understanding when it comes to barriers that get in the way, but let's not let "oh, I didn't open that" be an excuse. Knowing this can get lost in the mail, and that these people do have a lot going on, let's also not make it a zero-tolerance policy either.
Something not mentioned: retraining. Even though the state I'm in considered me a priority number one disability I felt I had a prospect of working at home. I applied to Massachusetts Rehabilitation for assistance. I had letters from the right people saying my idea was one where skills needed could provide me with a could position.
I needed some courses in professional writing. I was initially refused because I was too well educated. If I wanted to go to cosmetology school the money was available but not for courses at Harvard.
A friend of mine had worked for Mass Rehab and she did some investigating. It was policy of that particular office, not law. She also called a past president, who, like me had Crohn's disease. If I lived in a town a few miles away with a different policy, it would not have been an issue.
I got a scholarship to the Professional Writing Program and Mass Rehab paid for some inexpensive courses at Harvard Extension. I got a job working at home that lasted fourteen years.
The Mass Rehab office never had anyone who got A's at Harvard. They were very excited.
That job ended when I became too sick to even work at home. I found I needed help every step of the way in order to manage being a poor American.
The political climate now is terrifying. What we have is welfare for the very rich while children go hungry.
4
Blame it on the shortened course of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Johnson had no intention of doing the right thing. Every social program has been designed to lock out African Americans, to penalize the able bodied, and to humiliate the poor. Why? Because Americans buy into the idea that if a person is poor it's because the person wants to be poor, doesn't want to work (despite the fact that many poor people have jobs), or is simply a lazy cheat.
More Americans need to look around them and see what's not obvious: families losing homes because the main wage earner lost a job, people going bankrupt because of medical expenses, young adults unable to "launch" due to lousy wages, loans, and unaffordable housing.
5
I recently needed an official copy of my birth certificate from another county. I should have had plenty of time, but I paid the expedite fee, just to be on the safe side. Didn't come. I kept having to call the office during the workday. As my deadline approached, I thought I was going to have to take time off work to make the 3-1/2 hour drive to go get it. Fortunately, it came in time, but I could afford the fee and I have a job that allows me to make calls during the workday and take time off for something like this. And I started well ahead of time. And this was just one document. I don't know how people who have to do this kind of thing all the time without those advantages do it.
3
Thank you. This echos my experience. We are a middle class family, and ran into this when our little one was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer at age 3. Caring for her put us into a financial tailspin. Thank goodness the hospital helped with getting her into emergency Medicare, or we would have been financially decimated. A year later, when we had to renew, it took three days of consecutive visits to the local agency - mostly sitting and waiting (6 hours, once) to talk to someone for 15 minutes. The social worker also helped us start the process for social security disability for her, which partially replaced my lost income - but applying meant that I had to go wait in a crowded hall full of coughing people for 4 hours to turn in my paperwork, which scared me to death, because she was immune compromised and I’d just spent 4 hour exposing myself to lord-knows-what. Thankfully, she’s in remission - but I’m still scared of what will happen next, thankful for the governmental support, and frustrated at how hard it was / is to access, especially when you are in crisis and NEED.
3
This all speaks to the benefit of a Universal Basic Income.
First of all, the amount of bureaucratic effort involved in administering means-tested programs costs billions of dollars.
Next, the current means-tested programs create disincentives to work. Many recipients are in danger of losing benefits if they take paying work, and many times the decrease in benefits is greater than their increase in earnings from working.
1
As a former social worker, who worked in a public aid office for a year before starting graduate school, this article is spot on and confirms what I've come to believe which is that I would rather die than live as a poor, resource disadvantaged American. As a nation, we seem to have taken The Elizabethan Poor Laws, which categorize the impoverished as "deserving" and "undeserving", to an extreme only now, instead of debtors prison and work houses whose job was to punish and to stigmatize poverty, we now have mindless bureaucracy, permanent debt and predatory (Republican) politicians who want to take away voting rights from the most disadvantaged.
2
There is a class of inherently dysfunctional people. There was a Time Magazine article in August 1977 on the underclass, and the social work, "non-profit" lobby has not stopped shilling for them since then.
The Ten Amendment precludes the federal government in engaging in activity not specifically delegated to it. Thus, the Great Society programs and all the redistributionist ideas currently advocated by the left are unconstitutional. Remediation
of acute poverty belongs to state and local governments, and to private charities.
How can anyone have empathy for someone who has three children without first having given thought to their support?
1
@J.Jones "How can anyone have empathy for someone who has three children without first having given thought to their support?" Well, as a minimum, you can have empathy for the children, who did not have a choice in the matter.
2
This article covers a lot of the problem. But there’s a another issue that has a tremendous effect.
Hopelessness, worry, and exhaustion.
It makes it very difficult to keep fighting, to make all the appointments and to actually go. How well can anyone be expected to do these, with hunger, hopelessness, anxiety and exhaustion?
I’ve worked for food programs, people have to show up to get the vouchers. I didn’t realize until much later how difficult it was for them. Being unemployed or homeless or disabled doesn’t mean you have lots of time to do these things. Just the opposite. It takes a long time to pursue these programs, a lot of effort when they do it all- still facing the uncertainty that they will get the needed help and get it the following month. Who can keep that up long enough to get back on their feet?
5
There is absolutely no reason to simplify the initial application for and the ongoing verification for the continuation of eligibility of various benefit programs. There is no need to make it harder on people or to raise the costs of administration. (The simplest thing to do would be to consolidate everything into one cash benefit instead of having so many disparate programs.)
At the same time - the 1/4 of people across groups who just don't do simple tasks like open their mail, pay a bill or keep track of appointments amaze me. It is really not that hard.
I've had this discussion countless times with poor clients as well as well-off state legislators. Some of my clients were illiterate. Most had no vehicle and no bus available because they lived in rural areas.
It's silly to spend more money to bill someone than the bill is worth. It's foolish to limit medical care and food to the poor, who need these things. In many cases, these poor people are elderly or very young, with little control over their lives and little access to make their lives better. One legislator from RI whom I met wanted to drug test SNAP recipients, which would cost a lot and solve nothing.
If we want a healthy group of workers to emerge from the poorest families, we must feed, house, educate and even clothe the children as well as adults. The result can be a healthier group of workers now and more in the future. It's a win-win.
4
The Administration's priority is to take food away from poor hungry children. If he just stopped playing golf we could pay for these programs.
1
These requirements are particularly onerous for parents with very young children (as you describe) who have Unmet and or Chronic Health needs as well as older adults who become ill and have no one to step in and keep accounts active, updated. Instead of giving people the benefit of the doubt, we treat them with derision and suspicion. Horrible! If we paid enough case workers Good Wages (see tech worker wages) to follow up and help vulnerable citizens, the return would be a huge benefit and create a more Just Society. Yes, We Can!
2
In Ireland (as in the eu) we do things differently: it’s accepted that 3/4% of all eligible adults aren’t capable of holding down a job, for personality or moral reasons, and it’s better to pay them a small stipend and an amount towards their rent. And free limited healthcare. We pay higher taxes, but it’s seen as money well spent. No one begrudges these unfortunates this help. And we are NOT AT ALL socialist, is simply social justice.
5
The difficulties and hurdles aren't bugs, they're features. Designed to make sure the deserving don't get help, while the already well off do.
7
Yes, I've forgotten to pay a bill on time. So what? If I get hit with late fees, I'll pay them. The problem with this study is it ignores the consequences of these simple acts or omissions. If I knew that my financial world would collapse by failing to pay a bill on time, I would not forget.
A major problem is, not available mental bandwidth, but total mental bandwidth. Many poor people make fundamentally bad decisions--over and over. Stress and substance abuse may be part of the problem, but a major problem for most of them is low cognitive functioning. For them, the freedom afforded by minimum-payment schemes is unfortunately not going to help. If we want to ensure they have food to eat and a safe clean place to live, and I do, we have to provide these things directly.
@maqroll may you never be afflicted with such ongoing bad luck in life that you have no option but make a series of ‘bad choices’.
4
The charts showing that upper income folks and Republicans think ot is too easy to get food and medical care show conclusively thst rich Republicans are amoral and hate the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is inexcusable to deny surplus food and sufficient medical care on the basis of income. Low income USAicans should start stealing food whenever possible. It would be fair...
1
The New York Times needs to be a little more conscious about the way it addresses issues of labor, class, and poverty. Simply, I take issue with the title of this quiz. The question "Could You Manage as a Poor American?" appears fundamentally disconnected from the day to day life of Americans across the country. A better question would be, "Could You SURVIVE as a Poor American." These are life or death issues for the large portion of our people struggling to get by. I understand the good faith that goes into writing content about working people and their issues, but often the language appears out of touch at best and patronizing or elitist at worst. I am glad, however, that the Times is taking time to shed light on these issues for its affluent readers.
1
There is a vast difference between forgetting to pay a bill and not having the money to pay it.
This quiz does not reflect that crucial difference.
6
These questions are interesting. I could answer no to all the questions but when I was a younger adult I could have answered yes to all of the questions. Some of the difference is that I had a job, three young children, and a smaller income then. Now I am retired, my children are grown, and I have a better income. I think distractions might account for a lot of yes votes.
4
Look to the downstream effects of bureaucratic constraints on welfare recipients. Yes, there is the perverse satisfaction of blaming the victim on full display at rallies and in op-eds.
But there are also very concrete and profitable outcomes for certain other less obvious sectors. What eventually happens to individuals and families such as those described in this article? Eviction, incarceration, foster care, Medicaid-funded dead-end (literally) nursing homes -- all of these are huge profit generators for corporations (and also "nonprofits" in name only) on the take for government contracts. And to the extent that these same funds funnel back via executive salaries to political donations to lawmakers, our tax dollars underwrite this macabre scheme to slowly but surely redistribute resources away from those who need them and toward those who hoard them. Impeachment grabs the headlines, but the vital news about regulatory and policy changes is being ignored, intentionally so.
1
My sister is poor and lives in Ohio. She has low vision, takes public transit and walks. She gets $900. in social Security and $170. in SNAP monthly. She rents. After rent and subsidized utilities, she has less than $50. per week in spendable cash. Guess what, $170. will not feed an adult for a month, so out of her cash, she buys food, toilet paper, shampoo, cleaning supplies, etc...
When she misses one of these administrative deadlines, her SNAP is cut off. This year alone, she has had to respond to requests to verify her income to SNAP three times. This is because nothing that she submits is received in time, so is not entered into the SNAP system. Often by the time she receives the SNAP letter demanding verification of income, rent, etc... there are only two or three days to respond. The office has reduced the number of workers, so there is no ability to walk in to get this accomplished. So add to the mix, the dysfunction at the Post Office that leads to delays in receiving and sending mail.
Even very organized people can have difficulty meeting these barriers.
6
What is interesting and infuriating is how those people considered "rich", i.e. earning six-figure incomes still have the gall to whine when a medical bill arrives. I work in medical billing, and the reactions are downright hostile when a patient WITH HEALTH INSURANCE BUT WHO DOES NOT UNDERSTAND HOW IT WORKS moans about "I guess I wouldn't have these bills if I was on welfare." It's impossible to empathize. These six-figure earners are fortunate they may never know the intrusiveness, the tedium, the bureaucracy, and the sheer waste of time it takes to apply then qualify for public aid. It would be refreshing for those who are not in a given economic or societal plight to admit they have no opinions about "ease" of getting public aid, but that's not how human nature works, is it?
5
This isn't a quiz. It's a survey.
1
It's called survival of the fittest. It rules our planet. What happens to a squirrel in winter who failed to bury a supply of acorns in the fall? Why should it be any different for humans? Article states the poor have less mental bandwith. Duh? That's why they're poor.
Yes, this bureaucratic hurdle-jumping is unfair and inefficient and harms poor people. But (typical of the NYT) this article never touches on the deeper structural causes of poverty or the effects of neoliberalism on government policy dealing with poverty. This article fails to mention the root cause while engaging in the kind of government-blaming that can often fuel ignorant rejectionism (all government is bad, the unfettered free market is the panacea for our ills). It also fails to mention that Bill Clinton and Obama did not improve this situation, and that Clinton, especially, made it harder for the poor to access the safety net. Knee-jerk anti-government folks will smile and say, "Look at the way our government bureaucracy makes it hard for those in need to get help." This plays into Trump's hands.
1
How can we solve this and many other injustices? Universal Basic Income. Who is running on that platform? Andrew Yang.
2
So there is a complete lack of tolerance for the poor when they are trying to get help... And yet Jared Kushner can make all sorts of omissions and errors when filling out his security clearance paperwork without any negative consequences to him.
6
Two days ago I got a notification from my credit union that my electric bill payment had been debited to my bank account. I immediately had a panic attack because that meant there wasn't going to be enough money in the account to cover to cover my wireless bill.
I was not careless. I did my planning. The money for that bill was not supposed to be paid out of my account. My husband made a mistake when he paid the electric bill online. A simple mistake, but if it wasn't fixed, it was going to cost me a couple of service charges. Luckily, my CU has a notification system and I have those notifications turned on. Also luckily, I work in a salaried job, where my on-time attendance isn't critical, so I was able to make it to my CU first thing the next morning to deposit enough into the account to cover the excess bill. Day saved. I make a decent salary but I still don't have spare money lying around to throw away on service fees.
The last time something like this happened to me was over 30 years ago. I was an emancipated minor. A deposited check didn't get credited in time and I ended up with a bounced check charge over a 66 cent deficit. Four charges, in fact, because the business the check was made out to tried to redeposit it three more times without contacting me before the bank rejected the attempts. It ended up costing me $100 dollars, which was almost an entire week of pay at the time. The check was $30. That was a harsh lesson for a 16 year old.
5
Public school teacher here. A specific child qualifies for Individual Educational Plan, or Special Education status. We need a signature from the parent. The single father is an agricultural field laborer. He cannot come to the school without losing a day's wage. There is probably a way that the school district can do a home visit, but innumerable emails, meetings with the principal, and other prompts on my part have had no result. So this poor lad with the function of a 5 year old sinks deeper and deeper into depression as we force him through Shakespeare.
5
The article and the reader comments are enlightening. The case is convincing that dealing with the bureaucracies is particularly difficult for the poor, the disabled, the homeless, the semiliterate, the undocumented, the carless, the computer challenged, etc.
2
@Edward B And the cost of not doing so effectively is greater.
1
Vote Blue - No Matter Who
The Senate, too!
The Democrats not only have plans to help with many of the obstacles to getting the help you and your family need - and deserve - they've already passed nearly 300 bills in the Democratic House that would do so. Bills that went to die on the self-styled "Grim Reaper's" desk.
This is a countrywide systemic problem. Too big for us to fight one person at a time. Though the other party sure loves when we wear ourselves out trying.
Toss off that monkey this administration has moved from its back to yours in just 279 days.
Vote D for Decency.
3
The gratuitous CRUELTY of the establishment "conservatives" shows in these accounts. They all think of themselves as "Christians" too. Jesus would have had no use for them!
The original meaning of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is SUPPOSED to illustrate how ridiculous the idea is (visualize actually trying to do that!).
5
So, what does this prove exactly? Seems like the same numbers align across all incomes.
Before blaming the poor for their struggles, try meeting the requirements for a $5 mail-in rebate.
2
Why are you framing these as 'mistakes'? This is the kind of language used to shift responsibility for their poverty to the poor.
2
Years ago and far away, we volunteered with an organization called Circles, whose goal was to end poverty in our lifetime. The idea was to support people who want to leave poverty by surrounding them with people who do not live in poverty and showing them the tricks for success that people who were not born poor take for granted, such as following a budget and setting goals. They came to regular meetings for a hot meal and a program, often speakers from local agencies explaining what their offices can do for them, and they stayed for classes where they learned about the origins and psychology of generational poverty and how they could break the cycle. They did not receive money except in the form of scholarships or stipends for further education. The volunteers who supported them--their allies--helped them navigate the agencies and provided expertise and skills, whether helping prepare and file taxes or paving a muddy path.
We inherited an old van that had a good engine and no rust but that needed new valve seals, which would have cost us several hundred to replace. Circles had a deal with a local mechanic who replaced the seals, and we gave the car to a Circles member who had been diagnosed with Huntington's, so her son could get her to doctor appointments and drive himself to classes and work. Win/win.
https://www.npr.org/2014/09/16/347954335/a-circle-of-support-helps-families-stay-out-of-poverty
https://www.linkedin.com/company/circlesusa
4
@R Nelson
I wish there were more organizations like that. Handouts/subsidies/etc. are the "give a man a fish" solution, which are important in the short term. What you describe are the "teach a man to fish" attempts. Government can handle the tangibles (give a man a fish) pretty effectively (if not efficiently), but falls short on the intangibles (teach a man to fish). It takes more than just money - it takes caring people to make that difference.
1
I think some people are misinterpreting this article. If it says anywhere in it that all poor people are illiterate and stupid I guess I must have missed that section. I believe (if I read it correctly), it actually is pointing out commonalities between people of wealth and people who are poor in that they all share many of the absentminded habits. It shows though how these directly affect the poor MORE because the government programs they apply for have much more paperwork, are harder to navigate and have many more hoops to jump through. It also points out things like people of means, when they need to copy pay stubs most can just make copies on their home scanner/printer whereas the poor often do not own such a device. For them, to remember to mail in a $1 health premium is challenging because many do not have accounts they can set up to auto pay this. It is not a matter of them being uneducated or STUPID. If you have never had to apply for these programs then consider yourself lucky but I will also say that you have no idea. It means things like sending in papers for "proof", them not being received, doing it again, them getting "lost", then going directly to meet with someone and spending 4-5 hours waiting in a room FULL of people to meet with a person who may or may not tell you to come back with more papers, something most do not have to do to open a bank account or get your tabs.
6
Years ago and far away, we volunteered with an organization called Circles, whose goal was to end poverty in our lifetime. The idea was to support people who want to leave poverty by surrounding them with people who do not live in poverty and showing them the tricks for success that people who were not born poor take for granted, such as following a budget and setting goals. They came to regular meetings for a hot meal and a program, often speakers from local agencies explaining what their offices can do for them, and they stayed for classes where they learned about the origins and psychology of generational poverty and how they could break the cycle. They did not receive money except in the form of scholarships or stipends for further education. The volunteers who supported them--their allies--helped them navigate the agencies and provided expertise and skills, whether helping prepare and file taxes or paving a muddy path.
We inherited an old van that had a good engine and no rust but that needed new valve seals, which would have cost us several hundred to replace. Circles had a deal with a local mechanic who replaced the seals, and we gave the car to a Circles member who had been diagnosed with Huntington's, so her son could get her to doctor appointments and drive himself to classes and work. Win/win.
https://www.npr.org/2014/09/16/347954335/a-circle-of-support-helps-families-stay-out-of-poverty
https://www.linkedin.com/company/circlesusa
2
What is most sad about this is that the government agencies processing all this paperwork are almost certainly paying more in staff time, tools and infrastructure (physical storage, cloud and internet bandwidth, etc) than the dollar amount of any benefits they are giving out. Handling the massive amount of documents, the likely huge numbers of resubmissions (due to errors) and all the technology to store, view and secure the information is expensive. Even with the minimal effort being put into updates and maintenance that seems to be happening, it's money that could be better spent on simplifying the applications and just providing basic benefits with minimal requirements.
2
Obstructions stop people from accessing services - this is an extension of the mentality of insurance companies not paying for drugs or procedures, of education dragging out eligibility for special services and of difficulty registering to vote. Same idea, 'Stall and fatigue.' People give up or don't try and voila, the judgemental, harsh, rigid policymakers take the change in statistics as "progress." Who knew a political party would use such pillars on decreasing access to freedom, health care and support and be so wildly successful?
6
If you have to live without a major appliance or system such as a dryer or furnace for a week, you might get a better feel for poverty, if only for a few days. You have to make so many arrangements to work around the problem, even if you can afford to get the appliance fixed or replaced. Imagine not having the money to fix it. What then?
7
When you don't have a car in most cities in the country and rely on public transit, something as simple as buying stamps or returning a form to a "welfare office" can take hours out of your day. If you have ever sat in a "welfare office" you would know that reporting, filing papers, updating information - all can take a long time. And, then consider how the use of a computer is absolutely required for even a basic job at a grocery store. If you found yourself suddenly in need of public assistance and we took away your car and computer...where would you be. Thank you for this article.
393
@Hypatia Yes. And if you live in a rural area, without a car, and without public transportation, try to get to the social services office, or to the library to make copies -- if there is a library, and if that little library open . . .
25
@Hypatia I know this first hand. I took a bus to get to such an office to drop off a simple form (needed to prove my low income to get a discount on a hospital bill that my student health insurance wouldn't cover), and was told I had to sit in a waiting room despite the fact that my return bus was leaving in about 5 minutes (this was Ravenna Ohio, so the busses drove through town only every couple hours). Luckily, I ignored the gatekeeper woman, walked into the office of the person who I dealt with on a previous trip, and handed him the form (without protest from him) and got the bus home OK. If I hadn't been raised with an unusual amount of dignity, and dare I say it, white privilege, I probably would have put up with the poor treatment and missed my bus. This is one of several things I remember about being a poor student that contrast with my treatment as a middle class adult, and make me empathetic to things like you mention.
32
This problem extends all the way down to the local level.
As a volunteer at a homeless shelter, I attempted to help a man apply for emergency food aid -- a $25 voucher to tide him over until his food stamps kicked in. Bear in mind this man had no vehicle, no address, no money beyond what he could scrape together from gathering cans and recycling them. He had a backpack and a cell phone in a small city with very limited public transit.
1. We had to make an appointment to make an appointment -- two trips to a welfare office about a mile from the city center where most other services are located.
2. He had to provide copies (at 10 cents a page) of the following:
* pay stubs going back 6 months;
* bank accounts
* tax filings
* his most recent lease (he has been homeless for 8 years)
* his divorce papers (he was divorced 11 years before)
* a current lease (!! the man is homeless)
* a valid driver's license or state ID
*his birth certificate
The cost of traveling from office to office to collect all this material and pay for copying it far exceeded the $25 emergency food aid he was applying for.
And if he needed such aid again more than 6 months hence, he'd have to repeat all this. The local welfare office closes one's case and destroys all your records if they haven't heard from you in 180 days.
415
@Jane Hunt excellent example. And I can imagine the staff time to take in and process all of these excessive documents costs taxpayers far more than the $25 too!
61
@Jane Hunt Important note to orgs providing small amounts of money / vouchers for emergency assistance: skip the means tests. Seriously. Just give out the voucher or the cash when somebody asks.
In my experience, most people who need this kind of help are very reluctant to ask for it. By simply sucking it up and asking, they show the truth of their need.
If the person giving out the assistance pays personal attention, it's not hard to discourage people who try to game the program.
Place I worked, we gave a $25 voucher to the local supermarket to anyone who asked. (If Warren Buffet asked, we would give him one.) The supermarket billed us back and included the register tapes. It was easy enough to detect shenanigans (like middle aged single guys spending the money on baby formula for resale to street-drug dealers) from those tapes.
67
@Jane Hunt this should be required reading for all of the "LET'S TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OURSELVES" idiots
66
I truly cannot imagine how adults with disabilities, mental and/or physical, manage to hold on to their meager and very much needed assistance without another adult who can consistently advocate for them. I am highly educated, organized, and the caretaker for an adult disabled member of the family, and I find the mail confusing and daunting.
483
@Jos
I myself am a highly educated, fairly responsible, well-informed person and even I have trouble advocating for myself. The latest example was when one of my medications was increased. I had to get a regular pill and a small pill, so they wanted to charge me two copays for one prescription. If they had given me three small pills instead, it would be only one copay. My pharmacist was awesome, but even with both of us going back and forth with the insurance company, they wouldn't budge. The multibillion dollar insurance company is relying on that extra $30, so I have to forgo getting a primary care physician. I've never been able to afford a primary care physician even though I work for a school and have great healthcare. Why? Because I work for a school! So although my copay is low, I still can't afford to take advantage of it. That's why including benefits in compensation calculations is wrong, by the way.
60
@Jos Amen, Jos. My adult son is developmentally disabled. The paperwork that went into applying for SSDI was confusing and daunting and I am a very well educated person with a Master's degree. He was turned down (he is in the category of "mild", with an IQ of 80). He has a full time job as a housekeeper in a retirement home and lives at home. We have him putting every penny he can into his 401k. He is very good at his job, but he does not understand money very well and I don't think he can manage his finances without oversight.
38
@Jos The mail is confusing and daunting and it's on purpose to confuse people so they sign up for something they don't need or that will harm them. Currently the mailings are about stem cell therapy that can cure everything. Of course, it's a scam and can do great harm including going blind.
7
My adult skills were all self-taught after growing up in a lower working class, large, chaotic, frequently moving family. Most of the time we had no relatives, neighbors or friends to teach us anything. The things that did help: being white in the mid-60s, going to school in a big city, where we did learn to read, and knowing where the library was, At a critical time, under age 11, it was within walking distance, and safe for us,to walk to. I doubt that part of Pasadena CA is safe for a kid to walk in now.
What about communities without libraries, or have libraries with limited hours. Also, public transportation is bad in small communities. What if you have limited reading skills? Hope you don't have a disablility.
It takes everybody to help, and to believe resources need to be available for those motivated to use them.
Can we stop being embarrassed by not being middle class? Let me know.
6
Programs for the poor are intentionally complex in order to prevent people from qualifying.
134
@Suzanne Wheat: Or in order to prevent people that don't deserve them from qualifying.
Do you think money grows on trees and we can afford to just give all program benefits to everyone?
Now, it's too bad government, just like large corporations, can't do things more competently and efficiently -- but that doesn't in any way mean that, as you imply, they're trying to keep people who SHOULD HONESTLY QUALIFY from qualifying.
2
@Suzanne Wheat
I first noticed this phenomenon while working in an inner city clinic during the first months of the Reagan administration. I call it rationing by bureaucracy. I also call it undemocratic!
11
@Roger Geyer you and your ilk honestly don’t get it. The people who DO need the help are at a very big disadvantage. those that don’t qualify aren’t.
12
Thank you for this article. Just this morning I was trying to help someone pay their Health Insurance Bill over the phone . This individual does not have a computer. The ordeal I had to go through and the demands of this well know Health Insurance Company were preposterous. I told the Insurance Representative that I felt their requirements were discriminatory against the elderly and the poor and that I would be contacting my Senator and Representative to bring this very serious matter to their attention.
140
@KSDunne Of course the insurance company has already lobbied your senator and representative and made large campaign contributions to them, so you aren't likely to get very far.
29
I was a financial counselor/educator at a nonprofit agency for 15 years. We all (at all income levels) make the same mistakes. The consequences for people living in poverty are so much more severe. Both in absolute terms and as a percentage of income. A fifteen dollar late fee on a water bill is nothing to someone well off. It is a disaster to someone who is scrambling to get the bill paid before a turn-off order that will costs an additional $40 or so beyond that. I was glad to see this article begin to address some of the real issues of being poor in America.
103
@Laurie Knowles I agree. It's also true that those of us with more money and more education know how to ask that the late fee be excused due to our usual good payment history. Others may not know to do this, let alone how to do it.
8
And Verizon tries to charge you for equipment even after you've returned it.
2
This is timely. I just picked up my mail and my DMV renewal fell out from between the pages of a junk-mail grocery-store flyer. If it hadn't I'd have tossed it. Do those who think poor people are lazy and deserve their fates think accidents like this can never happen to them? Apparently so.
111
@Emma Ess: But pretending like such mistakes are the ENTIRE problem re people having trouble making ends meet is PREPOSTEROUS.
I've tried to help a number of families get their acts together and get ahead of the game, and stop having to scramble all the time re such issues.
When people won't go to work, won't get a job, won't look for more reasonable housing, stop spending money foolishly on things they don't need, comparison shop, etc., throwing more money at them won't help.
In the real world, there are TWO sides to this story. The far left would always like to pretend that if we just spent much more on various social issues that it would automatically fix the problems. But when you actually look at behavior and consequences, the impacts would only be marginal.
It's not like we don't already have $20+ trillion in debt, and escalating rapidly, that needs to be dealt with, on far more than just social issues like "poverty".
DMV? But how many poor people have cars? I guess in California if they have them, they live in them?
1
We have to stop throwing money away on billionaires like Jeff Bezos and the Walton family, they obviously don't even know how to follow basic OSHA laws or give their employees a living wage. Tax cuts are wasted on the rich. Let's tax them to the max. They are the undeserving class that is bleeding the rest of us dry and creating trillions more debt.
10
Recently I became eligible for Medicare and Social Security. It wasn't the paperwork I found complicated or hard to understand, but all the research involved to ensure the decisions I made regarding when I took benefits and what supplemental providers offered the best services for the premiums. Don't get me started about figuring out tax strategies in retirement.
This experience made me wonder about people who less acess to information or time and decent health to help figure out what's best for them.
What kind of country do we have when our government makes it so difficult for the poor and elderly to apply for benefits and pay taxes?
154
@Sadie Smith Me too. Except I found the instructions were only clear up to a point, then abruptly became vague. Trying to get more specific details about policies from the government, but much more so from my employer, was brutal. Even though I’m not poor, I felt dismissed. Every call netted different answers and it became clear the speakers didn’t care that an instruction interpreted one way versus another would cost me $1000 per month. They could say anything they wanted and I couldn’t prove it. I got a real taste of this dismissive attitude that I think poor people experience every day that makes them want to give up on not just benefits, but everything.
54
@Sadie Smith
My disconnect came immediately, when I went online to sign up as soon as I was eligible. I was, mystifyingly, directed to access my Social Security account in order to apply for Medicare - if they are separate program with separate websites, why do I have to go the Social security to apply for Medicare? Then I was absolutely refused access to my online social security account without explanation, even though I had set up the account years ago and had to issues with getting in before. After much agita, I gave up and called the help number and was told that it was because my accounts at the big three credit agencies **might** be locked (but not if, or which one - I had to figure that out). They were, because Experian and the OMB were hacked and I was among the lucky ones whose data was exposed, but nothing in the process tells you at the outset that you can't do anything until you unlock your accounts (and don't forget to relock them when you're done).
This should be easy, and all of these 'gotchas' need to be spelled out for people to check off before getting lost in the rabbit hole of frustration and misdirection.
39
@Jenny In the past year I have had to reset my Social Security password three times because every time I logged on I got a message saying the password was incorrect. Each time I had to make a phone call to reset. Each time I immediately wrote down the number, logged out and logged in again. The password worked. When I went back a few months later the password would not work. Minor considering problems others have with the system, but still frustrating.
16
Excellent article. As a CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocate) for a child under the care and supervision of the Department of Child Protective Services, I see every day how difficult it is for families to navigate complex systems, even if those systems are well-meaning. It's also why it is absolutely essential to teach our own children financial literacy.
3
Thank you for this article, especially the insight that “poverty also exacts a kind of cognitive tax that can make it hard to deal with precisely these kinds of tasks. That means the poor face more of these burdens in general while also having less mental bandwidth to devote to them.” Add the cost of making photocopies when one has no printer at home, and no car to travel to a copier store. These seemingly small things accumulate.
185
The public library may provide these services, but now libraries are closed due to Covid-19. I had to ask a neighbor to print something for me.
I also had to file and certify my uncle's unemployment benefits for him every week.
What do people without helpful neighbors or family members do? For myself, I found that filing for unemployment online was so creepy and threatening, that I decided to forego the benefits, which would have been less than my $735 stimulus payment anyway. That covered it for me. For only 12 unpaid furlough days, it wasn't worth the risk of being fined if I made a mistake and was accused of falsifying information, just to get something like $400 in benefits.
My brother, permanently disabled by head injury from a motorcycle accident years ago, had an overwhelming stack of bills, letters and notices. He had no idea what to do with these, very poor judgement, memory and executive ability, hearing problems, no car or driver's license and little money. One day he announced that he'd simply thrown it all in the trash.
72
@Elizabeth so very sad. Getting or staying on, help is difficult.
4
@Elizabeth: my brother is too disabled to do his own paperwork. My mom, after raising kids on SS as a young widow, had to do the even more grueling paperwork for my brother until her death at 83. She had to prove over and over with MD reports that my brother still had schizophrenia... as if that’s curable.
17
I'm so sorry for your brother and for you. I only had a minor head injury, but it still bugs me, too. When I was hit by a van in an intersection - I crossed at a green light, but someone turned and hit me anyway - I was carted off to the trauma center. I staggered home the same night. Soon I received over $20,000 in medical bills, threat letters, etc., all because New Jersey is a "no fault state," and since I don't own a car, I don't have car insurance to pay my medical bills in case of a car accident. My health insurance refused to pay most of the bills, which went to NJPLIGA. I'm still out of pocket some hundreds of dollars for eye doctor bills. I had to put it in the hands of a lawyer even to get NJPLIGA to pay the bills, and it's been six months, so who knows if I'll ever get reimbursed for the rest.
4
The idea behind this article is really critical, but the Quiz is a bit misleading.
I thought the quiz would be how to cook a week’s worth of meals for a family with only $50 kind of thing, which is incredibly stressful.
I grew up in ‘extreme’ poverty because my dad had undiagnosed mental health issues. I’m only just beginning to talk about the conditions of poverty.
Now, as an adult, I rarely have to “pinch my pennies” but those experiences of poverty are never to be taken lightly. People rarely choose that lifestyle.
That said, I know all about poverty, and how to be creative with one’s resources, and yet the safety net for working families and/or people with disabilities isn’t strong enough, especially in this political climate. Ableist attitudes perpetuate that cycle of blame.
Thanks for sharing this quiz to give more people awareness about the challenges facing those who live at poverty levels, and yet their spirits are not poor!
115
@Susanna, I thought the quiz was spot on in terms of showing the more fortunate that things they take for granted (forgetting to pay the electric bill because you accidentally forgot to open it), have devastating consequences for those less well off.
Too many fortunate people say "Well, I could make my food budget stretch" or are able to do it for a week or two, but we also need to remember that things we think are 'simple' are also things that we forget or do too. The difference is that when you're poor, misplacing that piece of mail, or having to miss that doctor's appointment can be the difference between being able to eat or not.
When they have those 'food stamp' challenges, the assumption is that the poor can depend on them to arrive every month. Perhaps the proper challenge would be to have people try to live off of that and suddenly have the amount dropped substantially right before grocery day, or be told that in order to keep them, they have to make a doctor's appointment, have the doctor fill out complex paperwork (or write a letter), and take a day off to sit at social services. And do it within a 10 day period with a brand-new doctor. Maybe then people could at least begin to understand some of the pain.
21
When I graduated college during peak recession no one could get a job anywhere. I ended up volunteering with Americorps doing conservation work (which gave me a new career path since my degree was suddenly worthless). During that first year of being a volunteer I earned a small living stipend to pay for an apartment I shared with eight folks and was given a student loan grant at the end (which was taxed heavily). I ended up on food stamps that year and it was a nightmare of paperwork. I spent a nearly fifty hours at the food stamp office over three months usually getting rejected for not having the exact paperwork needed. Though I did eventually get accepted, the experience left quite the impression on me. Those fifty hours were spent sitting in the hallway with single moms who work two jobs, families who hadn't had a good meal in a week, construction workers who were laid off during the recession etc.
I still reflect today that if it was so hard for me, a white male from a blue collar background, to get approved, how the heck do people of color from even less means survive? I worry about the poor in this country now more than ever. I happily pay taxes now knowing that it might fund these programs and help keep neighbors in my community from struggling so much, but its disheartening when the right wants to cut these programs and make them even harder to be approved for.
289
@Michael, I was shocked that you were taxed heavily on your student loan grant! It reminds me of my son's situation when his employer paid down a part of his student loan. Taxes were deducted from that too. He had a decent income but it still affected his family negatively. It's a crazy world!
3
@Michael I believe it is the hang over from Calvinism. Earthly wealth was seen as a sign you were one of the 'elect'. This explains almost every aspect of Rightist attitudes and behavior. If being poor show God doesn't like you......
13
@Michael Thanks for your insight. The more people share their stories, the more we well see and understand that we have to help each other. Because we all need help with something. God Bless.
4
It's difficult to be not wealthy in America. There are so many hurdles and so few safety nets to allow one to live a simple, happy, healthy life in the US. If I were poor and living in the US, I'd do everything I could to get to a more humane society where I could live with some dignity.
118
@Frank - Mayor Mike Bloomberg to whom much has
been given. Why not try to help the less fortunate
in this society instead of throwing a billion here and a
billion there for campaign TV commercials?
16
@Frank what an interesting idea. How different would that be from refugees from south of the US coming here to escape their own difficulties?
8
@Frank There are few countries, if any, willing to take in those who missed the boat on education, luck or silver spoons, and therefore still need help. Most require an ability to produce a particular level of income. Since our country doesn't truly give a hand up, where do we turn? Our education system is deteriorating rather than improving, the government gives the least help possible to the poor, and yet thinks that folks are shirking if they can't make ends meet.
8
This is an excellent description of the horrendous traps lurking within the social safety net. Conservatives have been trying to punish the elderly, poor, sick, and others with unfortunate circumstances for decades. The “bootstrap plan” is a penalty that marginalizes millions if Americans.
It would be good to hear more about the issues raised in this article from the Democratic contenders.
44
This is why I still vote Democrat, even though they are taxing me into poverty, they might give me some assistance when their high taxes finally drive me out into the streets.
@Todd Eastman
I have always wished that the holier-than-thou politicians had to live a month in the poor's shoes. No fancy phone, no expense account, not aide to do your paperwork, no car or anything. Now make that meagre budget stretch to feed you and yours (no credit card to just take care of anything), get to work on the bus - after you scrounged the fare, and see what time to crawl home to an over-hot or cold apartment, only to do it again tomorrow, no relief in sight. And no, your boss won't give you a few hours off to go meet some outside obligation.
I used to be poor(er.) I learned to pay attention to bills, bank statements (even high school and college kids with hardly any income can get a bank account and CCs. Credit union accounts are often free of charge-mine is.) I kept all the bank statements, CC statements, tax returns (always done by myself and now with a computer based tax program,) pay statements in several small boxes (now backed up online.)
Public libraries have computers and copy machines. Libraries and local community groups often hold seminars on money management, tax prep, Social Security and Medicare education.
It is really not that hard to be organized and informed, if you care enough to spend the time. What I don't have is a smart phone and a Facebook or Instagram account. Nor any history of late or missed payments. It only takes a few minutes a day to get your stuff together.
6
@WInegirl2019 - congrats, but I don't imagine you have mental/physical disabilities, addictions, anxiety, PTSD, etc. which many of the homeless and poor people do. I had a brother who was very successful in his early life but suffered a mental breakdown and could not keep himself on Medicaid or Food Stamps due to paperwork issues that he could no longer handle. He eventually died homeless and died alone in a broken down car. I guess you would say he should have gotten his stuff together.
49
@WInegirl2019, I'm glad you had access to a library and credit union. My credit union will only offer accounts to those who are members. And getting to a public library from where I live requires either a car or a long walk.
And doing all of that assumes that one has the luxury of time and no small children or others that need to be taken care of. I have a friend who is trying to get disability for himself due to an injury. His wife is already disabled, and can't be left alone for more than an hour at a time. So where exactly is he supposed to find the time to sit through seminars, and make it to doctor's appointments?
And this doesn't even begin to talk about people who are homeless or have disabilities that hinder their abilities to fully comprehend paperwork. In a perfect world, they'd all have advocates who could assist them with this, and standing in lines wouldn't be an issue.
I am very glad that you were/are able to get the assistance you need, and that you are moving ahead however slowly it may be. All I ask is that you try to understand the struggle this can be for others who were in your position.
41
@WInegirl2019 some poor people have debts that have gone to collection, and will avoid bank accounts to prevent having what funds they do have from being garnished.
18
As a single female who clears under $20K a year, I have strong opinions about this, because I also have an advanced college degree. When I struggle to read government or insurance (they are even worse) mail, I think of all those who don't have the background or time to understand it all. It makes me so angry when poor people are critisized by people who have never walked in their shoes.
And Food Stamps are hard to get! They are administered by states, who may not have readable documents or enough staff. I gave up on them!
67
Imagine how all the suffering of the poor, disabled, mentally disabled, chronically ill, could be eliminated by Universal Health Care. And before all you Reaganites start your "socialized medicine" rants, know that those living in advanced countries with Universal Healthcare live longer, life healthier, than we do, because they have not been lied to by Republicans since Reagan and are not suffering from fakes news of fox because they don't have to deal with the Koch controlled congress, namely McConnell and Pompeo when he was a senator, the fake and non-Christian radical evangelicals who don't follow the Bible, don't follow the words of Jesus, but follow the Novel "Left Behind" and actually have the author of Left Behind on their Board which gets you all the fake prophets on the right and biggest fake prophet who claims she can declare what is holy ground, she can command abortions of satanist babies, Really, she can command nothing and if you believe in Jesus there is no such thing as a satanist baby, just satanist fake prophets & their million dollar business from donations of those who have no faith but big and serious unfilled emotional needs. Universal Health Care will cause unemployment of hypocrites, liars, fake religious, fake evangelical preachers who are only out to Profit and cannot Prophet about a dam thing. Wake up America, your hate is killing the poor and the sick.
3
I am the advocate for my developmentally disabled brother. He has SSDI, Medicaid, subsidized public transportation, and numerous other services for the disabled. My observation about all these programs is that if you need them you are unlikely to be able to navigate the bureaucracy without help. It requires visits to offices and hours on the phone, during the work day. The offices are mostly not in places that are easy to get to. My brother has a minimum wage job. He can't take phone calls at random times during the day and if he has an appointment he has to ask for time off at least two weeks in advance. The information requirements from all of the services are basically the same: documenting that he is poor and disabled. Every single one of them, from the Medicaid to the community meal, has their own form.
I have a professional job with control over my schedule. I can work from home, I can work while I'm on hold for 40 minutes, I can juggle my schedule. My brother can do none of these things. My conclusion is that without family he'd be without any services, which would lead rapidly to job loss and homelessness.
Not only is the paperwork a tremendous burden, it's a colossal waste of public resources. If we want to get the waste out of services for the poor and disabled, let's start by eradicating the paperwork duplication. It will reduce the burden on the recipients and the cost to the government.
195
I don't think this article scratches the surface on how hard it is to be poor. I learned recently as the POA for my ailing father. The amount of forms to fill out and the information needed is overwhelming. Plus all the phone calls where your placed on hold for hours; and documents to copy, fax, and mail. It's a full time job to be old and poor. And this is not only applying for finanical assistance, there is medicare, and private insurance, banks, doctors. The list goes on.
103
@Mike : And yet when you claim Medicare is so "difficult", as someone who took care of both my parents when they were ill, that's just not credible.
Medicare was FANTASTIC as far as being cooperative, explaining things, and actually paying what they claimed they'd pay, as compared to private medical insurance.
Not only that, but doctors were on the ball and watched out to wisely utilize things like hospital visits to minimize the number of deductibles, etc, without me even needing to ask.
So I think if you're going to make such a claim, you need to provide meaningful details, or such a claim simply sounds like the usual "just spend more money" attitude of the far left.
1
@Roger Geyer
Glad your experience was so wonderful. Mine, not so much. Just on one bill alone for my uncle (I was executor), I spent countless hours on the phone chasing after doctors, reached unhelpful people, was advised I was correct but that the system was not going to admit it, was not provided with relevant documentation, and spent countless hours pursuing an appeal up several levels that was denied without explanation and disregarding the facts (which I had been told by Medicare personnel should have immediately solved the issue in my favor.) (I am a Harvard Lawyer, and I consulted with the state advice support for Medicare , who was wonderful and worked with me so I was getting excellent advise on how to follow all appropriate procedures.)
Was directed to follow up in person at the local Social Security office, where, after waiting half a day, I was told they were the wrong people to help me.
This was for ONE issue! An ambulance ride across the street which would have required my uncle's informed consent at a time when he was in a coma!
So please don't assume everyone's experience is so smooth and easy.
22
@Roger Geyer I administered Medicaid and was well acquainted with Medicare as a state employee who handled nursing home assistance eligibility. Yet, with my own Medicare account, I frequently run into snags partly because a doctor's office miscodes some services. I know this and suggest codes to them. Not everyone knows to do this. It still costs me time, energy and mental resources I really don't have.
10
this is tremendously out of touch, insulting and assumes that everyone who reads NYT is wealthy. Articles like this are why we don't value NYT anymore. There are much more productive ways to discuss poverty and it's causes.
Aren't the authors continuing the myth that poor people are stupid? That was a theme from prominent Democrats (Obama and Clinton) regarding some who voted against them. Now it is repeated by NYT reporters. Being poor doesn't mean you can't open your mail, pay utility bills or visit a public library!
It's a crime that it requires advanced degrees and endless time to engage with health insurance, tax preparation and state entities.
I don't get paid on the hours spend negotiating and also have to PAY to file have my taxes prepared and filed.
Why aren't our energy bills going down? Apparently we have LOTS of fossil fuel?
Why does access to the internet approx. $75.00 a month and climbing.
Why does it cost approx. $100 plus a mount for a mobile Phone?
I'm sorry I don't want free stuff I just think I've paid enough for most of it already
3
As a medical biller for over 30 years I know a lot of tricks. It pains me deeply that so much is made more difficult just to try and keep people from succeeding with government programs. I know insurance companies make things difficult for patients and for billers who don't understand the system. Who doesn't understand the system? A lot of people. If I, as an experienced biller, have difficulty navigating the system sometimes, imagine how difficult it is for those that have no clue. Why is it the American way to make it hard?
16
@JaneM Because it's making someone else rich.
2
I believe that the ease of things electronic these days leads to sloppy management. I keep a ledger and do no electronic banking. An appointment book with hand written entries keeps appointments both in the mind and the book. Prioritizing important activities is all it takes to keep on top of things but mixing what is necessary with all the other activities leads to trouble.
7
I suppose the writers mean well, but this presents "the poor" (a troubling construction repeated five times throughout) as a tragic other who could not possibly be reading this article, and whose struggles with predatory capitalism and state bureaucracy could not even be imagined by the actual (obviously not poor) NYT readers without this patient guidance.
In addition to the patronizing assumption that nobody who has ever struggled to pay the rent is reading this paper, the article is awfully generous toward the imagined "higher-income people" who read the NYT with hideously classist views towards those they exploit (e.g. "if these kinds of errors seem unique to the poor"; "requirements, they believe, can be a test of personal responsibility, or even a nudge to develop it.")—even as it gently counters these obvious prejudices with poll results that shouldn't even be necessary. (Wealthy people also sometimes fail to pay bills on time? Who knew?! Maybe it's not fair to think people are poor because they're irresponsible after all?)
If, at best, the article was meant to build some paternalistic sympathy among the comfortable bourgeoisie for the oppressive reality of people in the working class, it fails to do this well: it is beyond blasé to refer to "fewer hiccups with new addresses" shortly after profiling a young mother whose address change meant her "benefits had lapsed just before her daughter was scheduled for lung surgery." This is not a "hiccup," it is a nightmare.
7
@M The article takes great pains to point out that wealthy people have the same problems keeping up with the mail and deciphering paperwork. Look at the statistics they provide in graph after graph!
Far from being patronizing, the article came across to me as sobering with respect to our common plight and sympathetic with regard to the extra burden on people already struggling financially.
4
There is something to be said about responsibility.
If you can’t be responsible, why should you get help?
11
@Randy L. Because sometimes things slip through the cracks, because we're human and misplace paperwork, because everyone deserves a break now and then. It's not that hard.
11
@Randy L. Did you read the whole article? People who make over $50,000 have unopened mail and forgot to pay a bill. So to blame poor people saying they are not responsible is ludicrous. From this article one can see how difficult it is for poor people to keep up with all the paperwork. Reread the paragraph, "For decades, economists had this view that burdens could quote-'help' separate out those that are what one calls truly disadvantaged........ "Our current research suggests it could be exactly the opposite. In fact, just read the whole article.
14
@Randy L. , why should you have to mail in a dollar each month, just to "prove" you're responsible?
4
I’m sorry but it’s difficult to feel sorry for people that don’t demonstrate basic forms of maturity like opening their mail responsibly or going to appointments they have made.
Government should help those incapable of helping themselves but it is not government’s responsibility to take care of those who simply don’t care enough to do what is expected of an adult.
11
@Matt Williams Says someone who I am willing to bet has at some point in his life missed an appointment or not opened a letter until (at least) a few days after it arrived. I mean, what do you do with your mail when you go on vacation?
20
@Matt Williams Are we supposed to give everyone a maturity test? What does that look like? And if they fail then what is your alternative? While I am sure there are some people "gaming" the system, I think that is a minority of the cases. You seem to assume all of this is due to lack of responsibility/maturity. Often missed appointments aren't due to lack of responsibility/maturity. If there is access to a bus line (or other public transport) often the busses don't run on time and the client is late. Mail is often trailing people from one residence to another because they lack stable housing which is a real problem for many. The people who work to help those on the margin are underpaid and understaffed so if you're late you're rescheduled. Rinse and repeat.
I think the point of the article is that for well-off people these "misses" have no real impact on their lives. For those on the margins a missed bill, appointment, etc. has a devastating impact. It's quite punitive. I suggest (in a kind way), that you take a day or two and visit an SSA office, or a non-profit that helps the marginalized so that you can see what goes on there, the types of people who are served and the people who work there. We are the "richest" country on Earth and have failed a large portion of the citizenry.
30
@Matt Williams
Some people don’t have reliable transportation or stable living situations. They try their best to make appointments and open mail but sometimes the obstacles add up against them.
22
My wife and I have this deal. She handles all the important matters in our lives like deciding here which restaurants to go
to and what to name our new cat.
I get to handle all the less important jobs like opening the mail,
paying the bills, doing the taxes and answering the phone while she's trying to read her murder mystery book.
She seems quite satisfied with this arrangement.
I'm beginning to have my doubts.
8
@A. Stanton Not trying to be morbid here, and certainly making no prophecies, but the most loving thing you could do might be to teach your wife now how to be a financially and administratively savvy widow. My father did not, and my mother had many sleepless nights after he died, even with me, her daughter, to help her.
29
@A. Stanton I'm in the same position as your wife. My husband was sure he was doing me a great favor.
It's been a long, hard slog to make him understand that his "help" hurts me.
For two years now--since his triple bypass made him suspect he might not always be able to do everything--I've made him sit at his computer and teach *me* how to do these tasks.
I take notes. I type my notes into Word documents. I study them. I still don't entirely grasp complexities like how to keep our disabled daughter's benefits coming, but at least I'm no longer being "helped" into a Stepford Wives sort of passivity.
Please teach your wife. Collaborate with her.
11
@Donna
I take your point and am already trying hard to follow it,but when you are dealing with a murder mystery addict of the quality of mine you have to expect progress to be slow.
2
Probably the single biggest thing anyone could do to help lift themselves out of poverty is to not have children unless or until they can afford them, and to have children with a supportive, caring partner.
11
@Andio Ryan I'm not seeing that one; the support given to single mothers in my state is good - only trouble is it takes a while to get to the front of the line for the housing voucher.
From what I"m seeing, the single biggest thing is learning how to cope when life doesn't go smoothly. Too many people take the easy road of disengaging and then hitting the bottle or consuming illegal drugs or overeating to cope, rather than learning to work with others, get the job skills, and find a meaningful way to spend their time without hurting themselves or others. That comes down to parenting -- Pinocchio is always going to encounter wolves -- and society, which currently isn't providing anywhere near the job training that it used to or a living wage.
1
Does anyone believe only 25% of us have unopened mail? Only 25% ever forgot to pay a bill. Come on.
18
I recommend the movie “I Daniel Blake” set in the UK and the travails of a man trying to negotiate the British (Brutish) welfare system.
If you want another real example of cruelty, the Aust Government garnished peoples bank accounts, tax refunds etc if they couldn’t prove they were entitled to benefits, in some cases going back years. The scheme was eventually declared illegal.
For too much information
https://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/find-legal-answers/centrelink/robo-debts
2
would that the tax authorities scrutinised the wealthy as much
7
Such hurdles are terrible burdens, and they create cost to the programs because there are people employed at the state levels to open those envelopes and file copies of paystubs, etc. Since all who work should have taxes withheld, there is a record of them working.
I also have chronic problems with mail deliveries even though I have been at the same address for close to 30 years. I never received one W-2 last year, for example, so that's another hurdle. You should have asked in the survey about missing mail.
These systems are meant to make people lose benefits.
3
This is despicable. These processes should be made simple and straightforward. It is transparently obvious that they are just trying to create traps for the unwary to deny people benefits to which they are entitled and which they need.
BTW the insurance companies do exactly the same thing all the time, which is one of the great arguments for going to something like the Canadian system. People often say that government should be just like the private sector. I would argue that it already is.
5
I am a person with 2 graduate degrees and I still find it hard to help my family and friends navigate various governmental programs.
One of my areas of expertise is healthcare communication. When trying to make materials for the public, it's often surprising to most people the reading level - 5th grade- you need to write in order to get the great majority of Americans to understand it. This is especially true of technical materials, which includes dense benefit, tax, etc. documents. Al lot of documents use vocabulary this is too complex for many people to understand. Also, how you reach people makes a difference: one successful healthcare project used text as an alternate way to reach people without permanent addresses. Finally, asking people about the burden of paperwork and time to complete. Believe it or not, the IRS does this regularly and even prints the estimated time to complete documents. They also have a way you can contact them to complain so they can improve.
9
To anyone who mis-characterizes all govt benefit recipients as crooks, i say this: I've known crooked beggars and crooked bankers.....and I fear crooked bankers much more!
24
And on top of all these bureaucratic abuses, they make sure that voting is difficult for the poor. This is supposed to be America, the shining city on the hill?
15
"These requirements were created in part to ensure that only people who truly qualify receive benefits."
Dear NYT, please do not perpetrate this lie. In general, such rules are explicitly made to deny benefits. For example, in terms of hours worked and when, can you tell me of a Senator or Representative who could once a month report when he or she was at the Capitol, working on which bill?
32
What an elitist headline.
Poor people read the NYT too.
I'm one of them.
Recently lost my job. Found another - but it's extremely part-time. Frantically searching for a job that can provide me with a decent income.
Currently, receiving income supplementation from the Canadian federal government, for which I am grateful, but that will run out end of March.
Crossing my fingers that me and the cat don't end up homeless.
30
@Astrid , to be fair at a digital subscription rate of $100/yr, I think they know that their subscribers are not made up of poor people. As to the rest being allowed 10 free articles per month I think they know they have a diverse readership. Don't miss the forrest for the trees here. I believe the point this author is making is that the common mistakes that people of all income levels make have disproportionately severe affects on the poor as the programs they apply for have complex and long paperwork applications as well as immediate responses required, small pointless fees, verifications of pay stubs of which people who have less means have trouble getting (and the gov't has their own means to check) in order to not lose their benefits, etc.
Best of luck with your job search!!
2
Ok so states can employ more state or contract employees to run paperwork . So what swamp got drained?
4
@joe No, that's the beauty of these program changes. More paperwork, tighter deadlines for those who need the assistance but they are not hiring more people to process the paperwork. Thus the over-worked gov't employee has less time to process the work, it sits on a desk and may miss the deadline even if on time.
As Trump says, win-win.
8
@joe A lot of the trouble poor people have is staff at state agencies not being trained at all to do their jobs.
In my state, I called the SNAP help line and got a rep that told me they didn't know the answer to my simple question. When I asked him to transfer me to someone who could answer it, he said "we don't really transfer people." I clarified, "So if I call and someone at the "help center" can't help me, I have to hang up, call back, go through that maddening phone tree again, and wait *another* 15 minutes on hold, to talk to another person who might not know the answer?" He said "yeah, I guess..." I have also spoken to an employee who continually asserted "Well, [X] is what should have happened on [date]." I repeated multiple times that X did *not* happen on [date], and I needed to know what was happening. She repeated multiple times what should have happened but did not. I left the office after I asked if anyone else could help me and she said no.
I knew exactly the information I needed and none of the employees could get that information, they could only tell me what was "supposed to be happening." I go through this at least 6 months out of every year, trying to get the simplest information - so that I can continue to eat. The problem isn't more employees. The problem is no one cares about the poor, so they don't bother to create agencies that actually function.
3
My son is an autistic adult, on SSDI and Medicaid. He works, and his gov't check depends on what he earns. He worked overtime one week and made enough that they said he earned too much, and they cancelled his check. Of course, he was fired the next week (long story, but basically due to his disability. The EEOC has heard from us.) At this point, all he really needed to do was contact SS and inform them of the situation. This is not something he would actually known to do on his own, and had he known the odds are very low he would have completed the call, for a number of reasons. He almost certainly would have been helpless, penniless and homeless without our support. I don't understand how anyone who genuinely needs assistance actually obtains and keeps it without support from family or other caretakers. Our support systems are inhumane and criminal.
38
When my brother became ill and needed help from Medicaid, he couldn't get through the application materials on his own. Why? Because he was Sick! That's why he was applying!
It took four of us siblings to get everything squared away for him. All the time, we kept asking each other, "How can someone who's ill, without a car, and lacking "extra" money, do this on his or her own?
If we hadn't helped, he might have ended up sicker than he was & homeless. No one would have been better off - not our brother, not the city where he lived, not the people he's helped since his recovery.
41
Envelopes sit unopened here because they're junk mail. All the bills are drafted from the checking account or put on the credit card. Other than filing income tax I've little contact with the government.
I like it that way and I want to keep it that way.
Why so stern? Because I grew up in one of these poor households afraid to answer the telephone or answering and lying to the caller as to whether it was the home of my parents. was determined that no matter how much I earned I would live within my means and not fear the telephone or to open an envelop.
9
@NYHUGUENOT You might want to open the “junk” mail too. A friend of mine recently ignored what she thought was junk mail, only to find out when she opened it that it was from a well-known bank, telling her someone had opened an online account in her name. That took several phone calls and a credit freeze to sort out.
1
At a time when only the poor and middle class pay taxes, it is shameful that the powers that be try to restrict the benefits that these taxpayers receive. It's almost as if the wealthy, who get the most benefit from the government they will not fund themselves, rely on those peasants to support them. If the poor and middle class have to fund the government, they should get something in return without being begrudged for it.
22
No surprise.
I'll just say this: if we want the USA to be truly a land of equality in most all senses, we need to get rid of 'class'. That means no rich, no middle class, no poor, and no one in between.
Now, I'll give everyone a minute to shout out all that "socialism" nonsense....
...and then I'll elaborate: call it what you will, but if everyone was able to afford proper food/water, housing, utilities, clothing, education, and medical care, then beyond that, most folks wouldn't care if there were others who had (could afford) more.
Put another way, even the most basic job (take your pick) should provide enough income for an individual to afford those aforementioned basic necessities. But many jobs do not pay enough. That is the problem, plain and simple.
Of course, it is not a plain and simple issue to fix, as it will require many changes, and some will not be welcomed with open arms, e.g., caps on housing rates, restriction/regulation (or denial of) of real estate (housing) as investment, etc.
But something will give, sooner or later. Probably best to accept that some difficult changes will be made rather than to wait for the sky to fall, or more likely, burn.
After all, there are a lot of 'poor', and with unrestrained capitalism, more people must become poor(er) to fuel the hyper-inflation of wages/earnings. So, that means more and more....who might decide that burning things down is not a bad idea at all.
4
The quiz is overly simple but does point to the difficulties faced by indigent persons who may not be able to cope with the demands of securing help given the unyeilding bureacracy of the social welfare system.
For those readers who think it can't be all that difficult: hardship can impair the effectiveness of even the most capable people. Loss of employment, physcial illness, cognitive and emotional impairment, anxiety -- These are things that can happen to anyone. No one wants to be on the receiving end in the social welfare system.
Whether in rural or urban settings, the poor face obstacles that make simple tasks insurmountable. Access to transportation, internet and fax machines -- basics most of us take for granted can be out of reach or unaffordable.
The New York Times readership may also need be reminded that one in five adults in America does not have sufficient literacy for daily living, let alone the complex documents and instuctions encountered in gaining and maintaining Medicaid coverage or Social Security Disability Insurance.
It does seem that in this day of computers, we should be able to streamline social services so information gathering and documentation is simplified, assisting both those who need help and those tasked with administration.
26
@Karen - be careful of asking for computerisation of these things. That's an extra hurdle, as where do you get a computer from? And electricity? And the Internet connection? Further, that means the applicant suddenly needs computer skills as well as reading and writing, and may need to pay to print off the forms they need to have signed at 10p/10¢ a sheet too.
The UK has done this, dms for those with resources, it is brilliant. For the desperately poor, however, that same government has slashed library funding and driven up other costs through stupid policy, leading to a huge jump in homeless people falling through the cracks that the government have fairly deliberately widened.
1
Settling an estate for a deceased parent is another frustrating scavenger hunt. Filing documents at the courthouse, going to/waiting in line at the post office to send certified mail, being on hold for hours, securing notary service, ordering more death certificates, and on and on. My husband and I are trying to streamline our own finances to make easier for the poor person who has to clean up after us. I agree that they make so that you you almost give up, and then the state just keeps it all.
20
@Ann Agreed, and it's just as bad when a spouse dies.
1
I have worked in the system for 30 years. Over the years some aspects of applying for and receiving benefits has been simplified. Some things got worse. For example, the application for SNAP and health care was combined and only 2 pages long. Since ACA (which I am all for!) SNAP applications are still relatively simple but the healthy care application is 22 pages long! Many of our verifications are data exchanged thus we have cut down on requesting applicants/recipients to give us hard copies. Documents can be scanned to us. HIPPA laws make it difficult for us to reach out and obtain information needed that may already be in the systems of other agencies. CMS rules say that Medicaid must have 12 month certification periods. As does SNAP. Good idea but in practice, say for example, mom and 3 kids in household and all are on SNAP and healthcare. For various reasons certification period for SNAP and each individuals healthcare do not line up! Mom gets letter to recertify SNAP. Two months later child a has healthcare recert. The household could have to recertify each program for each individual (SNAP one assistance group though) 4 times over a year! We used to line up all recerts to one time. No more. We lose lots of recipients that way and then reapplications. Look up churn. I have my staff make third party calls, reach out to clients (they change numbers and addresses a lot so can be very hard) to keep recipients on. Remember most are the working poor. Sorry out of space!
16
What an important article this is! Having recently taken over my parents' finances (and they are securely middle class), I see how easy it is for elders to miss dates, overlook bills, misunderstand telephone conversations, and be unable to follow auto phone cues. I'm retired, so I have all the time in the world. How can we expect people who struggle to make ends meet deal with this. Thanks Milk from St. Louis.
30
One of the interesting factors I found in being poor and in need of food stamps was that (at the time) I was married to a man who would not go out and look for a job.
I was perfectly willing and able to work--however, in looking for a job that would allow me to feed my family of four (my husband, myself and our two daughters), I was confronted over and over again with sexist low pay levels that devalued my time and work and couldn't possibly cover rent, food, utilities and insurance--not true of possible jobs for my then-husband.
When I finally divorced, my former husband got away with paying absolutely no child support for his two children because he still wasn't working full time (he found another woman to support him financially, and, incredibly, she resented my legal efforts to receive child support).
Meanwhile, every single job that I applied for or worked at was absolutely inadequate for me to cover basic living expenses for myself and my two children. The message was clear: I should've gotten myself a decent husband rather than expect to be paid enough to support a family.
Instead of focusing on the poor we need articles on outrageously low pay levels, the exploitation of workers, especially female workers with children who are the only means of support for her family.
We need to stop talking as much about the poor and instead focus news stories about how employers are so frequently responsible for the ongoing tragedy of keeping workers underpaid and poor.
57
@Cate Agree with you. Wages are too low. Housing costs are impossible. Women particularly are vulnerable. I work in workforce development and have seen women drop out of training-to-employment classes due to child care issues. Employers complain they can't keep workers. I say, pay them and they'll stay.
16
@Cate
With respect, just being male does not guarantee one a pay rate that will suffice for spouse, children, and self.
Trust me on that.
9
@Cate
I truly can relate to your story. It is said that women raising kids alone can't get to the finish line. Well, some of us have a "can do" attitude. I had three children to raise after my ex exited. Then he refused to work. Can't bleed a stone. I got help from the county for child support that was always late, etc. I got a good city gov job with benefits and all things were in place. I attended college to better my education. I don't know how I kept that pace, carrying 12 units w/loads of homework, 1 young and 2-teen kids; 40hr work week - and my escape to dance on Friday. Whew! It was similar to a salmon swimming upstream. The stress was unbelievable: making ends meet, mother/father all in one. It made me strong, capable, awake, aware and courageous. My kids went to universities, now with outstanding careers. That same energy opened doors in my elder years to be safe and (single) secure at 72.
7
You must respond to mail within 10 days? What if that's not possible to do because the postal system has slowed the mail down to 5 days from two? (This is true) Five days to get there from the original mailing, to another 5 days to return. ONE DAY delay could deny you your benefits. How can you prove it's impossible?
27
@Glenda One reason the postal service delivery has slowed down is no doubt due to reprioritizing delivery of packages over personal mail. I have noticed that in Seattle too. I know that USPS is self supporting, but they do have their pension fund to prefund 75 years ahead of time (1996 legislation). Before 1950, many cities had delivery twice a day and businesses up to 4 times a day. That would help spend up communications. Not everything can be emailed, scanned or faxed. Ten days seems short.
6
@Glenda I have Informed Delivery so I know what should be coming, the operative word is should. The USPS is not to be relied upon. It all depends upon your carrier .The one I have consistently fails to deliver mail that has been shown to be coming to me by Informed Delivery.
5
@Glenda it's meant to be impossible. That's how states save money. It's horrible.
10
I'm an Ivy League educated professional with experience in administration and finance who completed the paperwork for my elderly father's Medicaid application for long-term care. The total process was about six months, and I worked with a group of lawyers prior to submitting any documentation. It was astounding the amount of documentation that was required, totaling 1,800 pages of bank records, tax returns, pay stubs, investment statements, medical cards, canceled receipts, IDs, etc. The local Medicaid office kept misplacing the documents, and also requested things that don't exist ("monthly pay stubs for Social Security" when the SS office only issues a yearly statement, "the back of ID cards" for cards that are blank on one side, and "the bank statements for the account in which the bonds are deposited" when paper EE bonds are not deposited in any bank account). After six months of back and forth with the Medicaid office, the application was approved. On the day of approval, I received 5 statements with contradictory information (two said it was denied, and the other three said it was approved). I now receive almost system-generated monthly notices requesting that I call with updated information. My guess is that these tactics are intentional, and designed to drive people out of the system. It's also unclear to me how any elderly person could navigate this system without a caregiver to help out.
95
An easy article to write...but completely lacking in perspective. As someone who actually works with the under-represented and underprivileged on a daily basis, there is no one size fits all. I work with people who need a little help and people who need to help themselves. Let's take the NYT quiz:
I work with people who forgot to check their mail and had their Medicaid benefits cut off...and we help them get it back. It happens once, maybe twice to that person.
Then I work with people who deliberately do not check their mail because they do not feel it is their job to fill out any paperwork at all nor pay any bill at all and that it should be automatically be paid for/done for them because they are who they are.
NYT...your quiz was worthless. Let's help those who need help, but not assume that everyone who needs help deserves unconditional help.
8
@HR - I think you missed the point of the article, it's not that the author thinks people deserve help unconditionally, but the current system makes more demands for poor people than it does for the middle class or wealthy. Why? I think it's clear that the system wants to stigmatize the poor and make them suffer for being poor, like it's their fault. Most of the people on disability would prefer to work, as I'm sure most of people getting food stamps or Medicaid. Our system has failed them by not providing jobs that pay enough to afford food, shelter, health care, etc.
17
@HR It appears to me that this is a structural problem with concrete answers (ie ways to improve the process). Funny how in America, we constantly ask people in worse straits than us to resolve societal, structural issues with increased personal responsibility.
6
@Dana T, personal responsibility is only for the poor. The wealthy have "affluenza".
10
Clearly we need a new government and a new ethic. It shouldn't be war on the poor all the time. The over complication of forms and the duplication of forms should stop. For instance, if one is on Medicaid in one state, why the need to completely reapply if moving to another state?
17
@Dr. Conde I work for Tennessee's Medicaid program, TennCare. It would not be possible for Medicaid eligibility to be transferred from one state to another because each state administers its own Medicaid program & all states do not have the same eligibility requirements. Some states (including Tennessee) did not expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. The only exception to the transferability of Medicaid is for SSI cash recipients who live in states which have agreements with SSA whereby all residents of that state who are determined by SSA to be eligible for SSI are granted Medicaid, & move to another such state. That is why one has to apply for Medicaid again upon moving to a new state of residence.
3
Perfect example of how to lie with statistics. The last chart for example. Rep appears to be 100% but is only 57%. The chart above that $100k+ appears to be 90% but is 52%. It makes it hard to follow and you can get the wrong information.
3
I find it interesting that over half the people with secure incomes think it is too easy to get Medicaid and Food Stamps. I wish the quiz had had one more question, that being: do you know the qualifying requirements for Medicaid and Food Stamps? My guess is that none of those people would be able to answer that question correctly. And yet their disdain for and prejudice against the poor and disabled cause them to say it is too easy.
43
@deepshade, I find the question unclear. They could be talking about easy in terms of who is eligible for help (i.e. "lazy" people who should get jobs) or easy in terms of the application, as you suggest. I don't think most people who have never had reason to apply for benefits even think about the actual process for applying.
3
Republicans overwhelming (57%) believe it is TOO easy to get federal aid like Medicaid and Food Stamps. Wow! That is just stunning! Or maybe not.
The Republicans are the party of self responsibility and compassionate conservatism. They are the party of austerity and small government and tax breaks for the rich.
I believe that what that number, 57%, really tells us is that the Republican propaganda media machine is wildly successful in promoting the reprehensible lies about poor, minorities, women and everyone else in America who is economically disadvantaged.
The research also tells us that we don't arm our high school and college kids with real economic survival skills. I doubt that many high schoolers are truly aware that someday they'll be on their own and they will need skills that allow them to organize their lives and finances.
No school that I am aware of ever tells any student that someday they'll have to pay for health care, an auto loan, rent or mortgage and insurance, not to forget food, clothing and maybe raise a couple of kids and care for them too. I doubt the kids can even compute the cost of loan and the great cost of using credit cards. For those reasons we've produced a generation of poor and impoverished young adults.
37
@Jack Frost - AMEN, Even though I am an engineer I don't think we don't need more STEM classes, we need more modern economic, survival classes. Only about a third of HS graduates will become scientists or engineers but everyone has to learn to maintain a budget and pay bills, pay taxes, etc. We need to teach skills such as: creating/following a budget, calculating cost of a credit card or loan, comparing cost of eating out with packing a lunch or cooking your own meals, maintaining a filing system to keep track of budgeting, expenses, income for tax purposes, filling our FAFSA forms, applying for Food Stamps, Medicaid.
18
@Jack Frost Many states have requirement or options for the teaching of financial education/personal finance concepts in K-12. My state has gone the standards based route and developed and published K-12 state standards. Visit www.checkyourschool.org to see what the opportunities and programs are in your state. The Jump$tart Coaltion and Council for Economic Education also have resources and information on various state programs. Pls note-these are non-profit organizations.
1
@Jack Frost
Fairfax County Public Schools in N. VA requires high school students to take a semester of personal finance.
It is a start.
2
Only 25% have unopened mail and received government documents they dont understand - wow what a bunch of liars. Probably closer to 95% people.
19
Make them prove they can pat their heads and rub their bellies at the same time. Show us! Bwahhahah - survival of the fittest: core Republicanism. And the lowly vote to keep it this way - fairly unbelievable.
9
"Could you survive as a Poor American?" assumes that anyone reading this article or paper isn't.
Very bad wording and assumption.
Looking through the comments section I see many are lower income.
Drop the quiz and assumptions.
14
@Ignatius J. Reilly Thank you for your comment. I forwarded it to the editors on this piece. Our journalists recognized that many people in all income levels struggle to stay up-to-date with administrative tasks like important mail. They hoped to use this piece to show the disproportionate consequences of everyday actions on people of different income levels, with poorer people being hit far harder for not opening important mail than those who earn more. You can find more information from one of the reporters in this Twitter thread: https://bit.ly/37DPxC2. I hope this helps. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. And thank you for reading.
2
@Aidan Gardiner Thank you for taking this seriously. I came to the reader comments today, because I was really taken aback by the language of the title which feels very exclusionary. As though Times readers couldn't possibly be "poor". There seems to be an unspoken editorial assumption that Times readers are urban people of means, is this true? Even if it is true, isn't it important to be inclusive of readers with different economic realities?
1
It is very difficult to believe that people answered truthfully to these questions. Who has not missed an appointment in their lives? Who has not missed a bill at some point? You can be highly responsible and still have the occasional slip up. The writers admit it. Why can't the readers. Really.
9
@Elisabeth When you're paying for the medical appointment and have had to wait weeks to get in, you remember it. It also helps if you don't need to go to the doctor that often so there are fewer opportunities to miss appointments. So, really, not everyone has missed a medical appointment.
7
@Sarah B. - Annual or bi-annual check-ups are not as simple to remember, it helps not that I have a multi-year calendar on my cell phone, but not everyone has that. If you have never missed an appointment, congrats, but take it from me I know several people who work in doctor or dental offices and they will tell you that you are in the minority of the population.
4
@Elisabeth I can only imagine that none of them needed to rely on public transport either.
2
Lots of sanctimony here about how "I" live "MY" life better than Those People do.
Lots of complaints about "government inefficiency" - as if private sector large bureaucracies (see; Big Insurance, Big Airlines, Big Auto, Big Banking blah and blah…) are sooo much more efficient.
Lots of ill-informed opinions about how expensive our so-called "safety net" is and about all the "lazy slackers" who are living in the lap of luxury by milking that safety net. Opinions from folks who haven't bothered to learn just how relatively little those programs actually cost, how relatively few people utilize them and what a large % of recipients are children, disabled or aged.
Conservatism is fundamentally mean-spirited and judgmental.
29
@Miss Anne Thrope - AMEN sister, you are sooo right.
4
Social Security Disability (which is insurance we pay NOT welfare) is even more of a total disaster.
Your odds of getting it, when you need it, while very sick, are basically ZERO. 100% of first time applications are automatically rejected. So you then go to appeal. But something like only 5-7% of those are accepted.
Disability in the USA is a cruel cruel joke. Just be sure you buy your own disability insurance if you can. Do not depend on Social Security Disability one bit!
If you think you will never be disabled, you are wrong. Everyone, from birth to death, at least once, has a disabling condition where they can't work for, a week, a month, months, or years. Be it a broken arm or infection or operation or a more permanent disability, you will be disabled one day. Probably when you are over 45 and over 55 for sure.
Most disabilities are temporary. If the SSA would actually award say, 80% of applicants, most would be out in less than a year and many of the remaining in two years.
Disability is and always was, a way to survive a bad time that could strike anyone. But the US government treats this insurance, that we all pay for, like a special gift. A gift that is pretty low (poverty level income) and only give to those with smart lawyers. Maybe.
16
@Mr. Point
It's not 100% denied disability. I received it when I could no longer work. I applied online,supplied all the requested doctor appointment dates and surgery dates.
Barely two months after I hit that submit button I received my first check plus 12 months from last year when I had no income. I actually had 40 years of no income but that is as far back as they'll go.
I received until I was 66 and then I got a letter telling me I was now on Social Security.
What made it easier was my keeping all the records of my doctor visits, asking for a copy of the doctor's report and what was done. They'll make a copy for free for you at the time of treatment. Ask later and most will charge $10 to $15.
Social Security made its determination from the information tendered. I was not sent to one of its doctors. I was also eligible for Medicare as well.
Receiving Disability and Medicare helped make my retirement income easier to live on because I didn't deplete mine and my wife's savings.
5
Culling the herd, in slow motion. Making it so difficult the get even meager “ assistance “ that many just give up trying.
Brilliant, and despicable.
19
What? You're suggesting I can't survive poverty? Being I've lived in a state of poverty nearly my entire adult life I'd say I've done quite well surviving.That doesn't mean I actually enjoy being broke, but it's not nearly as bad as some make it out to be.
If I ain't got it I don't worry about it. As for overwhelming debt, there have been plenty of times when I knew for certain that debt would never be repaid. Many of us are lead to believe that once debt occurs it's curtains forever until said debt is repaid. I just went off the banking grid for several years dealing with cash only and only resurrected my banking creds with a mere $300 check with a bank that didn't hold my past against me. Unless you are an actual turnip don't worry too much about anyone attempting to squeeze blood out of turnips.
3
@Martino And, yet, you have Internet access to the NYT. And, you seem educated. Not to mention that you seem very 'clever' - at least in avoiding paying your debts. I'm sorry; I find your story hard to believe.
8
What does rich and poor have to do with diligence? Frankly, people are often poor because they don't do things they should, or do things they should not. We all like to call it a disadvantage and pretend like it's nobody's fault, and sometimes that's the case. But I have seen people who are "down on their luck" given opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, and more times than not they wind up right back in the same place.
You see it all the time where I live. We had a guy who "would work every day if I could!" who we hired to do some masonry work. He showed up and did the job. Great! So we hired him for another job. Didn't show. "Tomorrow, tomorrow". Excuse after excuse. Finally he showed up, said he needed to be paid up front ("Wife didn't make the car payment"). Okay, why not help the guy out, right? After all, life isn't fair! This isn't his fault. Well... he took the money and didn't come back for another 3 weeks.
My father has helped people out in minor legal issues, like a lost driver's license for not paying a ticket. Helps them get everything squared away, and guess where they are 6 months later? Without a driver's license for not paying a ticket.
Or you help them get a job. "All I need is a break!" they say. Six months later (often less) they get fired for not showing up. It's like clockwork.
Trying to avoid placing accountability where it belongs doesn't help people. People usually aren't a victim of their circumstances. Not always, but usually.
5
@Mike I believe your assumptions are anecdotal. I doubt you have hard data to back up your usually Your don't have to be a bleeding heart to see how systems are often, I don't about usually, stacked against someone already poor.
4
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
James Brown
24
I've always said that being poor is a full-time job.
Lines, waits, lines, and waits.And then add poor public transport time it takes to go and wait in those lines and offices, and it is an entire day just to pay an electric bill or just to figure out why your daughter got kicked off Medicaid.
Being poor is mentally and physically so exhausting. because if you aren't there to wait in line to pay the bill to figure out the paperwork to have your turn, then all the fragile supports can just melt away.
25
Excellent article with hard statistics, especially to apply for Food Stamps and Medicare/medicaid and yet wealthy think it is not hard enough? But farm subsidies and mortgage deductions? Couldn't be easier!!!
16
They are worried about fraud and the costs of people. Usually it's a leader who embezzles money.
Next as a nurse, for people it costs us more when they re in the ER. Why don't we re-imburse them for their ride to the appt. Oh right makes to much sense bc we'd rather villain the poor but I live in FL so I know how bad it is.
So who's going to introduce a bill that they have the same healthcare as we do?
5
Someone making $100K isn't "rich", especially in NY.
5
@Nat That's partly the point. Millionaires have accountants and tax experts and so on. Billionaires have drivers so they can relax during rush hour, personal chefs, and people who wait in line for them, should they ever need it. They have it far easier than the person who has to be in three places at once and still can't afford to eat. The exact cut-offs for income are irrelevant.
3
Reading this worries me very much. I have worked at relatively good jobs all my life, but have not managed to save all the money that might be needed if I live a long life. I'm almost 70 now. My mother lived to be almost 100. Instead of thinking what a blessing that would be, it fills me with dread and I hope I don't live that long. If I do, I will undoubtedly need some of these government programs to survive, especially Medicaid. I have no family, so will be elderly and on my own when applying. I never vote Republican because I know they are the ones that cut these programs that my taxes have gone toward for decades. I certainly won't vote to keep the present, cruel administration in office. I just hope that if I need any of these services it will be during an administration with some compassion toward citizens in need. When I think of the taxpayer dollars Trump has squandered while he's been in office--just flying off to play golf every weekend takes tax dollars that could be used somewhere else--it makes me so angry. He thinks he's entitled to those dollars, but the many poor and sick are not.
26
@Ms. Pea
Perhaps it would help to think of how much money was spent fighting wars started by Presidents other than Trump? Trump has yet to start a war.
This is why we need UBI.
The bureaucratic maze and red tape grows and grows, becoming more and more dogmatic and complex. And those whose livelihoods depend on that maze often have a vested interest in supporting these inane bureaucratic structures, and, yes, nepotism abounds here as well.
Enough.
Yang 2020
6
@dc - Yang's $1,000 /month sounds good until you read the fine print, if the person is receiving government support, then that will be subtracted from the $1,000, leaving you will the balance. So a person getting $300 in Food Stamps and $400 housing allowance would get $300? Also why would you give Bill Gates, Trump or others $1000/mth? It would need to be 'Means Tested' which Yang doesn't want. He may be a brilliant computer whiz but he needs to go run for Mayor or ? and learn something about politics and social programs. Too simplistic approach.
1
@Wayne but the answer there is to stop the food stamps system, and save the money there, and put it towards the UBI. With that $1k a month, they could afford food.
@Nigel The rob Peter to pay Paul system doesn't help anything. Today I found out that since my Social Security increased this month by $11, my food stamps have been reduced by $10 .Discouraging.
1
And how much of the public's money has Trump spent on travel to his golf resorts this year?
I'm much more concerned about this public spending than fraud among low-income Americans.
27
Funny how many folks think it’s easy to obtain basic human services also miss meetings, doctors’ appointments, etc. and most of those likely have the means of transportation to make the appointments. Poor people experience the modern-day version of debtors prison every day. Where has our empathy gone? Ok for me, none for thee seems like the new mantra.
15
Several readers have commented on the fact that government as well as corporate documents appear to be designed to be as difficult to comprehend as possible.
I know from my own experience conducting several thousand disability evaluations, that even the newly disabled former CEO had extraordinary difficulty navigating the devilishly confusing disability application process.
It may seem annoyingly "Pollyannish" to consider this - but try imagining this:
Imagine a world where every government bureaucrat, every corporate mid to high level manager, every business person, teacher, salesperson - in short, every human being - just naturally, spontaneously, effortlessly, acted in such a way as to create not just documents, but schools, workplaces, hospitals, governmental institutions that make life easier, more harmonious, more joyful for everyone.
If it's impossible to imagine, perhaps you haven't tried hard enough.
Yes, I agree with that voice in your head which objects to this, it's impossible, it's silly, it's worse than "Kumbayah," it's insulting to all those people fighting for social justice or, well, whatever other objection your mind comes up with because it's just too psychologically painful to see so clearly how stuck we are.
But still, imagine - what if we're all wrong, what if it's possible for human beings to act this way, toward each other, toward all living beings?
Imagine.
14
If you want and need benefits, discounts, subsidies, you are going to have to prove your situation and that is going to take time and organization. It should not be unduly hard. But yeah, it is going to take effort on your part, there is no free ride.
1
“You want to reserve the public resources for the people who are truly eligible for the program,” said Brian Blase, who served on the National Economic Council in the Trump administration..."
"For some politicians and voters, the difficulty of accessing these programs is partly the point. Requirements, they believe, can be a test of personal responsibility, or even a nudge to develop it."
“For decades, economists had this view that burdens could quote-‘help’ separate out those that are what one calls truly disadvantaged versus those who might be more marginally needy,...”
It has long been a talking point on the right, perhaps to salve a guilty conscience, perhaps to win broader support, to advocate public charity for the "deserving poor," but to eliminate it for the welfare queens driving Cadillacs, and the strong young buck standing in line ahead of you at the grocery store, buying T-bone steak with food stamps while you're making do with hamburger.
1
Universal basic income. Universal healthcare. And free education will solve this problem. It is untenable for us to keep going the way we are. It's imploding before our very eyes and yet, the affluent and Republicans would like you to think different - that this is somehow the fault of the disadvantaged and those under the yoke of inequality.
You have money for wars. You have money to bail out Wall Street. But you don't have money for your citizens, I see.
The 2020 election is a turning point. If the Republicans win, kiss it all goodbye. You think it's bad now? Just wait. The system is going to get even worse.
11
"Have you received a government document in the mail that you did not understand?"....Anyone who answers this question "no", has obviously not received very many government documents. I once received a document (government form) from the Federal Government with regards to a payment for replanting a hay field. The document clearly stated "to be filed with your Federal Tax Return". I called the IRS office and asked for advice as to how this form (giving them the Federal number for the form) should be handled on my tax return. I was passed from one person to another several times until they finally said they did not know and that they would send me information on filing farm taxes. The information they sent me came in a book about 2 inches thick. I could not make head nor tail out of what they sent me, so I just guessed what I thought was the most logical thing to do and sent in my tax return. ....And this was more than 5 years ago.
11
"Could You Manage as a Poor American?"
This exercise, while most likely well-intentioned, seems to have the effect of taking Americans at the lower end of the income spectrum and rendering them as a different and exotic branch of human culture.
There are parts of the quiz and accompanying article that remind me of the way European anthropologists from bygone eras used to talk about societies in Africa and Asia.
It's a form of class-based Orientalism that, quite frankly, I thought the Times was above.
5
@Patrick
Swooooshhhh.....did you hear that? That’s the sound of the point of this article flying over your head....
2
Medicaid is administered by the states. My state had standard wait times of an hour or more, and telephone was the only way to contact, no office to walk into. It was horrific. They contacted you only via US Mail. No internet. Now I have an SEIU negotiated health insurance valued at $29K for our family, nonetheless medicare for all is what we need. Also a tripling of minimum wage wouldn't hurt.
9
Being poor or on social security is a full time job, dealing with so many government agencies whose purpose seems to be to deny benefits. Getting medical care can be the same--multiple greedy insurance providers.
8
So basically what this says is that a good chunk of Americans are just lazy and don’t pay attention to detail. Not opening mail, or asking questions when you don’t understand things? Just missing appointments when you can just write it down on a $2 calendar? Come on. We need to step up our game quite a bit in the area of simple personal responsibility. it doesn’t take money to pay attention.
4
Only 25% of respondents report forgetting an appointment or having something come up ? Definitely don't believe that.
6
Those who accuse Yang of crafting a UBI plan that is “regressive” because people must choose between the freedom dividend and existing social services should read this article. Many who have been on welfare or help others navigate these programs support the Freedom Dividend for the reasons laid out in the article.
If everyone gets a benefit, like The Freedom Dividend, there is no need to waste resources checking to see who “needs” it. UBI is like financial preventative care; it’s better to get that income to people before they are in such desperate straights unlike the current social safety net.
The cost of enforcing compliance far exceeds the cost of giving the same benefit even to those who aren’t in need. If it’s being funded through a VAT and increase in capital gains, the rich will pay far more into the system than they get out. A rich person paying $11 in taxes and getting $1 back in UBI is no different than the rich person paying $10 in taxes and getting nothing.
1
Thank you for this article. We are suffering from a profound lack of empathy in this country. Poverty is not a moral failing or a character flaw, and yet we punish poor people as if it were a crime. We would be so much stronger as a nation if we raised each other up, and invested in those who are struggling.
8
I will chortle when the 57% of GOPers will need to apply for Medicaid help to pay a parent’s nursing home bills—and this, only after all the parent’s liquid assets are gone, and their house sold so proceeds could be used to pay the $9k private pay nursing home bill. A lifetime of hard work and savings gone. I’m educated, and I had to hire a lawyer to help me wend my way through the myriad docs for Medicaid approval. It took a ton more time than Congress took to pass tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations. Shameful.
15
We have choices here, and each choice comes with benefits and costs. We can save money on direct payments to our impoverished neighbors, but we'll pay the price in homeless encampments, blighted streets, police interventions and lowered property values. Or, we can maintain the current, bloated system and reward the subset of the needy who successfully navigate it. Finally, we can choose to pay a subsistence amount to the jobless and poor without red tape. Yes, some will game the system, but the fantastically expensive bureaucracy will shrink. Those who reject the latter choice on the grounds that the poor "game" the system should at least recognize that its costing us all a lot of money to punish poor people.
8
A number of readers have alleged that the processes for getting help are made complicated on purpose to discourage people from trying. I think it's actually something more insidious: we are in a time/place where the BELIEF is that some people are less worthy than others, that we have to guard our precious treasure from the greedy scammers. It's heartless and heartbreaking.
9
This reminds me of what happened to me recently when I tried to apply for Obamacare: The state of California connected me to a private insurance broker who was supposed to help me. I don't understand, as this is the government's job. She accused me of lying about my income. I'm self employed and my income changes from week to week and month to month. I then went directly to the exchange and spent 45 minutes on the phone with someone who spent much of that time reading me a list of threats of everything that could happen to me if I lied about my income, such as going to prison or being fined $250,000. Then his computer went down. I finally gave up and decided instead to do something called health sharing, which is run by Christian groups. They don't care how much money I make and no one wasted my time. So far they paid for my lab work and helped me find a primary care physician.
2
@Anne, buyer beware:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/health/christian-health-care-insurance.html
1
It appears that nearly as many people of means do the same behaviors! Fewer and fewer adults in the room. Such behavior is just irresponsible, regardless of income level.
2
All schools, at a minimum, should teach high school students how to; write a letter, address an envelope, clearly represent their needs and concerns to health care providers ( in person and on the phone), how to interview for a job, write a check, food shop, make a budget, manage it, how to speak appropriately to law enforcement, practice safe sex, do laundry, and how to be assertive ( not aggressive).
Come on Educators! Many of our kids do not get any of this at home. I was a School Nurse in the inner city. I was shocked at what my students had no clue how to navigate. Surely, a class in "Being a Responsible Citizen" could take place once a week during the school year ! Yes?
8
@CH We used to have that in our public school systems, it was called Civics. It tought what was required to be a contributing member of society.
4
@Mike
In my neck of the woods, Civics is a government class, and doesn't address skills for negotiating basic tasks of modern adult life.
1
@Mike - Civics only covered a small part of what CH is talking about. CH is promoting a modern version of 'Home Economics Class' which was aimed at women home makers but needs to updated and aimed at both sexes and should be called something like: "Economics & Survival Skills for Life in the 21st century".
5
I'm well off enough that if I miss a payment, the creditor will notify me and I make a payment and that's the end of it. People of lesser means may have to decide which bill to pay on time and which to pay late on a continuing basis. Poverty isn't about falling behind on a single bill. It's about falling behind on multiple bills without ever recovering. The so-called means tests are simply ways by which Republicans can guiltlessly blame the victim for the crime of being poor.
6
I helped a friend with Section 8 housing. It was not "beyond" either of us to understand, but it was needlessly and distressingly complicated. It involved several personal visits to social service offices for a person without a car. No attempt whatsoever on the part of the civil servants working there was made to relieve the burden of this heinous task. In the end, we found housing for my friend, just in time. Did you know that if you qualify for Section 8, that qualification lasts just 45 days? Nobody wants a Section 8 tenant, despite the fact that their rent is automatically paid. A realtor helped, but that is also tough to find. Realtors don't like pro bono work any more than any other professional. Oh, and to qualify, you have to win a lottery. There are only so many Section 8 approvals granted. It is a terrible, terrible waste of everyone's time and money. I would never say that if it were successful, but because it is so difficult to qualify (no matter what your income), it is a very poorly executed system. Shame on us, again, for neglecting our own people.
12
All government programs have arcane and archaic rules aimed at discriminating against the elderly, poor and disabled in order to deny benefits. At the end of her life, my mother (died of cancer) was completely incapable of interpreting paperwork from Social Security and Medicare. On the day she died, as the funeral home was removing her corpse from the nursing home, a Social Security administrator called to tell me off because I had missed a meeting to adjust my mother's benefits. Similarly, I have a disabled brother in a nursing home. It's a good home. It took one of my siblings, my brother's wife, and the nursing home administrator about two months to interpret and complete his paperwork requirements so he could receive nursing home care. The care system in our country is obscene.
12
Imagine, if you will, being disabled from an auto accident and needing, but choosing not to receive, government assistance for decades.
The economy turned in '08, making it imperative I seek assistance from various government agencies, which I welcomed and never abused.
Then, I aged in to Social Security and Medicare. It took me a year to figure out all the moving parts to both of these programs and integrate all the agencies assisting me. It was arduous and without question, made harder by the decentralization of all agencies and their absolute insistence of not working together.
All of the assistance I receive I qualify for and have earned by working my entire life. These aren't "entitlements." They're paid for by my sweat and hard work.
Let's stop blaming people for needing help. Let's start to pay attention to "the common good" and how we treat our weakest, most vulnerable citizens.
We are only as strong as the promises we make and keep, and the compassion we show others.
12
A few years ago I had to get health insurance from the Marketplace. That wasn't hard. What was hard was trying to understand how to fill out the form the IRS said I needed because I didn't get that insurance for a whole year. It was incomprehensible, and I am a fairly well-educated person. I just had to guess and hope I was right.
6
When I was a poor student I was undisciplined with regards to my finances and it showed in the ways you talk about. However, I was successful professionally due to an enormous discipline and I still remained undisciplined in terms of bills and mail and it continued to show. But once I had a family I/we decided to apply my discipline I demonstrated in my professional life to my personal finances, it 100% cleared. It has been almost a decade without a single late payment, appt/meeting (latest I've been is 15 minutes), etc. etc.
It helped to have enough money in the bank to cover all my bills in an automated fashion instead of playing some kind of musical chairs. So that was one reason I didn't do it earlier as a student (rolling money from card to card - these were relatively small amounts in terms of earnings potential) and then my bad habits carried forward and my excuse was that I was saving the world, etc. which is a poor excuse I later learnt (thanks for my family).
2
I'm on disability. It took 3 years for my application to be approved.
During those 3 years, I couldn't work, so I couldn't rent an apartment, and ended up living on the streets. I have a graduate degree from a major Midwestern university and have held a number of executive positions, and had to beg for money for meals. I finally got a bed in a shelter, about 6 months before my application was approved.
So Mr. Politician, don't tell me it's too easy to get what I am entitled to after paying into FICA my entire working life. We pay for Social Security Insurance; just like life or car insurance, we hope never to have to use it, but when the need arises, we collect what is due.
I would like to see any politician try to live on what I receive monthly. They would run through it in a week on lattes and lunches, and that's not including rent, utilities, food, public transportation, clothing, doctor co-pays and prescriptions, and all other expenses of living.
Then, and only then, should they consider cutting the benefits to which we are entitled.
28
I have recently witnessed up close what disabled people have to go through to get the benefits they deserve, such as county general relief. I'm a lawyer, and the notices and requests for information sent by these agencies are often so unintelligible or require such advanced financial or legal knowledge that no average person can figure them out. And filled with errors both minor and major.
I have come to the conclusion that this is intentional: the agencies have created a process filled with land mines designed to prevent as many deserving applicants as possible from getting benefits, or to end those benefits prematurely. It's disgraceful and in some cases life-tnreatening! And a violation of the California plain language law among other things (California Government Code § 6219).
16
@Curtis Horton Same here. I'm a lawyer as well. My son receives long term disability benefits from his former employer. I was reviewing his policy this morning. It's so complex and intentionally confusing that I don't know how any layperson would ever understand it without the assistance of a professional.
Similar to others referenced in the article, my ex-husband is totally disabled and keeps getting rejected for SNAP (even though he meets the income requirements) because he is unable to comply with DHHS's onerous reporting requirements.
10
Do we want these systems to actually help people or are we trying to keep people from accessing the systems? This seems like a fundamental point that the agencies themselves are unsure of.
There is no consistency in the direction and leadership of federal/state programs because every 4-8 years someone else comes into destroy the last politician's goals and pave the way for their own. The result is a maze of contradictory mandates and hoops to jump through. The institutions themselves need a mission that is impervious to the whims of politicians looking to be re-elected.
18
I have to disagree that only programs for the under-served are difficult to access and use.
I’m a bright, accomplished, high-wage earner who was completely stymied by the Medicare application process. So perhaps the answer is to have those who create and administer these programs actually have to apply for them! Perhaps that would make it easier for everyone interacting with the system to receive what they need!
17
@Jill Shuman Excellent point. I'm a social worker in healthcare and trying to explain Medicare to my physican peers and my patients alike is all but impossible. There are so many "it works like this except when it works like that" caveats. I don't think there is a government program out there that isn't difficult to navigate. The difference is that those meant to benefit us higher income folks tend to be more likely to be streamlined... or at least they are working on it.
9
@Jill Shuman
About a year before I enrolled in Medicare, I attended a free public seminar held by the county organization for the aging. All the various Medicare options were explained, materials handed out and additional resources by phone, online were communicated. I would think a large city like Boston has seminars offered on Medicare by a number of community organizations.
As far as Social Security, I can't swing a dead cat without hitting on an free "informational" luncheon or dinner that deals with Social Security optimization. These are usually offered by financial planner, attorney or broker/dealer. But you can still go and get educated, without making any commitments. Signing up for Social Security was an easy online process and a rep from our local SS office called me to finish up and offer helpful advice.
4
Having personally been on some of these programs (in Indiana), I can attest to the difficultly of the paperwork. I have a Masters degree and am somewhat of a financial nerd (I look forward to doing my own taxes) and it can be difficult at times. Furthermore, Indiana tried to enact the work requirement for their Medicaid program and it's just another thing to do (or forget to do). They have done a pretty good job at communicating the requirement, but it's still a hassle. I've often talked it over with my wife how difficult it must be for many people with low incomes (and often low education) to navigate the various rules and requirements.
I will say that (at least in Indiana) there are a lot of people who help with the programs. Our local hospital has teams of people to help qualify and communicate Medicaid requirements. Even things like SNAP (child food benefits) have multiple people that can help quickly and organize things for the beneficiary.
17
@Dave Indiana actually just suspended the Medicaid work requirements due to legal challenges: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/468336-indiana-suspends-medicaid-work-requirements-citing-legal-challenge
2
Here is Trump's plan for poor people in 2020 and it won't be announced through the mail.
President Donald Trump’s 2020 budget proposal includes $25 billion in cuts to Social Security over the next 10 years.
24
@Jacquie - VOTE this person out of office in 2020.
8
I've actually been on both sides of this wealth scale. In my younger years I made very low income for many years, with my family as a whole not much higher. Now I am doing quite well. My habits or ability to handle situations has changed very little, however my circumstances have changed greatly. I benefited in that I had a college education, and the personal belief that I could always do more if I kept trying.
Here's the thing, even among the wealthy or high income, there are plenty of people that can't manage bills or are complete flops on some metric. The difference is always circumstance, and the reasons are not always merit. The high income didn't always work the hardest, though they did go through the motions. They aren't always the smartest or most well prepared, though some are. More likely the benefited from family connections, inertia of their place in society, or a variety of other cards stacked in their favor.
All along the way these high income wealthy people just as likely missed appointments, forgot bills, whatever. Its just overlooked for certain classes of people, or doesn't cause catastrophic results.
26
Being poor takes a lot of TIME.
From bad transit options, to waiting for services, to calling and calling and calling, to shopping all over for affordable food and clothes... My period of unemployment taught me just how much of my time was taken up by being poor. To put it another way, my time was not valued, time that I could have spent looking for work or with my kids.
39
This article and dozens and dozens of comments here reflect the need to institute a Universal Basic Income, as Andrew Yang is proposing. It does not solve everything, but it solves a lot and mitigates a lot of the problems with the issues around this article.
13
Great article. All of this is very true. Even if people open their mail regularly, they can still feel like a hamster on a wheel. My sister was disabled, on Medicare/aid and SSI. The latter paid next to nothing and she would have starved or been homeless without family assistance. Many in her situation don't have that additional help. The feds were easy to handle. Dealing with the state was not for the faint-of-heart. Certain agencies could only be contacted by phone and no human contact was offered at all. If you had a question that didn't fit the standard prompts, your choices were to travel to a remote office and sit for eight hours in a sweltering office and be treated rudely or do without.
Closing down her accounts after she died was madness. The only bright light (no pun) was the return of the "reading for the blind" equipment and materials - someone arrived to pick up everything!
16
This is why universal social programs are always better than means-tested programs. Having to prove your eligibility will always keep out some of those who need help most, even though they are eligible. It’s cruel.
22
As a single parent, I always paid day care first. This is because I needed to work and if my child did not have daycare, I could not work. Them rent, obviously if I did not pay that, we would not have a place to live. Then utilities. Anything else , left over went to various bills, like my Sears card. I also paid off a 10K debt, left to me by my EX husband, who used my credit card to charge things that his and his girlfriend did. It was $300.00 a month for me to pay. I did not declare bankruptcy because, if I ever met anyone and wanted to buy a house, I did not want to have bad credit. It took me years, but I paid it. Yes, we went without a lot. I did not go to the doctor when I should have but we survived.
9
@gracie15 Glad you didn't die from some disease/illness and that you went in with open eyes when you elected to not take advantage of legal options being in debt, possessing a long-term view of things. Wonderful. Not everyone is you, but still need relief and help.
2
Growing up poor in a very poor area of the country my sister and I were taught to always open any mail timely, pay bills immediately or otherwise call the utility company / agency to work out payment plans. And if we did not understand something to ask someone. Our community library was a great and free source of information and the people whom worked there were always glad to offer assistance in interpreting items. It is one thing to be poor but no one can be excused from lackadaisical approaches to maintaining responsibility and opening mail immediately in lieu of turning on the TV or facebook.
11
The persistent attitude of the middle and upper middle class is that poor people are "undeserving." They are seen as personally "to blame" for their poverty.Then there is the tinge of racism, where black and brown people and certainly all immigrants are "lazy" and "irresponsible," further disqualifying them from any public consideration. Republicans have promulgated this false ideology for decades, but the Trump administration has now made it a doctrine in their public policy.
25
The book, The Maid, sure makes it clear how much time and effort it takes to get help.
3
My Albanian friend recently showed me her government ID card. One stop, one set of paperwork, one card for everything: ID; driver's license; voter registration; medical care; benefits like the Albanian versions of social security, disability, food assistance, etc.
If you move or change your name, everything gets updated at once. And it works in a politically dysfunctional, poor country.
DUH!
Unlike here where it took 5 visits to 3 offices, copies of court documents that were over 10 years old & a new issue of my birth certificate (the original PA one sent to my parents - that I still have - doesn't have enough info on it?!) to get my name and address changed on my driver's license; and then the same thing again to get my passport a year later. Why don't any of these offices communicate?!?!
For example, why should DHHR need copies of your paycheck? Your employer reports to the IRS; the IRS could send the info to DHHR. Better believe DHHR is checking with the IRS to make sure you're not cheating.
20
@Rosie Ok so you're going to compare the US, a country with Federal, State, and local systems, to a country with a population less than the state of CT? Seriously?
1
@Rosie All of those things you mentioned are state-run in the US. Did you consider that Albania might not be the same?
1
@Nat
a) they're not all run by the states: social security is federal; food stamps are fed funded, state administered; voter reg is local with the info sent to the state
b) the computer age makes it possible, no matter the size of the population or the levels of gov't involved, for a one-stop, easy to navigate system. Albania (and other European countries) may be smaller than the US, but they have various levels of gov't too
c) it shouldn't be harder to apply for food assistance than it is to apply for a credit card
2
This is why universal programs are so important and programs like Medicare for all will save soooo much money.
NO MORE PAPERWORK! NO ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS!
Americans are to concerned with righteousness and justice to ever realize that if the screening costs are higher than the benefit costs, you shouldn't screen!!!!!!
18
Ironically, all the aggravating administrative burdens they put on people receiving benefits do absolutely nothing to stop the main form of fraud: working off the books. I've seen it repeatedly. Since the off-the-books income is paid in cash, there is no paper trail, and people can work a few hours a week on the books and qualify for SNAP, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit while making plenty off the books. They usually do something with flexible hours (anything from handyman to hairdresser), so they can make it to any appointments they need to, and cell phones make being available for phone calls so much easier. This form of fraud is very difficult to stop.
4
@Nikki
People who are working "off the books" are by most accounts not "making plenty". We, the American public, are so brain washed by the Republican corporate PR machine that we have turned against ourselves. The examples you give of occupations where people are "working off the books" and raking it in is so ridiculous as to be laughable: handyman, hairdresser? Have you seen or heard of them drinking champagne by the pool at Mar a Lago? When
Corporations and the extremely wealthy (Trump) pay their fair share of taxes, then we might be justified in looking at the nickel and dimers. In the meantime, let's concentrate on the inequality and lack of educational opportunity in our society. In case you missed it we are no longer an upwardly mobile society. A very large portion of Americans are slipping backward and struggling much more financially than did the prior generation.
9
This is one of the best pieces the Times has published in quite some time. Informative, fair, and thorough. Please consider promoting it more heavily, as I suspect this is a message readers need to absorb far more than the twentieth impeachment update of the day or a David Brooks column.
16
Democrats debate on how best to help the poor.
Republicans debate on how best to visit misery upon them.
End of story.
28
Everyone is a victim.
7
Higher income people aren't scrambling with several jobs and not enough income and multiple requirements. They don't deal with inadequate transport and housing, prejudice, poor schools, and juggling money that is needed not only for housing and food and necessities but for health care, fees, internet access, etc. They don't deal with courts prejudiced against them who favor predatory creditors and landlords eager to make a buck. These same courts help their town authorities make money on extra fees. Poor people pay around 30% for credit, because they can't make ends meet. Thanks to Reagan's time, when the usury laws were removed (limiting fees to 16% maximum), this debt can mount to many times the money borrowed over a very short time. And in some cases the interest mounts well over 100%, even with "proper" organizations that do not appear sleazy on the surface.
The list goes on and on. It's all very fine and large to insist that poor people dot i's and cross t's, but the deck is stacked against them.
34
re Social Security, this is just a simple fact everyone should know. Of course, for some it is impossible.
WAIT until you are at the maximum age to get your Social Security payments, and they will be much large. Of course, that's a well-off person's opinion, but a lifetime of low benefits isn't worth the early payout if you can help it.
3
@Susan Anderson
That also assumes your health holds out until the maximum age, and you don't get laid off from your job the minute you hit your 60's.
5
@Susan Anderson
No one knows when they will die so it is not that simple.
2
Those who receive benefits inf the form of a check often have no bank account where they can cash the check so they end up paying for their cash at check-cashing stores.
I believe that, in New York at least, the issuing bank is required to cash a payroll check (written from a commercial account at that bank). This should be extended to public benefit checks - all banks should be required to cash such checks without charging a fee.
24
@Ken
I don't believe the federal government sends paper checks to people these days whether it is paychecks, SS, tax refunds, etc. The choices are direct deposit or a cash card. People receiving "food stamps" have an EBT card that is funded each month.
Private employers may only offer direct deposit or a card as well.
1
@Ken
That is an excellent idea!
1
@Lynn in DC
Some states at least send checks as reimbursement for covered expenses.
And the IRS offers direct deposit (and encourages the use of that) but will send a check otherwise:
https://www.irs.gov/refunds/tax-season-refund-frequently-asked-questions
"I requested a direct deposit refund. Why are you mailing it to me as a paper check?
"There are three possible reasons. They are as follows:
"We can only deposit refunds electronically into accounts in your own name, your spouse's name or in a joint account.
"A financial institution may reject a direct deposit.
"We can’t deposit more than three electronic refunds into a single financial account."
There's a worldview out there which says the poor must be punished--the ones supporting that view rarely say it, but it's there in plain sight every day for anyone who has ever had to go through the bureaucracy of poverty. How many individuals and families would be able to find stability in their lives if we erased these hurdles? The reality is there is a large and powerful part of our society that doesn't want people to be stable or comfortable, that part of society relies on the instability to find cheap labor, to divide people in order to stay in power, etc. It sickens.
40
@Lindsey
It also includes those who do not benefit financially from others' poverty, but get a sense of moral superiority from looking down on others who they judge to be deserving of punishment.
7
What a fantastic article!
It is completely obvious to anyone with common sense that poverty is a cycle which is hard to break . We need to scrutinize governmental processes and simplify and automate wherever possible.
Motor voter registration!
Automatic enrollment in food stamps and Medicaid (or Medicare for all) based on IRS records.
Proactive automatic notification to graduating high school students of their eligibility for student aid for college.
I saw an analysis where the most recent controls put on food stamp benefits were estimated to save 2 billion dollars in the program, yet were going to cost 1.8 billion to administer. The minuscule savings were going to result in many many people losing benefits. Turning the argument around, minimizing and simplifying requirements allows funds to be used to actually help people not just for bureaucracy.
31
I am 50, on Social Security Disability, Medicare and Medicaid, housing assistance, and food stamps. I have a college degree. I am very grateful for these programs.
The CONSTANT paperwork and legwork required to maintain this is astounding. I have to read mail over and over to understand it, and often I don't. I pay $103/mo for Illinois Medicaid (because my SS is $103 above poverty level). I pay that three months ahead of time, yet each month I'm told I'm not covered, I cannot get most of my medical supplies when needed, and I get medical bills saying Medicaid denied them. I have to call doctors and convince them that yes, I WAS covered by Medicaid on the dates of service and they must resubmit the bills. They do get paid.
Medicaid changed my insurance provider seven times over a two year period. I had to change doctors and pharmacies most of those times. They send long letters detailing upcoming changes to the program, and the fine print on the back of the last page will say "this might nit apply to you, you will receive more information in the mail".
I have 2" thick file of all the paperwork I filled out for Social Security Disability. Over and over I kept submitting redundant information, usually with only a few days to mail it. I did not give up, although anxiety, tears, and depression over it made me want to quit. I am SO FORTUNATE I was approved in just four months.
If I had a job and family to look after, I don't think I could keep up with this.
67
@JP
Be sure and vote democratic!!!
7
@JP Your government doesn't love you. The less government involvement, the better. A UBI based on a negative income tax would work better and get rid the paperwork nonsense you describe. If you fail with cash, then you are a failure and others (outside of charity and friends/family) need to help you or you just fail.
1
@JP If you are only 50, how can you be on Medicare ( Government sponsored medical plan for those 65 and over)?
Medicare is partially funded by payroll taxes (called FICA taxes.) If you aren't working, you aren't paying FICA taxes towards Medicare.
I wish there was more information in this article about the "failing to understand government documents". I worked for almost 18 years with low-income/no-income people. Literacy rates in North America are much lower than governments assume them to be. It's my understanding that about 50% of Americans and Canadians are "not sufficiently literate to function in today's society".
50
@240type
I've worked with literacy organizations recently:
10% of adults in the US are completely illiterate. COMPLETELY.
25% of people are functionally illiterate. That means they don't read well enough to function.
Another 25% (or so) percentage choose not to read.
50% of US adults are innumerate. They don't "math" well enough to function.
43% of the illiterate live in poverty.
75% of those who are in state prison have low literacy.
Funds to improve literacy are constantly at risk.
https://www.proliteracy.org/
13
@240type Too many Teachers are glorified babysitters. IF they cant do the work why not just refuse to accept the paychecks??
intensive Education was a NATIONAL project in 1890's Germany.THAT is why The U.S. is falling behind.Local Property taxes have become onerous & Confiscatory . That is why many low income Americans have their homes stolen from them by corrupt local governments that exist to give raises to local public employee unions to satisfy their greed.
@240type
I was on many of these programs 20 years ago during a health crisis caused by a pre-existing condition that kept me from being able to obtain health insurance.
At that time I had 2 graduate degrees - one in English.
I had taught English at the University of California. Yet I often struggled to understand various mail and forms necessary to apply for and keep these programs. It was bizarre how difficult it was to understand how these things were set up and when I talked to people who administered these programs on the phone or in person, they weren't always very good at making things clear. I really feel sorry for people who don't have good reading skills trying to figure all this out.
2
I find it interesting that so many Republicans and people with incomes over $50,000 "Strongly / somewhat agree It is Too Easy to Get Federal Benefits like Medicaid and Food Stamps." Those who least need, and who can afford to pay for help with bureacratic burdens are least sympathetic. When it comes to scamming the system, it is the wealthy who are positioned to take the biggest bite while pointing at the poor.
Full disclosure: I receive SSDI and a small SNAP benefit of $18 per month (food stamps). Along with SNAP I receive HEAP for winter heating fuel.
When I was no longer able to work due to chronic illness and resulting depression, I went through some heavy-duty hardship while navagating the bureaucracy of the welfare system. I will agree the paperwork is daunting, and the workers at social services are over-worked and often under-trained.
The assistance I received kept me from hunger and homelessness, but the rewards hardly seem a worthwhile target for individual recepients who would take the effort and risk involved in scamming the system.
Raise the minimum wage and make benefits possible for those who are trapped in low wage and part time employment. Make healthcare affordable and accessible to all. An unconditional minimum income might not be a bad idea.
And make Donald Trump produce his tax records for considered scrutiny.
101
@Karen "Those who least need, and who can afford to pay for help with bureacratic burdens are least sympathetic. When it comes to scamming the system, it is the wealthy who are positioned to take the biggest bite while pointing at the poor."
This is probably why those same wealthy scammers point at the poor, as you say: because that's what THEY (wealthy scammers) would do (i.e. scam the system). THEY scam the system, so of course people who apply for govt. benefits must be doing the same.
6
@Karen Yes, absolutely, $15 minimum wage and Andrew Yank is not off base with guaranteed minimum income as Nixon has seriously considered this way back when he was in the WH.
Of course the classic book "Nickel and Dimed in America" tells the nightmare of forms, requirements, institutionalized racism rig the system to not help the needy.
8
The comment system on the Times site keeps refusing to take my input for review, but hopefully this gets out.
My wife and I were desperately poor (barely above poverty line) through my last three years of college. We were denied SNAP benefits after applying with the exception of a tiny crack of time which gave us a whopping $132.
In conversations with the others at my college, I came to realize that many struggled like I did, and plasma donation was absolutely endemic. I joined in for a year. I fell nearly to the bottom weight limit and my last "donation" failed a protein concentration test. I cried often at the prospect of selling my blood for food in a losing battle of calories.
What we didn't know, and an unintended consequence of this red tape, is that private food banks did not have nearly the same requirements that SNAP did in Utah. When we put up these boundaries to government aid, it can make uninformed young people like my past self believe that they will be denied any and all benefits they apply to.
It was only after family intervened that we learned food banks would serve us. We stopped fighting a losing battle of calories, graduated, and pulled ourselves out of poverty.
This article is incredibly salient and deserves seeing.
107
@Jordan Farr: Okay, so family intervened and helped you out. Why didn't they get involved sooner? Why should government (i.e., the taxpayer) be doing something when your family was apparently quite able to help you?
You were smart enough to go to college but couldn't figure out that there are food banks that could help? What does that say about the former "uninformed" you? Do you acknowledge any responsibility for the problems you had back then? Is it government's responsibility to make you aware of the existence of food banks?
1
@Jordan Farr Imaginary Gods in Salt Lake City & elsewhere bless you.
2
@Jon Harrison I will answer one of these questions for you. Regarding being "smart enough to go to college but" not smart enough to realize there were "food banks that could help," oftentimes services like food banks, homeless shelters, etc., operate primarily on referral. Many of these agencies, both public and private, do not market much if at all.
As an example, I happen to be a commissioner on a city board and just last night we had a homeless shelter project up for approval. The shelter's director was asked how the local homeless population would find out about the shelter. She answered 'referrals from other services'. There's nothing wrong with this, it is exceedingly common, but for people who don't have intimate knowledge of existing help systems there's no obvious way to know what is available. You have to know to know.
I've been well off and I've been poor. Poor is harder, and I was the same well-educated, intelligent person in both situations.
13
I received an 8 page letter from Social Security telling me my Medicare B and D premiums would increase 260%. That part was clear. How to appeal was a muddled mess. Two trips to the local Social Security office and one to the official website produced 3 different answers of how to appeal. I actively and successfully practiced law for 3 decades. If I can’t understand the communication, imagine the challenge of someone with less education.
154
@Bob Or the challenge for someone with small children, single and running between three part time jobs. This country is bitterly cruel and brutal.
28
My mother always told me to open a bill as soon as you get it. She was a bookkeeper for a local company before their kids were born. My father wisely turned his paycheck over to her and his credit record was perfect! I have followed in her footsteps.
22
I have had the experience of getting my adult developmentally disabled son qualified for Medicaid so he would have insurance. The number of trips involved without any real explanation of what we were doing or were supposed to bring to social security offices and medical offices has been humbling. We were told numerous times we did not have what was needed and to come back with x y or z (after no one told us in advance we would need x y or z). We were told after sitting all day in offices waiting to be seen that we didn't have the answers they wanted--but they had not told us why we were being summoned in and I had brought everything I thought they could have wanted. All this we have done to obtain and maintain his coverage. I don't know how we will manage it when I get old!
57
@Mom from Queens
Be sure and vote democratic!
11
@Mom from Queens I help my developmentally son navigate SSI and Medicaid, and it's a strain and a part-time job - what I worry about most is who will help him navigate the bureaucracy when I'm gone.
5
@As-I-Seeit WORD
2
There was a moment in the most recent Democratic primary debate when Pete Buttigieg asked Elizabeth Warren why public college should be free for everybody, and not just the bottom 80% of the income spectrum. “The lowliest billionaire that I would tax under this wealth tax would be paying about $19 million in the first year in taxes,” Warren said. “If he wants to send his kid to public university then I'm okay with that.”
It made me think about the stark differences in access between public goods that are truly free (libraries, public schools, etc.) and ones that are means-tested. People often worry that if a service (like health care or preschool) is provided free for everybody, then rich people will benefit unfairly. But I say, let’s just tax rich people more, and then we can throw out the onerous means testing documentation that falls hardest on the poor.
78
@Carrie Nielsen : you are right. means testing is a punitive, confounding and very costly block to those that really need the help. And it is all to get the small number As for the billionaire kids going to public universities it would be an eye opening and highly informative place for them.
29
@Carrie Nielsen Your comment about the library being free (and others saying the same) reminded me that that's not always true. Where I live, only city residents can use the library for free, rural county residents must pay a yearly fee. It's not giant, $50 per year, but that's a lot when a person doesn't have much. Your last sentence is spot on correct.
14
@drsolo
And means testing is a system that is very easy to game. I see it all the time. I personally know several people who are collecting, or have collected in the past, SNAP and other benefits while working off the books. Means testing fails when people can hide their true means by working off the books for cash.
2
Most Hospitals and healthcare providers permit, in fact, encourage online payments. After going through the account set-up process and paying online these institutions continue to send bills by mail. The paper bills rarely reflect the accurate accounting, often showing outstanding balances that have been paid.
The paper bills rarely match the online bills.
Is this just shoddy work by the accounts receivable departments or a sneaky way of confusing the patient with a storm of paper so some payments are duplicated?
22
@BKNY Do you not keep a record of the bills that you've paid? Have you ever received a paper bill and paid it without checking your prior payments, whether those were made online, by check, or by credit card? Have you ever made a duplicate payment for a bill where you were not able to receive credit or a refund?
If you are having a hard time with these sorts of problems I recommend that you pay all of your bills (from any service provider) by one means only (check or credit card; online, through the mail, or over the phone). And always check for the latest information on the amount owed. Most medical service providers (like most credit card companies and utilities) will give you this information by an automated system over the phone. It just takes a few minutes on the phone.
2
@BKNY : from my experience trying to teach computers to those in the medical field, they are Troglodyte. Computers seem to be a huge mystery to them, medical schools do little to address this problem and the medical software is a horror show of extremely expensive, unwieldy and incompatible programs. The only way to cure this system may be medicare for all and hire microsoft to install a single nationwide system.
2
@Stan Sutton Good demonstration of mansplaining!
2
Add in increased voter ID requirements that also require keeping track of documents and the poor are also losing their ability to vote to improve matters. This is all intentional on the part of Republican Party politicians and those that finance them.
39
My mom was a young widow who raised 4 small kids on SS and VA benefits. It was an aggravating part time job back in the 1960s to keep up with paperwork, and she was diligent. She eventually told the VA to forget it, their meager decreasing check wasn’t worth the aggravation. Can’t imagine that the hoops today are easier to jump through.
32
Paperwork is getting more and more complicated. My best friend and I help each other with things like health insurance, banking, taxes, etc. We marvel that it takes two college-educated women, both of whom worked successfully as executive assistants to presidents of major companies, to figure things out correctly.
54
"Is it too easy to get Medicaid or food stamps" was answered "yes" by 52% of those who make $100,000 or more per year....
What a revealing statistic. How would they know? Almost all of those high earners have not had to apply for food stamps or Medicaid and wouldn't qualify anyway if they tried...
Perspective is so so important in making policy. How can we criticize impoverished people when we do not share an experience? How good would your decision-making be if you were constantly kept in the high stress of low wages and rising cost of living?
If you haven't lived it, you can't just philosophize from your couch.
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@Anderson
Those high earners would need to have a troubled adult family member, one who can't figure out/stay in "the system" so the family has to support him or her, before these families would understand how maddening the system is. I've learned the hard way about all this helping my adult sibling who suffers from mental illness and inability to focus. This journey been eye-opening, time-consuming, and not "too easy" at all.
30
@Anderson
One flaw in your thinking is that people making $100K or more have never lived pay check to pay check or used public assistance. Most of us weren't born wealthy.
This is perspective from your side of the equation that limits understanding the 'high income' thought process.
When I bought my first house (downpayment provided by my single income parents), there were times that I didn't pay the phone bill because the gas was already past due. The mortgage was the one thing I never paid late.
I rented out that house after I married and struggled with a tennent who gamed every assistance program there was, drawing benefits under multiple names. I discovered this after I had to go to court to evict her. Delaying eviction was another skill she was most accomplished at, giving her 3 months free rent. Her mother had come over to the empty house to collect mail - her daughter never left forwarding addresses, of course - and I happened to be there cleaning up the mess. The story that her mother sobbed out to me about a unmotivated, lazy, the world owes me a living daughter was my first introduction into how easy it is to defraud the system.
So you see, my perspective comes from personal experience. When you work hard and scrimp to make a better life for yourself, it only takes a few examples such as the above to make you question whether those truly in need are getting the short end of the stick because of people like my ex-tennent.
3
@ElKay - AMEN, my wife and I have walked the walk with several family members and it's tough for us, even though we are both college educated.
1
I am well into retirement. I do not face any of the complications discussed in this article. I am lucky to be highly educated and organized. Still, as I deal with mail, email and the various kinds of electronic transactions that modern life requires, I occasionally get somewhat frustrated with the evolution of our lives in this cyber age. I do wonder how most people survive in this world, especially those who are elderly. This article tells me that many are not surviving very well at all. We all feel the constant pressure from every vendor, provider and business out there to move us to more online tax filing, banking, bill payment, purchases, etc. I have occasionally resisted this pressure only to find that the level of harrassment and other consequences of resistance are just not worth it, so I relent and go along. This article is very timely and confirms my instincts; namely, that living a "normal" life in our age is simply not possible for many. If we are looking around for explanations for the level of anger, disaffection and alienation in our world, perhaps we need to look no further than some of the explanations provded here.
67
@pajarosinalas
How insightful. The "intellectual" requirements of navigating this modern world are increasing at an alarming rate while the educational foundations for developing the basic skills to do this are crumbling faster than I can type this.
There have always been poor people. There have always been families with too many children to easily support. There have always been families with problems. What is new is the level of skill in reading, writing, organizing, understanding that is required to gain and maintain the tiniest foot-hold. The tragedy is that the skills required to live in the 21st century are getting more complicated for everyone, and huge numbers of our fellow citizens will continue to fall further behind. I see no end in sight.
21
@pajarosinalas : not to mention the scams
4
@pajarosinalas the anger is about poverty, not about technology.
I was just talking with friends about the likelihood that ,as financially secure folks, we could not realistically imagine what is like to live with the need for public assistance or even paycheck to paycheck . Without empathy or experience, our leaders ignore the real needs of our most vulnerable citizens. Sadly, some of us with the time and money to help or put pressure on politicians do so as well.
21
@Betsy Mayersohn I disagree that those of us who are well off don't know what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck. I DO because I was not always well off. I BECAME well off by following rules, working hard, and doing the things that are required...like those listed in this article. ALL of us have difficulties and issues to manage. We all need to be performing at the top of our skill levels. There is way too much excuse making for able bodied people without dependents.
16
@Lyn Robins I have no doubt you have worked hard and “followed all the rules.” I used to think that was all it took until I started volunteer work that brings me into frequent contact with struggling families. Until you do that, you have no idea about the daily obstacles to a better life or even maintaining a roof over their heads. Most states don’t have a living wage. Many low skill jobs don’t offer regular hours, a minimum number of reliable hours, or basic benefits that are taken for granted in advanced countries. The deck is stacked against the poor. If you worry about “freeloaders,” I suggest you educate yourself about the welfare state that routinely benefits the already wealthy and large corporate interests. I would prefer to offer a helping hand to the poor and struggling, rather than provide more tax breaks for the already extremely wealthy who simply are creating more trusts that ensure that no descendants will have to work for generations to come. Ask any estate planner or wealth manager who works with high net worth individuals - this is the ultimate Gilded Age built on the backs of the poor and the struggling middle class.
117
@Betsy Mayersohn
In my upper middle class neighborhood those of us with direct experience of living paycheck to paycheck and knowing the pain of running out of money before you run out of month are more likely to be conservative. It's the ones born into privilege who embrace left wing welfare programs. Could it be that we realize that hard work and delayed gratification instead of increased government largesse are the only way to escape poverty?
2
so what.
I love your data but this was shockingly missing.
We all have responsibilities to keep ourselves in the game. We are forgiving everyone for everything and trying to be too accommodating.
I am not forgiven for parking tickets, or paying my bills.
MY 1099's come on in a tiny envelope and I look for them and put a Note in my calendar if they do not arrive.
LET'S TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OURSELVES.
19
@cheryl The point of this article is not a lack of personal responsibility, but the many obstacles people face navigating a system that was designed to be difficult.
By virtue of having reliable internet, a laptop and access to a printer I have helped a few neighbors who have needed help with various agencies.
Until I dealt with these agencies personally it was hard to understand how impossible it could be to navigate the system.
Some of my neighbors have a much better filing system for each agency's documents than I have for my CPA.
46
@cheryl I'm surprised that I have to say this, but there are people who come from situations where they have never had the oppurtunity to ENTER the game, let alone "stay in it." You are speaking from a place of benign privilege and this is a very shallow observation.
13
@cheryl I'm sure those who cannot afford a car will take comfort in knowing that you pay your tickets on time. I'm sure the mentally ill living in tents on the sidewalk day after freezing day are warmed by the knowledge that you HAVE a calendar and know what day it is. I'm sure the unemployed coal worker rejoices in knowing that you GET to pay taxes.
4
It is even more problematic when a child is born severely intellectually and physically disabled. These children become adults and a competent person must look after their funding sources-Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security disability. Because these are people who have never worked and never will. And they may live to be 55 with many expensive hospitalizations. If their caretaker is not very capable of managing the paper stream all benefits are lost. I had to clean up such a situation for my disabled sister when my mother became more and more confused and defeated. She also drank quite a bit which contributed. I have a graduate degree and have worked in state government. I know the rules and can figure out who to call. It was very hard to get it all patched back together. They penalize you for messing up. You have to lots of explaining and begging for another chance. I became her guardian and managed it for the next 20 years. I do have to say that knowing how important it is to be timely, accurate, documented and complete is not the hard part. But if your address keeps changing, and your mail does not get to you and you don't have transportation, or postage or child care and have misplaced the documents I can see how it all goes south.
In one of my state jobs I accompanied a young woman with mental illness to try to get her benefits reinstated in New York City. It was eyeopening and not immediately successful. On the way over she predicted the awful day ahead.
87
@Consuelo My husband and I are in our 70s, and the guardians of a disabled daughter in her 40s.
I worry every day that if my husband becomes seriously ill or predeceases me, I might fumble the astonishing paperwork he deals with virtually every day.
There's no guarantee that anyone will be around (perhaps not even social work professionals) to help her maintain the benefits she merits, when we can no longer do this for her.
12
@Consuelo
You are so right. My best friend had a similar situation when he had to take over managing the care of his severely disabled brother. His mother, who had always handled it previously, was developing Alzheimer's, and had started forgetting obligations and throwing away important documents. It took two years, yes, years, to get everything sorted out.
7
@Consuelo
If government largesse was limited to helping people who are unable to take care of themselves, we wouldn't be having this debate (or spending anywhere near as much money). But when Democrats throw a hissy-fit over common sense requirements like able bodied adults without dependents working or job training half time in order to receive long term benefits we enter the realm of government forcing taxpayers to subsidize people who are unwilling to work, and that dog won't hunt in most of America.
A friend, who had been receiving Medicaid, recently turned 65 and became eligible for Medicare. I am helping him navigate the documents he must fill out so that he can receive supplemental assistance and prescription drug coverage. It is a mine field. I was an attorney and have difficulty understanding some of the material. Fortunately, in New York State, people in a government office are available to answer questions over the phone. I can't even imagine how much more difficult this would be if my friend lived in red state that doesn't want to spend money on social welfare programs.
54
Thank you for printing this article. I am the guardian for my adult daughter with disabilities, and she is the beneficiary of several programs that serve low-income adults. I have a PhD and am highly competent in my daily life. However, I have inadvertently managed to lose benefits for my daughter in the past. When someone with an advanced degree is not able to understand the language of the numerous documents I receive in the mail, nor all of the byzantine rules of the benefits programs, then something is wrong with the system.
I am acutely aware that my daughter's assistance comes from taxpayer funds - and I am eternally grateful for those funds. However, there are so many ways in which assistance could be streamlined without promoting fraud.
Several times a month, I find myself thinking, "what happens to people who lack the education or the energy to fight for what they need?" Means-tested programs should not be run on the assumption that those who use them are criminals. A compassionate society should be able to offer a helping hand to those who need it in a way that does not sap all hope from those involved.
178
@Garnet Some of the comments here illustrate why it is politically advantageous for these programs to set up big roadblocks for people who need these services. Too many of us are lacking the knowledge of how hard it is. But they don't want to make thing easy for anyone else. It's a lack of empathy.
32
@Garnet We had the same problem when our beloved, schizophrenic, brother was dying from glioblastoma brain cancer. It took all of the family members we had (including an attorney, social workers, medical office professionals, administrative assistants for social service organizations. etc.) to navigate the morass of medical care and social services. We were the lucky ones. We could muster up a small army from three states to get things done. Imagine what it's like for people with inadequate income, limited resources and no real help.
18
@Garnet
In your daughter's case, need-tested would make more sense than means-tested. I think this is really the crux of the issue. We're making it difficult for people who really can't support themselves, and will obviously never be able to do so. This is nothing but cruel. Meanwhile, those who are capable of supporting themselves but have enough cunning can figure out how to hide income and scam the system anyway. Those are the people the system should be looking for and kicking off the dole.
5
Another important barrier here is the complete lack of formal education any of us get about how to manage the administrative, civic and financial tasks of adult life. If you're lucky you have parents that teach you (or at least model) how to open/manage banking accounts, file taxes, set up automatic billing (if you have a steady income stream), register to vote, etc. Doing tedious, time-consuming tasks like this is bad enough for those of us who are confident we can do them correctly or for whom the stakes are lower, but I can't imagine how daunting it is when you feel like your medication or a month's worth of food is riding on a process you have minimal preparation or flexibility to deal with (and may even feel ashamed to be involved in). It's a recipe for paralysis.
This kind of personal organization and accounting should be baked into every high school curriculum early on so young adults are at least not blindsided by what they might need to know and manage. 15 or 16 years old might seem young to worry about taxes and health insurance, but this is about the age many are applying for drivers permits, getting a first summer job, and only a year or two out from FAFSA forms and college loans, which require a similar approach to procuring/maintaining. We shouldn't just assume parents will steward their children through all of these things, especially if they're already struggling themselves or, worse yet, absent.
53
@TMBM I agree with this whole heartedly. What an opportunity is lost when basic methods of economic and civic participation are not baked into our education systems. After graduating with my expensive ivy league degree i still needed my first office manager to teach me how to balance a bank account. As a society, we can do better.
19
@TMBM
Yes, financial literacy should be part of the curriculum starting in middle school, with increasing complexity. For most students, it will be far more useful than trigonometry and calculus.
7
Reading Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn's book "Tightrope", I have learned even more about the complexities of why people in America struggle. This article presents an aspect of the challenges and root causes, as do the comments.
I HIGHLY recommend the book - and I rarely recommend books.
34
Just more evidence that an unconditional minimum income is more straightforward, fair, and humane than the bureaucratic, punitive welfare system that we have now.
The current setup is nearly impossible to navigate for millions of Americans, and even when they do manage to fill out the paperwork for food stamps or disability, they're made to feel less than human.
Yang is right. We need UBI to solve poverty, not increased government spending on dysfunctional government programs.
41
So what is the right amount of effort required for benefits? Should we just drop bags of cash in poor neighborhoods? Or institute a generous UBI, as some have suggested?
Some qualification processes are certainly difficult, if not onerous. But achieving anything in life takes effort, and in our new information economy, that means paperwork (or the digital equivalent). And how does that effort compare to subsistence farming or other pre-industrial modes? People in those situations might rightly laugh at us.
6
@Bob Krantz The problem is that many of the processes are punitive and ill conceived. Public policy built on hatred rarely solves problems. The Reagan administrative conceived of this "clever" papering. Make the route for getting social services unnecessarily difficult and people will just give up. We can keep people responsible (responsibility is imperative) and streamline the paperwork and increase access so that things can get done efficiently. We would probably save money that way, too.
23
@Mrs. H
Absolutely.
Another problem is that many public programs cost more in administration costs than in paid benefits.
The $1 example in the article is just the top of the iceberg.
11
@Bob Krantz "achieving anything in life takes effort." I invite you to take a bus ride. Two buses, actually, each way, with a 15 minute wait for the transfer. You have with you a one year old who has just learned to walk and can't bear to be held for any length of time, and a two year old who is drowsy, and might be coming down with something. When you get to your destination, the office that might give you SNAP benefits, you will sign in, on a long list of names, and wait to be called on. There's no accommodation for children here. When at last your turn comes, an employee will talk down to you, as though you are stupid or trying to cheat them. Both children are wailing by now. You're missing one piece of paper she says you need, so you'll have to come back again. Now the bus ride home. If the second bus isn't too long in coming, you should get home before your other child comes home from school. Yes, some effort is required, but somehow this system seems designed for suffering; clearly the children suffer.
19
We are also much more likely to postpone doing something, have trouble understanding something, or forget something when we are more stressed ... and poverty is a huge source of stress.
47
@Ann @ Wick (Mrs. Gary here) Not to mention having to have two or even three jobs to support yourself or your family. With schedules that change every week.
1
This administration has a heartless attitude toward the poor and it shows.
52
@SusieQue Could that be because the poor may not vote and rarely donate to political campaigns?
It seems Americans are getting all the government they pay for... depending entirely on how much they pay.
15
@SusieQue
It's not "this administration" it's all republicans and some democrats at all levels of government, going back at least to Reagan and maybe beyond.
2
@SusieQue - There are NO poor republicans.
3
The story of Ms. Buford from St. Louis is surprisingly common in Missouri lately. Last year, THOUSANDS more children than expected were kicked off state health insurance plans. It raised red flags for watchdog groups and the governor's office has been cagey with details and short on explanations. It seems that, whether through error or deliberation, children's healthcare in Missouri is getting further out of reach.
And let's be honest, it's probably intentional.
62
Blaming the poor has been an American thing since at least the 1600s.
44
@D This is one of the subjects discussed in Michael Lewis' book, "The Fifth Risk". I wish everyone would read it.
1
“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”
— Confucius
43
This story’s tone (presumably in an effort to be “objective”, “both sides”) almost implies that the current difficulties faced by those with limited resources are accidental and unintentional. They are not, as shown in the graphic on attitudes. Rich (white) people tend to believe that the poor will cheat, possibly because “most common thieves are poor” (without even considering simple racism), and believe that measures to prevent cheating must be implemented. Reagan’s famous “welfare queen” campaign promoted this.
But is this true? The biggest welfare queens sit in the executive suites of large corporations. When my wife and I were looking to rent an upscale apartment, the property manager told us that the wealthiest tenants were the most likely to cheat.
More research needs to be done. The belief that the poor cheat reinforces voter preferences for harsh, intolerant, racist, and conservatives candidates.
49
@MikeG I work at a call center for a prestigious company, and I see daily how much these ppl make (mainly millionaires). Yesterday I got pretty fed up bc prior to getting hired here I was living in a shelter. So this guy who's house was worth 800k so I know he has money sat there and gave me a FALSE sob story about being on welfare and social security and food stamps. (they dont know we can see how much they make). They complain about ppl not needing section 8 or food stamps when there are actual millionaires pretending to be poor for a discount! I dont know how long I can work at my current job. I hear ppl complain about stuff I WISH i had the time to complain about. I have to wake up each day to empathize with rich ppl and as a poor person I am tired!
9
@MikeG
There are two kinds of people who think others cheat:
* Those who ARE cheaters.
* Those who have BEEN cheated so much, they have come to expect it.
2
@Dejah
There is another kind: those who need to find someone to blame for their own problems (self-inflicted or not).
2
Only 25% of Americans “Got government mail they didn’t understand” Either the US government(s) are masters of pellucid communications, or 75% of Americans are geniuses.
14
@Sgt Schulz my thought exactly when I saw those numbers!
This was a great exercise! The Junior League to which I belong has done a similar exercise for some time. Smart, capable women who clearly have bright futures and often hold responsible positions now do struggle with the language used on many forms to be filled out for benefits.
Making a benefit process administratively complicated is one way to control participation. Here in Florida where all administration is controlled by Republicans (save for the Agriculture committee headed by Democrat Nikki Fried), the number of people signing up for the ACA insurance has risen every year and is top in the nation despite the lack of any administrative help.
Although I have unopened mail right now, it is mail which is sorted. I get political and charitable mail asking for money everyday. I don't respond to this type of mail immediately because I have limited the amount I am giving to each candidate plus which charities I give to rarely differ from year to year. Nevertheless, I need to open the mail, shred all the address labels etc. because Florida is also top in ID stealing.
It is easy to unsubscribe to an email. It is nearly impossible to get one's name off a mailing list. My parents have been dead for several years; they still get mail from their charities despite my repeated notifications.
I agree with the author that for many programs excessive focus on "fraud" prevention hurts the innocent more than it catches those committing fraud.
22
@Lynda That exercise done by your Junior League is a GREAT idea! Thanks for telling us about it.
4
Now I understand why my doctor and car dealership both inundate me with apt reminders!
4
This is an important article. I joke — but am actually dead serious— that I have “Formaphobia.” While I am educated, relatively privileged, and English is my primary language, most forms, be they FAFSA, DMV, filing self-employment taxes ONLINE, resetting passwords for, say, HEALTHCARE premiums online, have me completely flummoxed. They take inordinate amounts of time to fill out correctly. So, yes, mail sits unopened. It is almost impossible to fill out most forms with out making a mistake. To sign up for Medicare, my husband and I had to find someone to advise us so we wouldn’t get it wrong (at 50 bucks an hour). And we haven’t moved. We have jobs. So.... when you add in the stresses of poverty, plus the implicit racism and sexism inside our bureaucratic systems, I wonder how anyone can successfully apply for aid at all.
41
The horizontal bar graphs do not go to 100% on the right-hand side, so they project a false perception -- especially the last one.
3
Benefits fraud is rampant. One example is many home health aids work half time on the books and then full time off the books. This makes them fraudulently eligible for many benefits while they are making far too much money to qualify and are committing tax evasion. When my mother needed help, I was advised to engage in this activity by a hospital social worker. The whole system is broken. People are cheating all the time and not being punished while others who are truly in need get nothing. The problem is that too many people are profiting from our corrupt and broken welfare system.
5
@Michael Green "FAR too much money"? Do you know how much home health care workers are paid? It's peanuts. So, a full time worker will likely earn just over the line to be disqualified for benefits, but not actually enough to live on.
15
@Rita Prangle
What counts as "far too much money" depends on the limits set as qualifying (which are indeed pitifully low), not on what most of us would consider plenty to live on. Also, I know people who do this who definitely do make a tidy pile off the books. I will admit that most of them are male. Contractors and mechanics can do a lot of work off the books, and what they make is not chump change. There are plenty of people willing to hire them, since they don't get charged tax. Michael Green is right that the scam of getting benefits while working off the books is common. And the really shrewd ones do just enough work on the books to qualify for the earned income tax credit, too. That takes some skill but it can be done.
3
In one of his books, Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, talked about 'confusopolies'. These are banks, insurance companies, utilities, cables companies, etc., who have signed you up for a discount, and then send a barrage of paperwork, buried in which are forms which need sending back to maintain the discount. Otherwise, your rates go up higher than before you signed up for the program. Or some variation of this scheme.
When you notice your high bill, you try to get it straightened out, but you can 't figure out how, and your phone calls get you routed all over the place, with promises of more forms, of course all buried in a barrage of mail.
Every month, you think it's easier to pay the extra $30 or so than deal with it, but over time, it's hundreds of dollars.
He thinks it's done deliberately, and it's just part of life you have to accept. Just like when you have a sick animal, your veterinarian will want to perform what he calls a 'walletectomy' on you.
It's funny, I guess, unless you are desperate and poor. I do think it's done deliberately, both by the government to needy people like in this article, and all types of bureaucracy like cable and phone and energy companies. So there is no need to feel inadequate--it's not you. Just accept that unless you want to make fighting this phenomena a value above other values and you are willing to sacrifice the time, you will lose.
19
What difference does it make if “even” the wealthy” do these things? All that matters is that aid we agreed to give a particular group of people is not getting to them because of bureaucratic obstacles.
13
There's no margin of error for the poor. Bootstraps can break. The wealthy in this country get the benefit of the doubt and can try, try again. It's rigged and completely unfair. I, for one, wish my tax dollars went to lift all boats rather than subsidize more yachts.
49
A better question for middle class, white collar workers would be have you ever lost money because you did not complete your expense reports on time?
13
@Adam Nope. Always get them in next day so I can get my money back.
@Adam I worked with white collar people who would forego claiming expenses because it was too little money, or they just didn’t want to bother!
"The Trump administration, citing fraud and the cost of poverty programs, has encouraged states to increase scrutiny of applicants"
Many of the individuals affected by these draconian actions vote for the political party that is making it more difficult for them to receive this needed aid.
Rather sad to know they've been hoodwinked by a bunch of grifters.
21
People seem to forget that onerous regulations are actually working just fine. You just have to realize their very function is to deny benefits. They are quite good at their evil purpose.
21
As a former government employee who a spent time working on a poor persons issue, it's expensive to be poor. And exhausting and confusing. Seriously, who hasn't seen letters from the IRS or Social Security that aren't contradictory or nonsensical?
30
@Hiker Yes! Try to understand the letter from SSA explaining your benefits! Better yet, try to understand tax forms!!
1
open your mail, pay your bills, keep your appointments. It's not hard (except paying a bill when you don't have funds)
8
@Joe Except when your mail doesn’t come because it went to a former address or you don’t have a fixed address and you have to respond in 10 days.
Or if your employer will let you go if you can’t work at the last minute but that means you have to miss an appointment with an agency- but you have to work to keep your benefits but you will lose them if you are a no show to an appointment.
20
@Marianne
If it goes to a former address, it means you didn't keep all agencies that are funding your survival current with your address. Miss a 10 day deadline? There are appeals procedures, but you need affirmatively to ask for them.
I agree that the poor have other problems that get in the way of living an ordered life. Perhaps training on how to survive in a modern business world would help.
But it comes with strange grace to argue that poor people can be just as intelligent and worthy of respect as their better-off neighbors, but then argue that they're really just victims getting mistreated by the system.
1
@Joe
That's not the point. The point is most people make these kinds of mistakes. They're made at roughly the same rate across demographic groups. The difference is they can be catastrophic for the poor. People who are indifferent to this are essentially arguing the poor must be held to a HIGHER standard of conduct in managing their affairs than everyone else.
Maybe that is your point, but few people say it out loud that way.
7
In Japan, city halls have staff for helping residents do their paperwork.
11
@Alan Engel
Perhaps, but they also don't let any minorities in their country. A lot of things can work better when you take racism out of the equation.
1
@Sarah Not true. My city, Tsukuba, has 9500 immigrants from 132 countries. City hall provides free interpretation in 10 languages.
1
A system designed to humiliate and frustrate, a system designed not to work.
17
Yep, to all that Throw in SSI Disability, where everyone involved agrees that the government automatically starts the discussion with a denial, most often two, and all believe one should get a lawyer who specializes in such things. And. of course, don’t misstep. I have an MBA from Northwestern and needed it, combing through years of bank records after a friend’s receiving SSID had inadvertently exceeded the $2,000 bank account limit requirement. Another thing people don’t appreciate...how poor you have to stay to be poor and disabled.
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@Tony Fleming
Whether you are disabled or not, if you have assets, you are required to drain your assets in the HOPES of getting SSI.
Once you DO, there is no guarantee of GETTING SSI.
But you assets will be GONE.
You cannot even APPLY and get a ruling on your actual disability, which takes 5-7 years in the worst case, UNTIL you have drained your assets.
It's circular.
4
This is the kind of article that makes the Nytimes the best paper in the world. Illustrating the reality of trying to survive when the system wants you to fail. Real world examples of hardships only those who go through them as a way of life understand while most people have no idea these systemic barriers exist.
22
Apply these principles to understanding and dealing with health insurance forms. Just in the last 2 months, I've found 'accidental' double billings, and payments which were 'accidentally' not accounted, resulting in charges appearing a 2nd and 3rd time on subsequent statements. Then a letter demanding payment close to $1k, when actual due amount was $157.
Incompetence or malevolence? Doesn't matter if you're not astute enuf to notice these 'errors'.
7:38a.m.
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You left out one. I once made the huge mistake of applying for these sorts of benefits because (as an old person but not old enough for retirement) I could not find work for over two years. I have never been treated so rudely and with such passive-aggressive hostility as when I showed up to claim the benefits I'd spent a lifetime paying into. As I was overeducated, the system couldn't even give me a job referral--although I was required to show up every day, sit in a chair, and wait for such a referral.
So you need to add something like "Do you think you have value as a human being?" If you expect to claim these benefits, the correct answer is "No." Because that's what the creatures running the system, all the way down to the clerks, think. And they pass up zero opportunities to remind you of that.
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This survey forgets about another very important task:
Changing your address with SS and having your mail forwarded to the new address when you move with USPS.
I recently moved in to an apartment and got important mail for the previous tenant for about 3 months! Among the mail I labeled "return to sender, not at this address" were SS checks and applications for programs for assistance. Eventually I started writing short notes to SS on the outside of the envelope asking them to please use a phone number they might have on file to contact the person. Eventually, it all stopped, but I shudder to think how many needed programs and payments were missed because of not changing address with SSI and USPS.
20
I am a case manager and frequently help people apply for medicaid, SNAP, GA and disability. I think the bigger problem is that the systems are so complex that the government workers administering them don't know the rules and give applicants incorrect information. Many of my clients have been incorrectly told they don't qualify or need paperwork that they shouldn't need. I contact supervisors, my supervisor contacts supervisors. We appeal or get legal advocates involved. It takes persistence, time and knowledge; things often in short supply for my clients.
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All these onerous regulations and procedural steps - "costs more to process the payment than the payment itself!"- is why Medicare for All will save money as well as provide better and especially more continuous benefits.
19
Very few people will be interested in reading this article, just as very few people (who don't need benefits) spend any time whatsoever thinking about what it is actually like to experience poverty and disability.
I and another family member used to assist a disabled third family member, now deceased. It was all the two of us could do to keep up with the never-ending stream of paper requirements. Not only were the documents themselves difficult to understand, they required follow-up actions that the bureaucracy itself made nearly impossible to fulfill. For one example, our local welfare office does.not.accept.phone.calls. on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of every week. Yes, you heard that right. You can't call the welfare office except on Thursday and Friday, and on those days you are on hold for quite awhile before getting through. To be fair, once you do speak to someone they try to be helpful, but they are fighting the same impossible bureaucracy from their side. The Byzantine absurdity is mind-boggling and is the result of haphazardly trying to plug millions of real and imagined eligibility holes.
Many, many, many people just give up. Then the affluent can comfort themselves by imagining that the poor are lazy and irresponsible.
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We were gone for 16 days over Christmas and had our mail held, to be delivered the Saturday we returned. It was not delivered until the Monday, two days later.
We had a bill from Lowe's ($31.70) that was also now due the same Monday we received the mail! We paid it electronically that day but, of course, it wasn't received until two days later.
We were charged a $29 late fee.
We called and they removed it.
Why is there now so little time between a bill being received and being due? That is challenging for folks with uneven paychecks, especially hourly workers. Additionally, not everyone feels like they can call to advocate for themselves and get a fee removed.
We are lucky to have paid vacation for over two weeks and be able pay a bill immediately and advocate for ourselves. The system should not cater to us -- they system should bend to those who have none of the above.
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I work at a non-profit that helps Veterans and others with disabilities. Most of the people we see spend their entire day waiting. Waiting for a bus, a check, a doctor or maintenance person in the dilapidated building where they live. etc., Often they are turned away and told to come back the next day. They have limited access to transportation and computers and phones and banking. It really is heart breaking. These people aren’t “scamming” the system they are being bludgeoned by it.
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In addition to paperwork obstacles to receiving benefits for which they are eligible, there are other barriers that poor people face that we in the middle and upper income brackets often don’t think about. For example, applying even for low skilled jobs at fast food restaurants or retail stores often requires computer or smart phone access; walk-in applications are a thing of the past. Many metropolitan areas lack good mass transit, so that getting to a job is made nearly impossible. We have a very punitive view of poverty in this country, and it’s counterproductive.
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@J. Yes to the smartphone thing! My corporate job gives me a smartphone if they want me to have one but many retail jobs assume an employee will have one. Some expect employees to use a phone to sign up for shifts.
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@J.
Here's another barrier: bad or missing teeth. Many truly poor people have decayed or missing teeth. Dental care is expensive and something that tends to be missed when you're trying to avoid eviction. Medicaid will pay to pull a tooth, but not to replace it. If you have any visible dental problems, few companies will hire you for a public-facing position (which is what many entry-level positions are). So if you have any visibly decayed or missing front teeth, forget getting even that low-level retail or food service job.
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This article provides an excellent illustration of a couple of important things. First off, it starkly demonstrates why universal programs are preferable to those which require application and qualification, or those which are means tested. Whatever we gain in efficiency comes at the very human cost of those who should be getting benefits but can’t navigate bureaucracy.
Secondly, and intertwined with that point, is that a tendency towards these sorts of technocratic solutions is a big part of why there are so many people who feel alienated from the political process - people who at one point would have been well-served by the Democratic party, but now feel they have no one fighting for them.
Desperation for someone who cares about their plight led many of these people to support Trump. While he was lying about addressing these people’s concerns, Clinton offered little to them beyond more of the same technocratic solutions that pushed them away in the first place.
The flip side of this dynamic is that a credible candidate who offers universal solutions can win them back, and lead us to a new political era. May the Democratic party learn this lesson while we still have a democracy.
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@Benjamin Hinkley I think it's more complicated, and I offer the example of the help given to dust bowl farmers by FDR. The farmers who wanted to believe they "pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps" were so grateful for the help, they voted Republican!
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@Benjamin Hinkley as someone who would be a net payer under this policies, this is why I have been so bullish on Andrew Yang. Based on what I have read about his ground game in Iowa, he is being severely under counted in polling. I hope people will seriously consider him as he picks up steam.
2
The sad point is that our systems are set up to be confusing and have traps set all around for the sole purpose of saying NO to those who need help in order to keep the welfare going for the rich.
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I applied for social security for my brother. We did it over the phone together: he has no car and no computer and lives in a trailer in a rural area in Florida. He also has attention issues. We did everything correctly but he still got a letter from social security telling him he had to come to an office. It took a two hour bus ride one way and he brought paperwork with him that they already had in his file. He had no idea why they wanted him to come to the office.
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The only thing about your quiz that is suspicious are how low the numbers are of people who report having done those things. Mail unopened for a week? Do none of those people ever go on vacation? Ditto for the other questions: think back a few years and tell me that you haven't done any of those things. Do them regularly, yes, that may indicate a cognitive deficit; do them very occasionally, well, join the actual crowd of people with busy lives.
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I’m not sure why this seems parallel to this important article, perhaps it is just evidence of the mindset: At the Revenue building in Little Rock’s capitol complex, drivers licenses and vehicle licenses are issued at the same counter. If you want to get a vehicle license, you take a number and may sit until called. If you want to renew a drivers license you must stand in the line formed among empty seating for up to an hour.
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@Howington In California, to get your car registered and a driver's license, you go to the same place, the DMV. Frequently, those chores can be done through the mail or on-line. My son is getting his Ph.D. in Texas and had to go to multiple different locations to get his Texas car registration and driver's license (although never the DMV). It was truly bizarre and the absolute opposite of "user friendly." I wonder if the difficulties are baked into Texas's DNA as being ways to discourage people (especially poorer people, or those with jobs who lose $ if they miss work) from doing what they need to do to vote?
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I have middle class friends who are having difficulty getting their "real id" drivers licenses. They have had to go back many times. Everyone on social media seems to have sympathy for the hassle. But those same people want the people dealing with SNAP or Medicaid to show more "personal responsibility" . We collectively seem to blame the poor for their poverty. If they are not saints then they are the "undeserving poor". Dickensian
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@Againes
I tried to get a "real ID" at the DMV on 125th Street in Manhattan, after epic waiting times, 3-4 hours in a hot crowded germ-laden waiting room. My papers were rejected the first time since I did not have an original marriage certificate. My husband went downtown to obtain it, but it still did not work. I went back the next day with it in hand, but they would not accept it. I was born in NY State, married in NYC, have had three passports issued in my name, and have never lived anywhere other than NY State or NYC. I had to settle for a lesser driving license, with a picture taken in 1992, with no ability to enter Federal buildings without my passport.
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@SG Next time they want me for jury duty downtown, I may be prevented from entering a courthouse without the "Real ID." Will I be excused?
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And what about the unreliability of the US mail? It can take 5 days for a piece of mail to get to NYC from Pennsylvania, and that's if it isn't lost.
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@SRF I have resided in different countries in Asia and Europe. In comparison, I have found the USPS to be inexpensive, reliable, and convenient. I think our Post Office does a good job. Perhaps some just have unrealistic expectations?
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@KR I have noted delivery time differences in two areas of my state. Has something to do with the mail processing center used. Lots of empty former processing centers as it has been consolidated. I no longer use the online system for holding mail short term- it just didn’t work, leave the form in the mail box for my carrier.
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@ellie k. The USPS was forced to close offices and consolidate offices due to totally onerous pension funding requirements that NO other business is required to do. The Republicans' goal is to drive the USPS into the ground so that private mail services (run by Republicans) can take over. But the private services will not be required to service unprofitable routes that are mandated for USPS.
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There is more here than just roadblocks for poor people. Our basic belief underlying government is that it is not a service. Americans believe that government is a problem whether they see it as an intrusive burden or an incompetent benefit. Either way, government programs are structured without considering how they might be made easy for the people.
Aside from the compelling examples in this article, our income taxes require filling in forms with the same information the government already has. Other countries mail out a postcard showing what each taxpayer made in income and the taxes deducted. For most people in those countries, that’s all they need to do. But here, we like to make taxes complicated because it's a shell game to hide the fact that the rich pay little and the rest of us proportionally pay much more.
We call government programs for health care “entitlements” suggesting we are entitled to them, but in reality we do not treat health care as a right. If you want to vote, you better have the right identification and be able to get to an overcrowded polling place to wait in a long line.
Our government is not people-friendly. It is people-vicious.
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@David Potenziani Please keep in mind, the rules that these government agencies must enforce are created by politicians, not the government workers.
@David Potenziani
An Entitlement is something you have earned and thus are *entitled* to receive it.
Do not mistake an Entitlement with a "Sense of Entitlement," which is when you feel you are entitled to something which you have NOT earned.
Social Security and Medicare are Entitlements.
Republicans have a Sense of Entitlement to the money in the Social Security Trust Fund and keep trying to get at it, putting forward scheme after scheme to "reform" Social Security, resulting in the transfer of Social Security's wealth from the people who paid for it--US--to the 1% who covet it.
Voting is a Right.
Exercise it.
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If you're reliant on the government for money, the least you could do is be responsive. The taxpayer has every right to ensure that people who are getting assistance actually need it. I have no sympathy for people who don't respect the system that's benefitting them. If someone can't be bothered to open a letter a week after getting it, the consequences of their nonresponsiveness are entirely their fault.
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@Sawyer 100% true, still heartless tho, bro
@Sawyer
May you and @Matt Williams never be hospitalized without access to your mail. May you never be evicted because your 2+ jobs don't pay enough for rent, utilities and to feed your children. May you never be homeless and go from shelter to shelter seeking refuge from the weather and looking for somewhere safe. May you never be hungry to the point that hunger is all you can think about.
May you never experience uncontrolled mental illness which causes your decision-making to go off normal. May you never be the victim of sexual assault or domestic violence which gives you nightmares. May you never be a veteran with PTSD. May you never be a rural farmer about to lose the farm inherited from parents due to a president's ignorant tariff actions.
How easy to judge without experiencing what so many people without income in the USA experience. Former Speaker of the House (Republican) Paul Ryan's family used "food stamps" now called SNAP now cut by Trump.
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Taking advantage of known weakness is common experience in being a consumer. Maybe the NYT could continue this theme in the areas like video and newspaper subscriptions. Purchases are much easier completed than cancelled. Take catalogs or online product newsletters for example. Some folks, once they pay for something yearly can find that they have been automatically re-upped for the next year. Impulse purchases of this type can slip unnoticed for months. Based on the behavioral data among all income levels in this article companies can count on 20% of us not paying close attention. And of course we do not want to reveal that we don't always attend to our business as we should. Sometimes taking a hike in the woods rather than go through bills, banking, and credit card business, seems almost life saving . And when I was really broke, yes, paperwork was over whelming when I worked 12 hours days, and tried to take advantage of any opportunity to come along. Some people have paperwork phobias, they simply shut down when faced with unraveling all the steps involved.
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I pay for a Medicaid consultant yearly to complete my parents' Medicaid documentation and to monitor it for a year. $500. The first year I was pleased to do so because I was so exhausted caring for both my parents, the second year I balked but did it, and damned if I didn't get four notices over the year that the share of cost had changed, or something had been denied, etc.
Every year since then, I am as pleased to pay for those consultants as I am to pay for H&R block to complete my mother's taxes. I use the time and mental anxiety I have saved/avoided, to focus my limited energy on them. They're in long term care and she's experiencing the anguish that is dementia, he has Parkinson's and is blind. There is no way they could live outside the care facility. There is no way they could pay for round the clock care of the facility themselves. So there is no way that they can lose Medicaid.
Putting pressure on the individual to navigate the Byzantine Medicaid system alone considering those stakes is nutty. I know many other caregivers in the same exhausted boat who are doing just that. I still do not know how people/families who handle the paperwork and BS and phone calls and visits to the Medicaid offices and the work of correcting incorrect information all by themselves do it and not descend into madness themselves. The system is almost cruel by design.
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@Anita A And yet there are people (including people on responding to this article) who would apparently condemn your parents if they didn't handle their paperwork if they didn't have a child to handle it for them. And by "condemn them," I mean, "condemn them to lose Medicaid."
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@Anita A The irony is that someone who needs Medicaid most likely doesn't have $500/year to pay for a consultant. The system is broken.
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@Leo -- The $500 consultant is to help families of significant means plan to gift away and re-title grandma's assets sufficiently in advance to be eligible later for Medicaid under existing federal rules.
Deciphering the language of these forms- applications for Medicaid, SNAP, WIC , Social Security, SSI- along with an understanding of the functions of each agency could be part of a high school literacy curriculum, along with learnig to correctly complete an employment application or how to maintain a checking account. Most people will confront these forms at some juncture over their lifetimes for eiither themselves or a family member, so why not ?
Yep.
Could you imagine the impact if the United States government truly wanted an " enliightened and educated " citizenry ?
45
@JaneK , Or we could just simplify these things. By the way one of your examples - applying for and getting Social Security - is already pretty simple. Why? Virtually every person reaching the age of eligibility uses the process. It is self policing. If a middle or upper class person is malserved they are likely to complain effectively and the problem gets fixed. Due to my dozen years working for a Scandinavian company I have seen their social support programs work for the same reason. Virtually everyone gets the benefits. We could start with single payer health care.
11
What the article doesn't cover is the deliberate actions of the gatekeepers in the system to keep people out.
In my family we two PhD holding parents and a severely disabled child. Filling out the paperwork to get our child on the (20 year in our state) wait list for Medicaid waiver benefits was a multi year nightmare - we sent all forms and paperwork correctly filled out and were repeatedly rejected (1) for not using correct terminology the first time - the managed care organization said "Oh, didn't we tell you to do it that way, so sorry" and (2) they did not read the appended documentation of our child's disability --> this came out during the mediation hearing to dispute the denial of benefits "oh, yes, we now see that you did attach the correct documents, we just didn't see them earlier, so sorry".
These are direct quotes, not figments of my imagination.
We had the persistence and resources to keep going until we received this (dubious because of the long wait time) benefit. I cannot imagine what it is like for families of low income, no ability to negotiate the bureaucratic maze, etc.
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I try to help my adult son with this and fear what will happen when I am gone. The goal is for him to be as independent and self-sustaining as possible. He works to his capacity but that is not nearly enough to support himself or his medical needs (mental illness, diabetes are two big ones for him). If he doesn't open a letter in time, doesn't understand it, or it doesn't ARRIVE in time (they DO sometimes arrive postmarked AFTER deadlines!), he has been tossed out of Medicaid which pays for his mental illness and diabetes medications.
We are talking about a patient who WANTS to stay on his medications. When the coverage drops, it takes months to get it reinstated. Doctors also occasionally want to drop him from practices due to rigid policies when he gets assigned for his part time job at the last minute due to scheduling practices. So, do you want to see doctor to keep your meds? or keep a job for gas to get to doctor?
The big insult is when IL Dept of Human Services, which administers Medicaid, makes appointments to verify his status status to renew coverage--appointments which they themselves do not keep due to lack of personnel. Again, he misses work to wait by the phone for these and they don't call at the appointed date & time.
Anyone who thinks this is the "easy way out" has never been down this road. It is a full time job. We DO need basic safety net healthcare for all.
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Are there any surprises in this article? Dealing with government bureaucracy on any matter is a nightmare. What is surprising is how blind to this many Amercans are when evaluating proposals for new or expanded government programs.
During any discussions of Medicare for All or some similar major expansion of a government program, I picture the people waiting at the DMV or at the post office passport renewal window and wonder if all those people would like to see a similar process for obtaining medical treatment. When I hear talk of the wealth tax I think about filing tax returns and what that would like if every single piece of personal property had to be itemized and appraised. Can the NY Times please keep this article handy and read it next time you consider endorsing some proposal that would expand or create a large government program?
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@SJG
It's a choice to make the process this complicated. Government creates tens of thousands of lower middle class jobs who focus on making the poor jump through hoops.
20
@SJG
I get your point but I do not see what you are proposing? If we were all already eligible and enrolled wouldn't that save a ton of time and paperwork? according to this article the rich will just pay to have someone do it for them as they do now. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water!
7
@SJG Keep in mind, the onerous requirements are created by congress, NOT the agency workers who administer them.
1
As suggested by the author's statement that there is in fact "a more universal experience of administrative dread" (and who among us got a perfect score on that quiz and/or has never suffered a personal crisis that got in the way of our ability to function well in our day to day lives?); the sad truth is that we Americans seem to quickly be losing ability to empathize and our humanity.
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@mbr I got a perfect score on the quiz. How can you possibly pretend that no one did? If 26 percent of Americans don't open their mail in a timely manner, then 74 percent do. If 31 percent of people have forgotten to pay a utility bill, then 69 percent of people haven't. I don't have any sympathy for adults who haven't developed a sense of responsibility for their own life circumstances.
3
@Sawyer Have you never moved your residence and had mail forwarded? Or, never had mail held while you were away on vacation?
2
@Sawyer Your statement that "74% of people open their mail on time" might not necessarily be true. The sample size is quite small, 4400 adults + NY Times readers who participated. Hardy covering "all Americans" and the actual demographic that the article is talking about.
1
I am fortunate to come from a solidly upper-middle class background but I have mental health issues, in particular anxiety, and executive function issues as the result of a learning disability, that make these kinds of tasks extremely difficult. Even just reading this article, which describes the tasks that those in my generation might refer to as “adulting” made me anxious.
I think struggling with and procrastinating on these tasks is universal, at least to a certain extent. It is absurd that the people with the fewest financial - and often emotional or energy - reserves are punished the most.
I am embarrassed to admit this, but I know there is no way I would pay my bills on time without a bank account and automatic payments, and my family has bailed me out multiple times when life events have happened or I have made costly mistakes with paperwork. Again, such mistakes are universal, but having family to bail you out isn’t.
I am very grateful for my family, and I am no more or less deserving of their generosity then anyone else. That said, you shouldn’t have to rely on family to bail you out, and PRIVATE charities shouldn’t have to devote all their resources to helping their clients apply for PUBLIC benefits.
45
@K
Thank you. This article brought back to my own experience raising my son with co-morbid mental health issues. I have a solid background in bookkeeping/accounting with emphasis on payroll and benefits. Applying for and keeping benefits is extremely difficult especially when you're trying to also manage life in general. I was working, raising two children and taking my son to appointments often 3-4 a week. He was a full time job!
He is now 22 but his diagnosis is the same and is expected to navigate on his own. He recently has overdrawn his bank account (in the amount of $125) and was charged $330 in overdraft fees. He now owes the bank $450 nearly 4 times what they covered.
The goal is and should be to have him be as independent as possible. He is considered a functioning adult and therefore much expectation is placed on him to manage himself. He cannot do so without my help but I will not always be on this earth to help him.
27
@K - "He ain't heavy, he's my brother." I come from a very large family and there is a genetic predisposition for depression and anxiety. One reason I keep on task helping family members navigate medical, financial, and administrative chores is because they got the unlucky genes and I got lucky. Every able-bodied adult needs to understand what luck has given them and share this gift with people who need it. You are receiving deserved help. Good luck to you.
4
@K
My Oldest has serious mental health and moderate physical health issues. I have a laundry list of physical health issues. As I have said to my child:
Adulting is HARD!
The fewer resources you have, the harder it is.
Only people who are perfect, or like to pretend they are, never make mistakes.
2
"In Indiana, families who need dental care must mail a monthly premium as low as $1, less than it usually costs a state to bill and record a payment." Why worry about this when there's money to be saved in dropping people from the plan. No wonder most Americans don't trust their elected officials.
20
1. Only those who need assistance suffer when it is withheld.
2. For those who don’t need assistance, such slip ups are oopsies.
You miss a doctor’s visit, you call, apologize and reschedule (worst case, the doctor carries through with a threat to charge a fee for failure to cancel an appointment with “x” hr notice. As a person of means, you pay it and maybe change physicians.)
3. Bottom line. Social assistance in this country is not a matter of rational decision making for the benefit of the nation as a whole and the affected individuals, but instead a reflection of our widespread tendency to blame the poor.
40
@Stephen Rinsler All true. Exception is when the attitude is you have 'earned' the assistance as in Social Security or Medicare; then, the registration process is easy to automatic.
4
@JEM We'll, SS and Medicare are benefits paid into over a lifetime, so they really are earned.
2
@JEM ,
Not always. I had health insurance through an employer as a retiree for several years before moving on to Medicare. There was a glitch that resulted in my being denied Medicare until I finally discovered a file at my employer’s insurance company that still listed me and several other retirees wrongly as being covered.
Going thru that allowed me to learn that there was a Medicare Ombudsman. Not sure if it still exists .
Then, this year, I switched PDOs and found that my automatic premium payments from Social Security hadn’t been started. I elected to pay the “outstanding” payment for January, because it might take Social Security 90 days to start paying and my coverage might be suspended if payments weren’t made for two months. And my new drug plan didn’t send me a warning.
Coming from Holland I have huge issues with the typography and the language of official forms and documents in the US. In Holland they designed to guide the user verbally and visibly through the Paperwork. In the US they seem to be designed to confuse the user and to put him off.
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@Frank Ligtvoet
Thus is exactly correct - forms and qualifications are deliberately made difficult to navigate in order to discourage people from applying in the first place. We have a rot in the soul of our nation which insists that poverty is god’s punishment to unworthy people, and that wealth is a sign of god’s approval.
43
@Frank Ligtvoet Sounds like you understand our wretched and deplorable culture better than most Americans!
11
I routinely have to help lower income family members with applying for assistance, Medicaid, Social Security benefits, etc. and run into these obstacles ALL THE TIME.
Most recently, I was attempting to help someone get their driver's license because a driver's license (or State ID) is one of the requirements for social services benefits like SNAP. Well, we brought a copy of a birth certificate that would have worked in years past, but now they require original birth certificates. Having anticipated this months ago, I ordered the birth certificate online from Hawaii and the State of Hawaii *has not mailed it out yet.*
For poor people, little "hiccups" like this can mean going months without services for which they would otherwise qualify, displacing the burden to other members of society who have already paid their taxes into a social safety net. So lower and middle class who pay taxes pay twice when they have to step in because services are so hard to get on.
Not to mention, that I have known many poor people who don't even realize they would easily qualify for services because they are so used to living below the poverty line and "don't no any different." And even when they do know, their personal pride and faith that they'll figure out a way to make more money keeps them from using even temporary assistance.
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This is why I support Andrew Yang's Freedom Dividend of $1000/month rather than the hodge podge of social programs that the other Democrats are proposing. Universal basic income is simple, effective, and easy to administer.
Furthermore, people know best how to effectively allocate their resources; they don't need government bureaucracies to do it for them (and in a very inefficient manner to boot).
42
@Dan This plan sounds good on paper but you just might be trading out one bureaucracy for another. How people use the money (illegal drugs, alcohol, entertainment and all) will require an army of police-rs and then there are the penalties. Given how people are, squandered funds and suspended benefits will require it's own bureaucracies.
@Jimmy I think the plan is to get rid of all the policing. Given the the true cost of the current broken system I imagine it would pay for itself with a one and done plan like yangs. So if 20 percent of recipients squander is that really the worst thing that could happen?
4
@Dan Except, I'm not clear on this for people who can't work, because $1,000/month isn't a living income. How do those people survive?
5
The complexity and hassle is the point. It is designed to prevent people from getting the benefits to which they are entitled
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@sr
Exactly. And I can’t begin to estimate the cost of creating such a quagmire.
9
@sr
I also think the complexity is due to the increase in the bureaucratic blob that these many programs create, and the levels and levels of administration, with its nepotism as well, that have swelled over decades to support them. Again, another reason why we need UBI. Yang2020
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@dc How is one grand a month helping that?
When I was poor I did what poor people do...hit the public library or the corner store to use the copier. Shank's mare or get a ride with someone going that way. These days the extended family poverty people use their cell phones - remember they get a greatly discounted rate based on above the table income.
I'll agree with the main point, lots of documentation needed. And agree that not all people who have benefits such as 401k have the training needed to manage their account, but can't agree that participation in 401k is lower because of lack of autoenroll -- the start up costs of working , especially housing, mean that the employee just does not have a dime left to put in 401k....he's got to build the emergency fund, eat, and pay transportation, then he can start thinking long term housing. Let me repeat that: housing costs. Rental = a mortgage payment in many areas -- can't get out of that if contributing to 401k.
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@ARL Lack of 401k participation can also be lower because many lower paying jobs have been changed to 1099 positions that don't receive benefits or moved to part-time so there's no benefits. Even jobs with 401ks usually provide no matching until you get relatively high up the ladder, so at best it's just the only retirement option available
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@Leah
I lament the replacement of defined benefit pensions with 401ks. That said, to be clear, there are rules mandating that to be qualified the percentages of higher paid and other fulltime employees participating must be similar. That is the reason many plans have the lure of matching funds. BUT the rule is even more insidious as you describe because it promotes gig or part time employment.
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It would be interesting to see a cross tabulation based on whether they ever used a program like food stamps or medicaid by demographic. All too often here in flyover country I hear someone say it is too easy to live off the dole when they have never seen the paperwork, have no clue about the requirements and don't understand how little a pittance is handed out. Luckily never had to use it myself in my own lifetime but helping others get needed services taught me how complicated it can be.
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@tom Exactly. It's all complicated and a lot of times extremely confusing. I also live in a town with limited mass transportation where all the service agencies are in different places. I get tired of folks complaining about the so called "freeloaders". I always tell these kind of folks that I could honestly care less if some folks receive goods or services to which they are not "entitled". Our big problem is the corporate moochers and I'd much rather we focus on that.
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It is amazing that people who are entitled(or not entitled) to these benefits even get them.
There are at least two types.
1-Poor people who have the good fortune of having a friend or family member guide them through the maze of paperwork.
2-Scammers of all types who know how to rip off the system.
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Access to unemployment insurance also needs to be addressed. And regional disparities. In Maryland you will find the process to be well administered and generally supportive. In the South where the interests of business dominate more thoroughly, you will often encounter a higher threshold of complexity, a poorly administered process, and a clear adversarial dynamic. Maryland is interested in smoothly returning you to the work force again. Louisiana-and Florida also, among others--are concerned with denying your claim and eliminating whatever small leverage one may within the labor market.
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@Christopher Hammersla This is a very important concept. My son is constantly forced to choose between his job and his benefit maintenance and his healthcare appointments. With the rigidity in scheduling by all, part time jobs that want to give you hours only a week ahead but then fire you if you already have a doctor's or Medicaid qualification appointment you cannot miss, it is crushingly difficult.
In Illinois at least, the onus is a one way system--Medicaid (DHS) can miss appointments, and doctors can be late, but recipients/patients are immediately dropped and penalized if THEY do--To the detriment of their health and sometimes, survival. Would it not be better to keep them working as much as possible AND keep them engaged with the doctor and benefit system?
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Sometimes inaction is simply that, inaction.
I dare say most everyone has had a lapse of memory making an appointment, failing to open mail, receiving mail they did not understand, etc.
The questions should be if the reader did this regularly or what was done to correct the situation. No matter your economic or social status there are responsibilities for everyday living and potential consequences if there are lapses.
Recognizing the need to be better organized because it greatly affects benefits, for example, is reasonable. Seeking/offering help to be better organized is sensible. Making economic or social status an excuse, not so much.
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@ArtM “Economic status” means something. It’s not just a demographic label. It means you are less likely to own reliable transportation, a computer and printer, more likely to change jobs and addresses, all of which make these organizational tasks more difficult. And what help are the poor to seek in improving their life skills? Should they hire a life coach?
I suggest you volunteer to help low income people navigate the maze of requirements and documentation to qualify for benefits. I helped a low-income veteran with this. We both have post-graduate degrees, and it was challenging for us. I can only imagine how difficult it would be for a young single mother with limited education.
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@ArtM One day, I got a call on my cell phone reminding me that I had a doctor's appointment (in Los Angeles) in an hour. (They called because the doctor was going to be late.) I was sitting in a meeting in New York City at the time and, needless to say, couldn't make it. The doctor's assistant and I laughed about it and I promised to re-schedule when I got back into town. If I'd been a poor person, and this had been a meeting of some importance to obtaining benefits, there could have been serious repercussions. I'm willing to bet that you (and other commentators who are complaining about lack of personal responsibility) would have laughed with me about my "oopsie" at the same time that you condemn a poor person who did the same.
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@Deborah Good
My point exactly. People of all economic and social status have issues with bureaucracy and personal challenges. I’ve experienced those unfathomable challenges to gain benefits and keep them myself, yes even with my post-graduate degree. I didn’t hire a life coach as your snarky response implies. I sought help for those I was assisting and continue to do so.
I applaud your veteran who recognizes the need for help and you for providing it.
It is not only the low income who face these challenges. And it’s not only non-low income who resolve them.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if people overestimate their diligence when responding to these questions. Because they suffered no consequences for a lapse or were able to repair the problem, they put it out of their minds. Especially if they like to congratulate themselves that their comfortable status results from how perfect they are perfect in their habits and conduct rather than how severely they have been tested by life.
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@C Wolfe
I have been severely tested by life and am now comfortable because of my resolve and due diligence. Sorry, my journey helps me understand those who struggle but has tempered my sympathy for those who like to use their situations as an excuse.
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I am a low income senior living in public housing. I can relate to this article in several ways, including the fact that many benefits are hidden.
Sure, most people know about food stamps, but not all know about low income senior and disabled housing, though my complex in Eugene Oregon has a seven year wait list, so there is that. Lane County Oregon, an area the size of Ct. has no public shelter system.
The systems are built from a groundwork laid many decades ago, when housing was relatively cheap, and manufacturing jobs were for the asking. So the assumption today is that if one needs help, that is because of a failing of the individual, not of the culture.
As a citizen, I own America.
Oregon, which is somewhere around 50% public property, is mine, from the national forests to the seas, yet no poor person in Oregon ever gets a share of the pie as an investor would get if they owned stock in a company.
Should Trump have a sense of guilt if he cashes a check from his stocks? Then neither should the poor and the powerless.
Hugh
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@Hugh Massengill - Be careful what you ask for. The federal government, which is the organization that represents our "ownership" of this country, is deeply in hock.
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@Chuck T.
BUT, a lot of that debt is money we owe to one another...Social Security is one large part of the so-called "national debt."
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@Chuck T. One of my favorite scifi/dystopian books has the US styled as the United States of China because they called our debt and we were unable to pay it.
As a health care provider at a free clinic in South Carolina, everyday I see patients who: couldn't make it to their interviews for hospital charity care because their car broke down or they couldn't get time off from work; missed deadlines or appointments for food stamp applications for the same reasons or because they didn't understand what documents they needed to have with them; and worst of all, were denied disability benefits and Medicaid because that's just the way things work here.
Most patients wind up getting lawyers who specialize in the process and then take a cut of the benefits when they finally do get approved. It takes most patients two denials--when I can plainly see that they are medically disabled--before they might, finally get approved.
It wasn't this way when I worked in Pennsylvania for thirty years. That's the difference, in my view.
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@Teresa
Believe me, PA is no utopia for these kinds of issues.
The questions are not informative.
"Have you ever....." --type questions do not discriminate between people who had a bill get stuck inside a magazine and didn't see it and those who routinely let things go.
So, yes whether someone made one of these mistakes at least once in their lives probably does not depend upon income.
Ask the questions in this way:
"Do you repeatedly (not open mail, forgotten to pay a utility bill, didn't understand a government document, missed a doctor appointment)"
and the findings could look completely different.
And be more informative.
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@Travelers
The point of the story was that the lapse in behavior doesn’t have to be repeated frequently to have dire consequences. Things can cascade.
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@C Wolfe Actually, I believe I do understand the point of the story......and disagree with it.
They authors posit that a simple lapse in behavior can happen to anybody, and present data to prove their point. But their data do not prove their point.
In fact, it isn't a single incidence of a lapse in behavior that is consequential. Instead, it is a pattern of lapses that become, in their totality, consequential.
The reason is that these many lapses will, upon occasion, result in major consequences. But a single lapse is very unlikely to--because there are individual differences in how people then respond. A person who is top of things will have an incident one time and then adjust their behavior so it doesn't happen again, and then it will be unlikely to happen when it really matters. A person not on top of things will have a single incident and blow it off, and then in the next series of incidents may occur one which is serious.
We all know people in both camps: People who do something once, and never again, and people who have a pattern. The problem with these "letters in the mail" are serious for the latter group, but rarely the former group.
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As a retired bureaucrat, with a university education, government documents and requirements are amusing and enraging.
I have encountered forms with contradictory questions and redundant paperwork. For the agency that I most often deal with, I have the complaints line on speed dial. I also have ten years of documents filed. Less organised and educated people do not have these luxuries and the system deliberately exploits this.
A writer in another publication noted that three house moves are as good as a fire in losing track of documents. Welfare recipients move frequently and are thus highly vulnerable to missing paperwork. Agencies know this and seek the provision of paperwork they believe the person will not have. The most extreme case, I am aware of, sought records going back twenty years.
Welfare recipients are unlikely to have computers, scanners and internet connections, so documents must be posted or hand delivered. Imposing costs on already financially stressed people.
I once accused an agency of seeking to deny people benefits by discouraging them from applying. Despite the denials, I stand by that statement.
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@Philip Brown
Thanks for bringing up the point about having to move frequently. My upper-incone family had to do this recently and two years later I'm still trying to deal with the Post Office's confusion. My bank keeps undoing the change of address I enter into their system because some central database is confused.
Would you trust the Post Office with your life? Not to blame them, is it reasonable to expect them to take such responsibility for less than 50 cents per transaction?
Most government notices come by mail, don't require a recipient's signature, and have quick and inflexible deadlines for response. For me it's meant a couple of irritating late fees. For a poor person it often means disastrous and long- term financial stress that they have no ability to handle. Then their kid is homeless, distracting their public school and costing the city thousands while taking away attention that other kids could use.
Cruelty to the poor is immoral (check the bible), it is also expensive and stupid. But, I'll never cease to be amazed at how America likes to cut off its nose to spite its face.
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@Philip Brown - The Bigs decide that an Important Form is needed. The task of creating that form is handed to the newest, lowest-on-the-totem-pole employee who has no clue as to the purpose of the form. The result is too-long, too-complicated, poorly-organized, self-contradictory documents - that are ineffective and are never audited by The Big who ordered it.
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@peh
I have on more than one occasion received a notice that required the filing of extensive paperwork several days before the date of the notice. Of course compliance was impossible.
1
1. People need to do a better job with organization and showing up.
2. Anybody who needs to assistance should be able to access it easily.
These two things don't need to be discussed together.
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@N. The article indicates that there is an assumption by some folks that poor people miss important timelines and documents because they are disorganized when actually the system is rigged to make it more difficult for the poor.
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@N. Yes! But I would reverse the order ;-) first give people the assistance they need and then you most likely would have far fewer people who have trouble organizing and showing up because they would be out of a crisis situation.
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@Jane - Ha! You would give them assistance without ANY means/needs testing? Good luck getting that law thru Repub. congress.
This is an important story. A follow-up needs to address research that shows that government documents and insurance documents in particular show that they are intentionally designed to be difficult to understand. When you consider that people under stress, such as those in poverty conditions, process things differently in cognitive terms, the decks are stacked against them - intentionally. While many Americans think this will never be them, they should consider that at some point in their life, they will be in the process of grieving a loved one, facing a sudden medical diagnosis, or trying to work through a natural disaster.
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@Sara -- ...or, helping a disabled relative with cognitive deficiencies. I struggle to understand some of the documentation that this relative must process in order to receive government assistance; I don't know how this person would handle this without help. I can't think that my case is unique.
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@Sara In early 2000, I became extremely ill due to bug bites (really). Prior to getting ill, I was a well educated person with a job I loved. After onset of illness, I could no longer work for the first time since my teens. Insurance denials were the norm during the standard 2 year wait to be approved for social security disability benefits. Getting help was a full time job impossible to do alone. The copious paperwork and appointments continually required by social security/social services creates enormous stress for those who need help most. Additionally, the language in the paperwork is always punitive, threatening loss of medical and basic needs help. For the first time in my life, I experienced stigmatization and marginalization and the resulting shame. I was constantly given wrong information, was unable to speak with the same person when I called any government office for help, and experienced significant wait times for any help while extremely ill. It’s a broken system that is nearly impossible to navigate for most people who live in compromised socioeconomic situations due to unexpected losses, life transitions, low wages, health emergencies, etc. My story is just one story in a multitude of stories of hardship and humanness. Significantly, the most challenging aspect of illness and subsequent socioeconomic challenges was not being ill. It was navigating a system designed to deny help and keep me in poverty.
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@Sara
Indeed,
And recall one of Elizabeth Warren's prime complaints of the banking industry (on behalf os consumers) was the pages and pages of legalese in 6 point type that was your 'credit card agreement'. Clearly designed to be overwhelming. She worked to get that changed to make those agreements more understandable to the average person. One hopes she would do more of the same as President.
28
Sometimes the bureaucratic complexity problem boils down to the lack of a filing cabinet or designated box under the bed. Back when I was poor and moved frequently, it was very hard to keep track of pay stubs and other papers that might be vital in some future snag. And depression, so often a component of poverty, amplifies the feeling of futility. Tightening requirements for eligibility only feels like proof that the system is rigged. Something as simple as giving benefits receivers guidance in storing paperwork would be a small step toward their gaining control and reducing stress and depression.
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@Pixelchips Absolutely good point. These are little things people take for granted - like keeping track of paper work, completing a job application, how to interview for a job, budget - to name a few things. Thank you for your comment.
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@Pixelchips - I am the primary caretaker in my family and agree that being "administratively" organized must be taught. I help several family members navigate on-going medical issues. I file the taxes, pay bills, keep calendars, stock the house with food, etc. What I make sure EVERYONE knows is the location of our accordion file which holds utility, mortgage, insurance, bank account, etc. bills and notices in case there is an emergency and we need to leave the house. Keeping this file current takes hours; I just took out last year's papers and began inserting 2020's. My college education makes this executive functioning less difficult. The description in this article about Ms. Buford filing her most important documents under her mattress makes me angry at the people around her who need to step up and figure out giving her and her family essential help,
14
The hurdles that prevent fraud also prevent people who truly need assistance from getting it. I support Andrew Yang and the Freedom Dividend. $1000 a month is life changing.
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@JM Soon no one will work and that $1000 will increase every single year. Our society is broken, everyone acknowledges that fact. The socioeconomic question is how do you make sure people stay engaged, demand educational competence, teach people a work ethic and not encourage entitlement. Conservatives and the ultra rich would bring back slavery if they were honest. Liberals have to admit their past policies failed.
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@JM 1000 a month is a rebate on the increased health premium that the AFA ushered in. What is needed is lower costs/prices, not more rebates tossed out lottery style.
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@Harry B $1000 a month is barely at the poverty line. No one is satiated financially on that sort of income. What it would do is even out the variability that comes with working jobs that are lower pay. Even if you are making $15 an hour, the cost of being sick, or having to deal with any multitude of personal issues that pop up in life, can mean the difference between covering your monthly expenses and not.
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