Food stamps-no surprise

Home » News
Record 20% of Households on Food Stamps in 2013
January 21, 2014 - 4:34 PM
By Ali Meyer
Subscribe to Ali Meyer RSS
866 216


(AP Image)

(CNSNews.com) -- A record 20% of American households, one in five, were on food stamps in 2013, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The numbers also show there was a record number of individuals on food stamps in 2013 and that the cost of the program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), was at an all-time high.

The USDA says that there were 23,052,388 households on food stamps in the average month of fiscal 2013, an increase of 722,675 from fiscal year 2012, when there were 22,329,713 households on food stamps in the average month.


Those numbers were compared with the Census Bureau’s estimates for the total number of U.S. households in the last month (September) of each fiscal year to determine the percentage of all U.S. households in that fiscal year that were on food stamps.

In 2013, according to the Census Bureau, there were 115,013,000 households, which means the that the households on food stamps--23,052,388 households--equaled 20.0% of all households.

In the past five years alone, the number of households on food stamps has greatly increased. In fiscal year 2009 – Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2009 -- the number of households on food stamps was 15,232,115. Five years later, in 2013, that amount had increased by 51.3% to reach 23,052,388 households.

- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/record-20-households-food-stamps-2013#sthash.ZgVa45S0.dpuf

Obama is covering America...one burrito at a time...

  


.

I never had the need for government assistance, but if I did I'm glad that there are programs for the needy.

At the end of last year the food stamp program was cut because the stimulus package contribution ran out. I don't know how much that will effect the existing amount they spend today but it was cut.

As the economy recovers and people go back to work, SNAP participation and program costs, too, can be expected to decline. Unemployment has begun to slowly fall, and SNAP participation growth has flattened out. The Congressional Budget Office projects SNAP participation to begin declining in 2015, with both unemployment and SNAP participation returning to near pre-recession levels by 2022.
 
SNAP has a strong record of program integrity.
 
SNAP error rates declined by 57% since FY2000, from 8.91% in FY2000 to a record low of 3.80% in FY2011.[vi] The accuracy rate of 96.2% (FY2011) is an all-time program high and is considerably higher than other major benefit programs, for example Medicare fee-for-service (91.5%) or Medicare Advantage Part C (88.6%). [vii]
 
Two-thirds of all SNAP payment errors are a result of caseworker error. Nearly one-fifth are underpayments, which occur when eligible participants receive less in benefits than they are eligible to receive.[viii]
 
The national rate of food stamp trafficking declined from about 3.8 cents per dollar of benefits redeemed in 1993 to about 1.3 cent per dollar during the years 2009 to 2011.[ix] As you may have read in local news, USDA is aggressively fighting trafficking, but while there are individual cases of program abuse, for every one instance of fraud, there are hundreds of stories of heartbreaking need.
 
The perception that a sizeable portion of SNAP participants do not really need benefits is flatly wrong. SNAP very effectively targets nutrition assistance at the poorest households, those with gross income of up to 130 percent of poverty and up to $2000 in assets. While some states have exercised a state option to align SNAP eligibility rules with other programs, enabling them to serve households over the federal income and asset limit, the vast majority of households fall well below the maximum. Eighty-three percent of SNAP households have gross income at or below 100 percent of the poverty line and these households receive about 91 percent of all benefits.[xvi] The average SNAP household has only $333 in assets.
 
http://feedingamerica.org/how-we-fight-hunger/programs-and-services/public-assistance-programs/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program/snap-myths-realities.aspx

Does any American receive more Government "benefits" than the American Indian? I've driven through many Reservations out West, and the depression* is palpable.

It's an open-air ghetto.

(Think of Detroit in the desert).

Yet they continue to vote for the "Dim" Party, and continue to live in "Poverty"—and FAT—lives.  Just before elections, they get visited by "Dim" Party disciples, who hand out various goodies.

*...except where there are Casinos—usually run by people named "Saul" or "Sal".




.

Maybe if the focus shifted to...

Why are there no decent middle class jobs anymore?

...maybe something could be done.

Don't count on it.

Anti Federalist wrote:Maybe if the focus shifted to...

Why are there no decent middle class jobs anymore?

...maybe something could be done.

Don't count on it.

According to Obama, the Middle Class has been replaced by vending machines.

  


.