Just yesterday, I completed an application for snap benefits. That’s all I wanted and needed assistance with. Because I’m a part-time worker, my finances at times get strapped because I’m paying off a loan from a bank and it makes my working budgets feel a little compressed. I need some breathing room here.
I hope I get them but I never intend to be on it forever, I just need some financial security and resource assurance. I’ve always tried being a person who looked to things like this and only go to them when I needed them, not because I wanted them and mooch off from them.
Billions of dollars given to corporations and the 1% and they don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t blame yourself, just do what you have to.
I will say, as a tax payer, if you are eligible for them, FUCKING TAKE THEM! Take every ¢ you can make reasonable use of!
I pay into the pool to provide a safety net to everyone. I’ve bounced off it myself, when I was younger. I want to know that it is doing its job for those that need it.
Proviso, I’m based in the UK. I’m quite sure a lot of tax payers, world wide, feel the same and would also give you “permission”.
They’ve literally structured our economy around paying you enough to qualify for it. Not your fault our leaders are morons.
Multi million dollar Businesses game the system to pay you so little they don’t have to pay benefits and you qualidt for SNAP. Its disgusting, and they blame people for fraud when we’re being starved to death. Fuck capitalism.
No lmao. I’m fighting them right now for that money. I paid into the system, the system bankrupt me, now the system pays out. Social insurance.
No one should.
Think about how much you’ve paid in taxes in your life. What could possibly be wrong with trying to get some of that money back?
Not only that, it prevents them from spending it turning little brown children into skeletons in various ways.
People that consistently and intently vote against government assistance should consider some reflection though. Maybe it’ll get though to them that others should be assisted in times of need…
Fuck no. The only thing needed to cure this shame is glancing at last year’s tax return.
Rich people have their hands out 24/7.
Look at all the government money Musk took.
Ronald Reagan got rich by making sure he was always the poorest guy in the room. He sucked up to his bosses at General Electric [then one of the biggest companies in the USA] and got to invest in sweetheart deals.
George W. Bush was given a US major league baseball team.
Take every penny your qualify for.
No. They were put there for a reason in order to help me out.
The programs are there for a reason. Don’t listen to idiots with an IQ lower than the number of M&Ms that come in a Halloween serving.
I think guilt tripping is part of it in the US. Here (Europe) we just apply for the stuff that were eligible for.
In the UK, too. The whole process seems designed to be as intrusive, dehumanising, and shaming as possible.
As The Clash say in “Know Your Rights”:
You have the right to food money
Provided of course
You don’t mind a little
Investigation
Humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
RehabilitationOooo thank you, “I, Daniel Blake” is next up on my list of movies to watch!
Can confirm.
Because it is.
Bingo. They save money when people don’t apply for benefits they deserve or have “earned” in the US.
Nope. I got laid off over a year ago, then diagnosed with cancer. I feel guilty for being detered by how complicated some of them are and for not taking full advantage of the programs while I’m at a point where I really do need them and qualify for them. I’m on the mend now, and as soon as I can find a job again, I’ll be glad to be paying back into those programs.
Glad to hear you’re on the mend! Don’t feel guilty, feel angry they make vital programs so complicated and difficult to apply and get approved for
You paid your tax benefits before and you’ll pay them for the rest of your life. Get what you paid for.
I had to go through all of this so many times when struggling with a failed life and business.
I had ONE good agent who helped me and reminded me that I pay for all these programs, and the agent’s job is to help us qualify for them, not to judge nor moralize any part of it.
All the other agents judged and moralized to a degree that I eventually let my SNAP funding expire because I couldn’t keep going in there and facing the people scouring my business receipts for some implied wrongdoing.
Despite that, it’s still your right, you still paid for all of it, even if you don’t pay income tax, there is tax on anything and everything you buy and do, so you’re not doing anything other than collecting what you’ve loaned to the government. Hold your head up and look them in the eye if they ever challenge you, and apply for every goddamn program you’re eligible for, and if anyone gives you shit about it, you talk to their manager, and if they don’t help, talk to that person’s manager.
(One agent who was openly hostile and lectured me about “looking capable of working” and had a bad attitude through the whole process actually got fired because I complained, the manager of that DES office actually called me to let me know and to tell me they felt bad about it and that it’s not their job to be judgemental or invalidate others.)
Do you feel guilty when you are paid for your work?
No. You are an employee and you work and you are entitled to payment for your work.
Same goes for government assistance. You are a citizen and you are entitled to that assistance. It’s literally no different. Our democracy set that assistance aside for you. It’s yours, and until Congress changes the rules, you are entitled to it.
No. I pay taxes while using none of those programs and those programs are there to give people a hand up who are struggling. You deserve a roof over your head, a warm & safe place to sleep, clean water to drink and bathe, and decent food to eat. You are human and trying to meet your basic needs. People who have more can support those who have less. Simple.
