11/11/2013
Arthur Delaney
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/11/food-stamp-cut_n_4242565.html?utm_hp_ref=social-security
Opinion:
A food stamp cut that took effect in November and will negate the cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security benefits for some people who are retired and/or disabled. First off, I believe that the food stamp cuts in general had a strong negative impact on some families in America. Anyway, the Social Security Administration said that starting next year, all 57 million Social Security beneficiaries will get a 1.5 percent boost in their benefits to protect them from inflation. For some households that receive both Social Security and food stamp benefits, the Social Security boost will be smaller than a food stamp cut that took effect last week. Cheryl Kathman of Norwood, Ohio, for instance, gets almost $1,000 per month in Social Security benefits and had been receiving $228 in food stamps for herself and her son. The Social Security check will soon increase by about $15, but the food stamps have already gone down by $20. In this case, regardless of the fact she is getting more Social Security money, she is still losing out because she is losing more money to the food stamp cuts. And although it is only a monthly loss of 5 dollars, when that is the only money that they have to be spending on food, every dollar is needed.
I feel like the cuts and the social security boost were not designed to be offsetting or that the one was cut to fund the other. If you read a little further it says that the SNAP decrease was caused by Demcoratic congressman used the money supposed to go to SNAP for other things. The exact same thing that is happening to the Social Security Benefits would be happening to SNAP if it wasn't for the congressmen's involvement.
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