The 2015 USA Welfare Plan

[Tori]

A new one making the rounds on my Facebook feed.

THE 2015 USA WELFARE PLAN
For a guy and his girlfriend with two kids. Follow these proven steps.
1. Don't get married to her.
2. Always use your mom's address to get mail.
3. The guy buys a house.
4. Guy rents out house to his girlfriend who has 2 of his kids.
5. Section 8 will pay $900 a month for a 3 bedroom home.
6. Girlfriend signs up for Obamacare so guy doesn't have to pay for family insurance.
7. Girlfriend gets to go to college for free being a single mother
8. Girlfriend gets $600 a month for food stamps
9. Girlfriend gets free cell phone
10. Girlfriend get free utilities.
11. Guy moves into home but continues to use moms house to get mail sent to.
12. Girlfriend claims one kid and guy claims one kid on taxes. Now you both get to claim head of house hold at $1800 credit.
13. Girlfriend gets disability for being "crazy" or having a "bad back" at $1800 a month and never has to work again.
This plan is perfectly legal and is being executed now by millions of people.
A married couple with a stay at home mom yields $0 dollars.
An unmarried couple with stay at home mom nets.
$21,600 disability +
$10,800 free housing +
$6,000 free obamacare +
$6000 free food +
$4,800 free utilities +
$6,000 pell grant money to spend +
$12,000 a year in college tuition free from pell grant + $8,800 tax benefit for being a single mother = ---------
$75,000 a year in benefits
Any idea why the country is 18 + trillion dollars in debt?

[Cervus]

The question that I always ask people when they spew this ridiculous crap:

If getting all this free money is so easy, why aren't you doing it? Why would anyone bother to work when you can get free EVERYTHING?

Although "free college for single mothers" is a new one.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Yeah, I ask that too.

In fact, I knew someone who was applying for disability for something or other and grousing about how difficult it was, then a short time later began grousing about the people who are defrauding the system for thousands of dollars in disability payments. The obvious flaw in her argument never occurred to her.

[WildaBeast]

Originally Posted by Tori

5. Section 8 will pay $900 a month for a 3 bedroom home.

I know home prices vary widely depending on where you are, but around here $900 a month won't come close to covering the mortgage payment on a three bedroom house, especially when you include property taxes and insurance.

6. Girlfriend signs up for Obamacare so guy doesn't have to pay for family insurance.

I don't think the person who wrote this understands what the Affordable Care Act is (I can't bring myself to call it "Obamacare"). I know you can get subsidies whey buying insurance through the marketplaces if your income is low enough, but can you get enough in subsidies to lower your payments to $0? If this hypothetical person's income is low enough they might qualify for Medicaid, which was expanded in some states under the ACA, but that program existed previously.

$12,000 a year in college tuition free from pell grant

Wait, so now getting an education is a bad thing? And why is this supposed welfare queen bothering with college if she's getting disability and will never have to work again? Is she perpetually taking college classes for the rest of her life just to screw the government out of more money? Money that can only be spent on college related expenses, by the way, so it's not like it's going to improve her standard of living in any way unless she eventually uses her degree to get a decent job, but that seems to run counter to the entire theme of this thing.

[Avril]

I did have a friend in college who figured out that if she took 21 credit hours per semester she made very good money--but that was from tribal scholarships, not the United States government. (My tribe gave a flat amount for full time enrollment, which didn't even cover tuition. I was vaguely jealous.) So that's what she did, instead of having a job.

But 21 credit hours per semester is hard work--that's 7 classes at once, usually--and she only planned to do it until her graduation in about half the time as the rest of us.

All that to say, I knew of one person who sort of did that. But she was married and had no children.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Twenty one credit hours? Wow, sixteen is considered a brutal courseload in most programs.

[ASL]

Originally Posted by crocoduck_hunter

Twenty one credit hours? Wow, sixteen is considered a brutal courseload in most programs.

Depends on the school, I suppose. Where I went 16 was pretty standard, engingeering majors really did do close to 21, and I personally averaged about 18. But then I did do a summer session to lighten the load one year...

But I suppose the point stands. Probably not many welfare kings/queens pursuing an arduous curriculum. Kind of defies the stereotype.

[erwins]

A. All the stuff about listing mom's address but secretly moving in means committing fraud against the US government. Same with collecting disability for conditions you don't have. (And I agree with what's already been said about the difficulty for even genuinely disabled people in getting to collect disability payments.)

B. As far as I know, all states will track down the fathers of children who require support through programs like Welfare, SNAP, etc. and will sue them for support regardless of whether the single mom wants them to. It won't be too hard to track down the deadbeat dad who is living in the same house and claiming one of the kids as his dependant. And not identifying the known father would also be fraud.

C. I'm not sure, but I sort of doubt that you can rent out a house to someone you choose, and just get section 8 payments for it. I know there are long waiting lists in a lot of places to get section 8 housing.

There's probably more, but that's enough to pretty much undermine the whole premise.

[Esprise Me]

The part that annoys me the most is where they clearly outline all the ways these hypothetical people are lying to the government, and then claim it's all perfectly legal. No, it's not. It's fraud. People go to jail for that kind of thing.

I've been volunteering at expungement clinics for a local legal aid society, and I've seen a few people come in with criminal records for failing to report income when claiming food stamps etc. I'm not judging them; I've done a lot of advocacy work with low-income people, and I personally think the eligibility requirements are too strict and the payouts far too paltry, and I know that someone working a minimum wage job while receiving government assistance is not living high on the hog by any means. But I also see what it ends up costing them, and I certainly would not recommend that course of action to anyone.

[Coughdrops]

Part of me hopes that whoever wrote this screed loses their job, gets a terrible disease that bankrupts them, and has to beg on the streets as their fellow Republicans spit on them and deride them as a parasite and sub-human.

[Singing in the Drizzle]

The Affordable Care Act will cover the mother and dependents under the Bronze Plan at $0 payment cost. It does not cover the $3K-$5K 100% deductible that has to be paid out of pocket before the government starts paying the bill with the exception of a few procedures. Note some of is may have changed in the last year since I'm no longer under the ACA and get medical though employer.

[chillas]

Originally Posted by Singing in the Drizzle

It does not cover the $3K-$5K 100% deductible that has to be paid out of pocket before the government starts paying the bill with the exception of a few procedures.

At no time does the government pay the bill, the insurance - through a private insurer - pays the bill.

[Singing in the Drizzle]

Originally Posted by chillas

At no time does the government pay the bill, the insurance - through a private insurer - pays the bill.

You are correct and it was very early for me. But the point was that the person buying the insurance pays almost 100% of the first 3 - 5 thousand dollars per person on medical expenses, not the insurance company. Again this may have changed some this last year.

Item #6. Cannot insure boy friend under ACA with out them being a dependent on your tax return, other wise government will ask for their subsidy back at tax time. The same goes for any children not declared as a dependent on the tax form. If you do get a job in the middle of the year expect to pay back some are all of the subsidy used to offset insurance premiums.

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

Originally Posted by WildaBeast

I know home prices vary widely depending on where you are, but around here $900 a month won't come close to covering the mortgage payment on a three bedroom house, especially when you include property taxes and insurance.

Hah. In Denver, $900 gets you a studio or smallish one bedroom apartment.

[urbanlegendfanatic]

Originally Posted by Cervus

The question that I always ask people when they spew this ridiculous crap:

If getting all this free money is so easy, why aren't you doing it? Why would anyone bother to work when you can get free EVERYTHING?

Although "free college for single mothers" is a new one.

I have a coworker who is a single mother taking night classes and she's always saying how expensive it is. I'll have to tell her she can do it for free. Did they say how?

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by Cervus

The question that I always ask people when they spew this ridiculous crap:

If getting all this free money is so easy, why aren't you doing it? Why would anyone bother to work when you can get free EVERYTHING?

Although "free college for single mothers" is a new one.

Originally Posted by crocoduck_hunter

Yeah, I ask that too.

In fact, I knew someone who was applying for disability for something or other and grousing about how difficult it was, then a short time later began grousing about the people who are defrauding the system for thousands of dollars in disability payments. The obvious flaw in her argument never occurred to her.

I ask the similar question every time anyone does a "Poor people have it so easy" rant: if they really have it so easy, then why don't you sell or give away everything you have so you can eke out an existence on government benefits?

I have yet to receive a satisfactory answer to that question. Though remember, a corporation taking advantage of a loophole in order to make millions is okay; a poor person using a loophole in order to keep from starving to death, is evil and wrong.

[Not_Done_Living]

Originally Posted by Ryda Wong, EBfCo.

Hah. In Denver, $900 gets you a studio or smallish one bedroom apartment.

In Markham, $1500 gets you a room above someones garage

[Avril]

I give you, for your sticker shock pleasure, http://www.worstroom.com/

[Cervus]

Originally Posted by Avril

I give you, for your sticker shock pleasure, http://www.worstroom.com/

Isn't it illegal to rent out a bedroom that doesn't have a window?

[erwins]

I'm sure that the vast majority of those are not legal apartments or room rentals for various reasons.