Comment by yardie | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yardie | Hacker News Reader

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I used to think similar to this, even though I was and grew up poor. But after working with a few NGOs I've found the system is designed to screen out the people that need the help. At the same time the people that know how to work the system get the most aid.

Most welfare requires that you report 0 income, so instead of searching for work working welfare becomes the job. Showing up every day to the local office, wait in line, fill in papers, come back tomorrow, and repeat.

A few years ago I had a friend quit her job as a social worker because she was expecting a baby and her company didn't provide health insurance. She was able to get Medicaid by going on unemployment as a single mother with child. Then she had to stay unemployed because the cost of daycare was more than her income. Social welfare in the US is so screwed up because you have to be backed into a corner to get it and then have to stay there because your time becomes devoted to keeping track of all the paperwork.

>'...the cost of daycare was more than her income.'

Covering the gap when coming off of assistance is a major problem.

The sharp cutoffs and various criteria for violations turn leaving assistance into a leap of faith.

A small raise becomes a big problem when the increase adds up to far less than the food benefit you'll lose all at once for exceeding the income limit. Likewise, you can't build a basic emergency fund when two thousand dollars in the bank will kill your SSI.

The SSI one also tends to discourage disabled people from doing any work, because any ability to earn income, even a small amount intermittently, is taken as evidence that you aren't really permanently disabled. I have an American uncle with MS, who can't work at all now, but in earlier stages of the disease he probably could have worked some of the time (not a steady job, because he'd be relatively better for a few months then relatively worse again, but a part-time job for part of the year would probably have been ok). But he was advised that SSI disability just isn't set up for that: you can't be completely disabled some months a year and work part-time other months. You are either permanently disabled and get a monthly benefit, or you aren't disabled and get nothing. Since he wouldn't be able to work regularly enough to support himself through work, he went on SSI disability and didn't work at all, which was probably not ideal for either the economy or him.

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