Trump Administration Withdraws Food Stamps from Thousands of Georgia Residents

Because the Trump Administration is hell-bent on inventing new ways to fuck with marginalized groups, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia has decided to be especially cruel to food stamp recipients. Suggested Reading Suge Knight Claims Tupac’s Mother Made This Shocking Move in His Final Moments Spoilers: Black TikTok Has Theories on Whether Taraji’s Daughter…

Because the Trump Administration is hell-bent on inventing new ways to fuck with marginalized groups, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia has decided to be especially cruel to food stamp recipients.

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Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
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As nearly 8,000 people have had their SNAP benefits rescinded between April and Octoberโ€”nearly a 2o-fold increase from 2017.

Also of note, from October 2017 through March 2018, the state removed an average of 356 people a month from food stamps for failing to maintain gainful employment.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program requires recipients without children over the age of 18 to work at least 20 hours a week or go to school in order to be eligible for food stamps. Georgia officials have been using a new data management system โ€” dubbed the โ€œGeorgia Gatewayโ€ โ€” to help identify people who donโ€™t qualify.

โ€œWe have more data elements available to us with this system than we have had with any of our other eligibility systems,โ€ explained Jon Anderson, of the stateโ€™s Division of Family and Children Services, which handles SNAP.

โ€œWe are more confident in the system being able to identify ABAWDs [able-bodied adults without dependents] than we were in earlier systems,โ€ he told AJC.

Approximately 71 percent of SNAP recipients are families with dependent children, while a third have relatives who are either elderly or disabled.

25-year-old Covington resident Miraco Belcher detailed his own struggles with this new status quo:

Belcher had worked a series of warehouse jobs until he was injured in an auto accident, fracturing his spine. Since the accident, he said he suffers seizures, especially around bright or flashing lights, making it hard for him to work.

Belcher applied for disability payments through Social Security, but the adjudication process for those benefits can take years. In August, he was tagged as โ€œable bodiedโ€ and unemployed, so the state removed him from the SNAP program.

โ€œIโ€™ve been without stamps for two months now. It hurts,โ€ he said in an interview in October. โ€œI canโ€™t work and I canโ€™t come up with money for groceries.โ€

Belcher was baffled by the notice he received from the state ending the benefit.

โ€œIf I could work, I wouldnโ€™t need those stamps,โ€ he said. โ€œI just donโ€™t really understand it.โ€

Thankfully Belcherโ€™s benefits were reinstated last month after his primary care physician vouched for him. But due to financial limitations or other obstacles, countless others arenโ€™t nearly as lucky.

โ€œIโ€™m not sure what the clients are supposed to do when they get these letters (from DFCS),โ€ said attorney David Deganian, who is representing Belcher in his disability claim. โ€œMost doctors donโ€™t want to do that unless they have a chronological (record of) treatment.โ€

Meanwhile many recipients who have been labeled as able-bodied say that while theyโ€™ve tried to secure jobs, there just arenโ€™t any available in their area.

โ€œPeople who use SNAP who can work, do work,โ€ said senior policy analyst Alex Carmardelle, who works at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. โ€œIf you are not working and you are receiving SNAP itโ€™s because of a serious reason.โ€

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