I had a friend whose husband was in the hospital dying of cancer.
This was around 2004.
Their insurance copay were mounting.
She was the only one working.
They had 3 kids.
She went to apply for TANF (Texas Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and Food Stamps (now called SNAP), 2 different programs, and were told they could only get a couple of $100 a month while someone who is not white, who can't barely speak English, who needs to fill out a TANF and Food Stamps application form that are printed in Spanish, with the same # of kids they had, could get $1000's a month plus free housing.
They told her because she was still working (part time), she earned $30 too much to qualify for the full amount of aide plus she having a couple of hundred $ too much in her and her husband's joint account.
So to get the full amount she had to be not working but one of the questions on both applications ask:
have you or anyone in the household who are primary income earners quit their job in the last X of months prior to applying for TANF or Food Stamps.
If you answer YES, then you may be disqualified from being approved.
I go to the grocery store and I see Hispanics (and Blacks) with shopping carts full of steaks, entire rack of ribs, lobster and they are paying it all with SNAP and if you follow them outside, they have a nice SUV or pick up truck, all souped up with $1000s rims and tires and running boards and lights and chrome and this and that to put all that food YOU AND I BOUGHT FOR THEM in.