My husband works days, I work nights--ta da, no babysitter needed. We don't make enough to make it, but too much to get help, funny how that works. If you wonder why you're getting dirty looks, it because we (the working poor) are tired of paying for healthy people who are able to work, but choose not to. It's much easier to make excuses for not going to work & being a productive member of society. If for some reason a person isn't able to work due to illness, etc., we understand that & those people should get help, but they never do. It's the people who milk the system for all it's worth that get hundreds of dollars a month in "food stamps", not to mention medical, housing, etc.
We make sacrafices to make ends meet. In my 22 years of dealing with the public on welfare, the majority of people eat better than us, wear better clothes, nicer cars, nails done, cell phones & I could go on & on.
I am tired of taking care of people who don't want to do anything for themselves. Don't want the dirty looks, then do like the rest of us do, get a job, pay your own bills & stop living off the working people who pay taxes.

I'm OK with people using the welfare system until they can get back to work. What I'm not OK with is the people who stay on welfare until they are getting ready to be booted out of the system and then claim they are disabled and start getting a life check from our social security. Most use the excuse they are mentally ill. It's a shame some people have no self pride!!

ozzy84, Im not from ravenna

Well I have no problem helping someone that is helping themselves, But as for the ones that make FOODSTAMPS/Section8 a career, Get a job We will not pay for you to have baby after baby!!!!! I live in a very small town that is full of career welfare mothers, Just the other day I stopped on my way home from work(Yes i have a job)at the Dollar Store and I'm getting bread and milk with my last 5 bucks and this thing in front of me is buying candy bars and 2 liters of pop with her foodstamp card she bought almost 20$ worth of candy and pop, I had to count to 20 to keep from telling her what I thought of her and her swelled up belly that we are also paying for, I for one am tired of working every day (my husband also) and these people laying around making babies, I say if your on welfare you can not have any more kids until you can afford to pay for them on your own, My husband has Ins on our family it cost us 105.00 a week, So guess what girls and guys get a job/ stop having kids you can't support, Because I for one am sick of it, Wake up America its time to shut the system down, Now I know some of you do gooders will be all huffy with me, I don't have a problem helping someone that wants to help themselves but the free loaders gotta GO>>>>>>>>>>>>>

you all are a bunch of ravenna rejects hahaha

you all are a bunch of ravenna rejects hahaha

This debate drones on and on here.

It is the typical 80-20 rule. 80% of recipients bilk the system and 20% utilize it as temporary assitance, step up and get off it.

Unfortunately that is the way it is. Forget about it. It ain't never gonna change man..It is baked into our culture for way too long. Fixing that freaking mess is like boiling the ocean or solving world hunger.

You better believe that with the state of our economy, inflation and loss of Ohio manufacturing it's going to get worse. The train is a commin!!!

Way to go, Hill5!! Your post is brilliant. It is a sad state of affairs when the system is being bilked like that.

I have an Aunt & Uncle who were once on Welfare. My uncle hurt his back, and couldn't work for a while after surgery. They had to go on assistance, and he had to train for a new occupation. He did. My Aunt worked all the over time that she could while uncle was down. He went to school and became a surgery technician. When he started to work, my Aunt quit her job and went to nursing school. They were only on the assistance while Uncle was not working.

They used Welfare the way that it was MEANT to be used. As ASSISTANCE. It was not meant as a handout. It was supposed to be a hand-up.

But there are families who have brought up their children on welfare, and the only lesson their children learn is how to collect it themselves.

Holy Moly, it's not supposed to be generational. that's how it seems to be these days.

As I deposit my paychecks into the bank, and I cut checks to pay my bills, I wonder how in the world anyone can live with themselves after taking ADVANTAGE of the system that I (and everyone like me) pays for.

Do you all want to hear a story that will burn your butts...b/c it did mine!!!! Since I try to do everything I can for my family, findind a job to work opposite my husband has proved to be easier said then done, and like Keri, we don't receive practically anything. We are punished for trying. But..here's the story....

So, my brother and his girlfriend have been on welfare (notice I didn't say assistance) since she was pregnant with my nephew. She has cheated the system over and over and over and over. OMG, its never ending. They are living on that sec 8 or whatever that program is (public housing???), receiving medical, foodstamps etc. So, my brother calls me the other day (mind you, he is very tired of her doing what I'm about to tell you) and tells me that they lost my nephews medical b/c she started working (mind you its a minimum wage job). Don't ask me how, b/c pretty much until the child turns 18 they can get medical (like I said, for the most part), its just the parents who can't. For some reason I don't think she is going to her interviews for the re-apply process. Anywhoo, she called my brother at work and told him that he either needed to have his boss to pay some of his hours under the table, or she was going to drop her hours or quit so my nephew could stay on the medical. They don't report any changes ever by the way. So what did she do last week...made up some excuse that her boss made her mad, and quit her job!!!! But what can I do...nothing!! Call and report what?? She is the pure example of abusing the system. She has been doing this for 3 years!!!!!!!!!!!! Here I am, feeling guilty for what little I do recieve (and I mean minimal) for only one week more, and here she is doing everything in her power to receive even more!! She has no idea on how to live w/o assitance. I'M NOT KIDDING!!! NO IDEA!!! They don't live in Portage County, so I don't really know if that would effect the medical guide lines or whatever. But I just figured I would share a story.

However, Shannon..you should of just kept your mouth shut!!!! You sounded like a complete moron with your last two posts!!! But thats ok, if you like digging yourself deeper in the hole, then go for it. But seriously, go back to school. Because your first time around didn't work out so well. Hopefully, in 8 years I won't have to be your attorney for ripping off the system. I say 8 years because that is how long its going to take me to acheive my goal of being an attorney. Something I should of done from the get go, but needless to say, I'm doing it now. Attorney's can't be outsourced to other countries right lol!!

Mommy-
Any other country and Shannon would be SOL... Yes outta luck. Why is it govt's responsibility to enable her to fulfill her desire to have two children close in age to one another? OK so she didn't plan the second one and got pregnant on birth control but WHY why AND more WHY, is it societies and govt's responsibility to take care of her and give milk to her young uns? (yes folks, I know the spelling is not correct!)
Where is the pride? She already boasted about living with his? parents? Heck if I could have lived with my children's paternal grandparents when they were small I'd be rich now. Just the mere fact that they can live with family members should have them in gratitude, no instead there she is standing in line and sitting at the welfare office with her hand out... Give Back...really it doesn't hurt!!! Instead of take take and more take! On the dole! GENERATIONS WILL FOLLOW! Stop the cycle now! Oh free food, milk and cheese and she is whining about someone who works 40 plus hours looking at her funny and uttering a comment under their breath. Yea, me too....I'm frustrated that your on the gravy train and YES THE taxpayers pay for it no matter if it is local, state or federal.
As I have said all along, make these people give their hours back in a format that is equal to minimum wage, go work at the library, the nursing home, the hospital....they are all county entities and could use some help with clientele, cleaning up the grounds, paperwork. If the people on the dole had to "work" yes a 4 letter word, for their benefits they'd drop off the dole like flies!