As a State Employee, I try to pay a little bit of attention to the ongoing state budget issues. As are most government agencies, companies, and individuals, the State of Washington is struggling financially and is trying to figure out how to make ends meet. Here is a link to the Office of Financial Management's Budget Reduction Alternatives.
Two of the many proposed cuts are the State's programs that provide welfare and food stamp benefits to people who do not qualify for the federal versions of the same programs "due to lack of documentation of citizenship". It is estimated that elimination of these two programs would save the state $20.5 million dollars during one biennial budget cycle. Also, it should be noted that adult persons who do not have documentation of citizenship can still receive benefits on behalf of minors in their household who are citizens.
So, take for example an undocumented single mom with 3 documented children who works 20 hours a week at minimum wage... in Washington the minimum wage is $8.67 per hour, so she makes an average of $751.40 per month gross. Not enough to raise 3 kids, right? Especially if your rent is, say, $800/month. Well, with that income and rent you could get $668 in food stamps for 4 people, and if you reduce due to the rule change to the amount for just the three kids it would be $526. (If you want you can try out the online calculator here). Technically, of course, if the mom or anyone else other than those 3 children eats any of the food she buys with that $526 she is breaking the law, but that's just a technicality, right? Also, any children in public school would automatically be enrolled in the school lunch program. Furthermore, there isn't an online calculator, but with income that low and that many kids I bet you she qualifies to get cash benefits for her kids too. And bundled with cash benefits is medical coverage for the kids, plus eligibility for cash assistance opens the door to a variety of other programs including things like subsidized childcare while she is working, Section 8 housing, even a new program that provides recipients of state benefits with free cell phones and 250 free minutes per month through Assurance Wireless.
Also, perhaps you should consider that this scenario assumes that our single mom has voluntarily provided information about her job and proof of her income. If she has no social security number there may be no way to trace her income otherwise, and if she chooses not to report her income her benefits would be calculated assuming a zero income. (If you can't guess, that means they go up...) This scenario also assumes that she has truthfully declared her living situation and that she is a single mom. If she lives in a home owned by relatives or friends and pays no rent, but they write a statement saying that she does her benefit is increased to adjust for her supposed housing costs. You see, the common definition of "homeless" here at the "welfare office" is not that you actually sleep on the sidewalk at night, or under a bridge, or in a tent city, but rather that your name is not on the lease or the deed to the place where you live.* It also helps if you use a PO box and don't give the USPS your home address. Furthermore, if the father of her children also has no social security number, it may be impossible to prove that he is or ever has been in this country, let alone that he lives with her and their children, or that he works under the table framing houses, as a painter, or as a farm worker in Yakima where the going rate for cherry pickers was $15/hour this summer... And, of course, people who work under the table, whether they are citizens of our country or not, don't pay taxes on any of the money they are earning, which means they aren't "paying into the pot" from which government benefits are funded.
As a disclaimer, I'm not racist, nor to I have a grudge against immigrants. What I do find upsetting is people who cheat the system and commit fraud. That goes for people of all races, nationalities, etc. But, it does make it a bit easier to stay "under the radar" and "off the books" when you were never "on the books" to begin with...
You may think that the types of fraud that I have hinted at above are a bit far-fetched, but in the course of my job I see examples of these kinds of fraud many times a day. I am not even an employee of the Community Services Division which actually administers these programs. I work for a separate division, but there is some overlap in our clientele and our programs affect each other enough that clients tell us a completely different story, and we have to figure out how to deal with it...
* I was told a few weeks ago by a fellow state employee that over the multiple decades she has been a government employee, she only ever had one client who claimed to be homeless that she believed actually fit the traditional street/bridge/tent definition of homelessness. On the flipside, I have seen people walk into the state office where I work and apply for benefits, and then drive off in a Mercedes or a Hummer. Of course, for some benefits only reported income is a factor, not assets like a vehicle, or, say $20.5 million dollars in a retirement account...
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