DHS cuts off 18,000 college students from food stamps

The second largest terrorist organization in the world is the Republican Party followed by the US Federal Reserve Bank.

My son is currently enrolled in one of Michigan’s state universities. He has been an honor roll student every semester since he started. He is now a Junior. He has an on-campus job and has had a full-time job each summer. When he enrolled, the university told us that our unmet need (which equals the sum of all costs minus all forms of aid, i.e. grants, loans and scholarships, together with the maximum family contribution according to the FAFSA formula) was $5000 per year. That was before the state of Michigan took away his Michigan Merit and Michigan Promise scholarships. His unmet need now exceeds $7000 per year. He has a bridge card. As of April, he will no longer be eligible. Is this the kind of “fraud” that Agema wants to eliminate?

Wow, heres and idea Michigan perhaps monitor the regular usage and the fraudulent receivers that have even been prosecuted in the past now…drawing in three counties. Why do we NOT have a system that monitors.

Why are families that receive welfare for years and years entitled to 4 year Tuition paid college for their kids, while families or students in temporary need to better themselves get the crunch.

Deli food, pop,pizza to go, this is daily and abusive too.

Here’s an grandest plan, maybe we could provide a “promise ” budget for each of these kids to buy groceries Oops we took that too as they completed their commitment

For everyone putting down Republicans they are trying to get rid of the people who don’t really need it. I am a student at Michigan State and have friends who have parents who make over 100k a year and get food stamps. Its has even became a joke with many on campus. So don’t blame any party, blame the people who are wasting your tax dollars.

I am a college student. I’m 25 years old, and married to a 99′er–an unemployed machinist. I (inexplicably) only get 40.00 a month on my bridge card, but I really need it! I think it’s interesting that the right so successfully promotes the phantom of the Welfare Mother, or other needy freeloaders that supposedly exist in the majority of social service users.

Many things are broken about our system, because our system is controlled by corporations and banks. How am I supposed to be self sufficient in the future, in a low or moderately paying civil service job (like a social worker, for example), AND pay student loans? I mean, come on. Something is terribly wrong with this country–and that something is capitalism.

The store owners who knowlingly participated in this scam should be actively pursued and prosecuted.
The selfish students and greedy store owners are stealing from those truly in need.

I am a mother of two college students. My husband has been unable to work for over two years due to health problems. I was laid off from my job and am now working at a part time job because that is all that I can find. Without receiving any unemployment because I choose to work even though 1/2 the hours. My daughters desperatly need this assistance. We are unable to help them. I understand that there are students who really don’t need it (we know a few personally) however I believe that that amount is very small. My girls also work part time with a full class schedule. They need the help !

I’ve seen a lot of students here that were granted EBT cards because they lived in the dorms and didn’t work. I heard that there were people actually encouraging it.
That is wrong.
Denying people help just because of the status “student” on their file, even though they qualified by their circumstance alone?
I don’t know which is worse behavior.

I dislike this, their are reasons why many college students cannot find employment, as well as why 10.7% of the population cannot find work. it is because jobs are becoming harder and harder to get a hold of. I do not have a car or license. so i cant even get a pizza delivery job, and all the places around the dorm i live in( more like apartments) do not have any openings, and i try basically every month to go and see if they have jobs, how about instead of cutting off every single student, schedule a interview, after all you need to put a phone number and mailing address on the application of benefits. as well as mentioned before, what about those abusing the program, i know personally someone who is over 400 pounds and refuses to even do anything to loose weight, yet expects the government to basically cover his bills. he gets free room and board as well as food benefits, yet he can keep them, and me who cant get a job, living half the state away from my mom, cant keep my benefits?

cut down yes, shut off? no. determine need by interview, and place more restrictions on what can and cant be purchased with the food benefits program.

Do you want to know something really ludicrous? I called DHS early today, and asked them what were the stipulations to receive food stamps as a student. They basically told me you have to be in a work study program (Which working hours will lower your benefit amount to nearly nothing) or have a child. So i told her, i’m 32 years old, recently unemployed, and advised by the state to go back to school since there were no jobs in Michigan. Which i did, i’m now in my 2nd year of school since being laid off. I’ve worked since i was 16 years old, never drawn anything from the state, yet they cut people off like myself. So i said to her, basically what you are telling me, is someone like myself who has only given to the state since i started working isn’t eligible for help, but if i went and spread my legs to every man i came acrossed until i got pregnant then you’d help me? She laughed, and said, sadly yes. She didnt agree with the changes the state made either, but unfortunately there wasn’t anything she could do about it. So sad, and even more sad is my aunt by marriage, is the niece of Rick Snyder, so I’m related by marriage to that imbecile. Sigh.

Passing out food stamps based upon who has procreated is silly. It just is. Food stamps should be distributed to those in need, regardless of race, fertility, or gender. U.S. citizenship should be required to receive food stamps. I would rather college students receive aid over the merely unemployed; not only are students investing in themselves, they are investing in our nation’s future. The least we could do is make certain they have food in their bellies.

Agema seems to be a typical upper middle class white male who has no idea what goes on in the lower classes.  No, Mr. Agema, you don’t simply just apply for Food Assistance on the Internet and magically start getting benefits.  I notice there is no reference to where he got that idea or statement, so I can just as easy pull the “bulls_it” card and claim he is using false information.  The current system drags you kicking and screaming into the Department of Human Servcies (DHS) office, where you sit among the people of the lower classes of whom also are there with their story of poverty.  Mr. Agema, an airline pilot (who has most likely never even been close to poverty before)… let’s see what does a pilot make these days?  Somewhere in the 6-figure neighborhood or better I suppose.  And what up-bringing led him to this vocation?  A little digging might find that he is decendent of other rich, well-to-do upper middle class whites, who by simple social status have no clue what the lower middle class and poor go through.  Believe me, after going through the DHS system, it is NOT just some simple log-on-to-the-Internet system.  The system is ugly, it is an abusive govermental program that people like Mr. Agema dictate to and manage from afar, as if it is some kind of icky-poo thing.  I think the reform that needs to be put in place would be to have some of these well-to-do politicians take a day trip to the DHS waiting room and spend some time seeing just how screwed up this system is, and… what needs to be done is to create some type of work-able incentive to help people do for themselves and get off the government welfare roll.  One thing people do is to go to college.  There should be a positive push for those willing to better themselves, it is a model that should be expounded upon.  The people who burden the system aren’t those trying to better themselves, but rather those who have no incentive to change, and have learned through behavioral conditioning to accept welfare as a lifestyle.  People need to get up, stand up, and do for themselves.  Big government of the Democrats is not the answer, and the distancing rub the Republicans put on the lower classes will never work.  The government as a whole is broken, corrupt, and wasting trillions.  Meanwhile, as the wise man said said, we will always have the poor.  I am simply amazed at the prejudices toward the poor in our society.