{"id":11842,"date":"2023-10-01T16:50:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T16:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=11842"},"modified":"2023-10-01T16:50:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T16:50:27","slug":"how-states-humiliate-single-parents-who-need-government-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=11842","title":{"rendered":"How states humiliate single parents who need government assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“To receive government assistance in the US is to submit yourself to a whole host of requirements, some reasonable, some harsh. Each state, and each program within it, has their own requirements, which might be a test of income, of assets, or even of behavior. Some are reasonable \u2014 a millionaire probably doesn\u2019t need food stamps; others are more punitive. A disabled single man wanting to get Medicaid in Maryland, for instance, has to show he doesn\u2019t have assets totaling over $2,500<\/a>. To receive unemployment benefits in Texas, quitting a job to take care of a child makes you ineligible<\/a>, unless that child has a medical illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One requirement is especially odious, and little-known and little-studied: In many states, for many aid programs, you must agree to cooperate with authorities on enforcing child support<\/a> against the parent of your child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending on the state where they live, a single parent may have to agree to help the government recoup child support in order to receive child care assistance, food stamps, cash welfare, or Medicaid. They may have to establish parenthood of their child, provide estimated dates and locations of conception<\/a>, home or work addresses of the other parent, or even sign away<\/a> their right to child support payments to the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that around 80 percent of custodial parents are women<\/a>, this is a welfare restriction with a disproportionate effect on one gender \u2014 and one that explicitly punishes you for being a single parent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a country, we\u2019ve operated under a perverse version of the maxim that it\u2019s better to let 10 guilty men go free than one suffer: that it\u2019s better that 10 deserving people receive nothing than a single undeserving one get health care or food. Small-government conservatives create bureaucracies to try to prevent it, and states micromanage peoples\u2019 lives watching for it. But the government doesn\u2019t need to operate that way”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2023\/9\/20\/23880723\/child-support-parents-government-assistance-requirement<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“To receive government assistance in the US is to submit yourself to a whole host of requirements, some reasonable, some harsh. Each state, and each program within it, has their own requirements, which might be a test of income, of assets, or even of behavior. Some are reasonable \u2014 a millionaire probably doesn\u2019t need food stamps; others are more punitive. A disabled single man wanting to get Medicaid in Maryland, for instance, has to show he doesn\u2019t have assets totaling over $2,500. To receive unemployment benefits in Texas, quitting a job to take care of a child makes you ineligible, unless that child has a medical illness.
\nOne requirement is especially odious, and little-known and little-studied: In many states, for many aid programs, you must agree to cooperate with authorities on enforcing child support against the parent of your child.<\/p>\n

Depending on the state where they live, a single parent may have to agree to help the government recoup child support in order to receive child care assistance, food stamps, cash welfare, or Medicaid. They may have to establish parenthood of their child, provide estimated dates and locations of conception, home or work addresses of the other parent, or even sign away their right to child support payments to the state.<\/p>\n

Given that around 80 percent of custodial parents are women, this is a welfare restriction with a disproportionate effect on one gender \u2014 and one that explicitly punishes you for being a single parent.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“As a country, we\u2019ve operated under a perverse version of the maxim that it\u2019s better to let 10 guilty men go free than one suffer: that it\u2019s better that 10 deserving people receive nothing than a single undeserving one get health care or food. Small-government conservatives create bureaucracies to try to prevent it, and states micromanage peoples\u2019 lives watching for it. But the government doesn\u2019t need to operate that way”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2023\/9\/20\/23880723\/child-support-parents-government-assistance-requirement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[169,1948,150],"class_list":["post-11842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-children","tag-parents","tag-welfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11843,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11842\/revisions\/11843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}