Friday, March 16, 2012
HARRISBURG -- Advocates for the poor testified on Thursday against the reinstatement of a test restricting food stamps to people with limited assets.
Starting May 1, older people and the disabled with more than $9,000 in household assets will no longer qualify for food stamps, while people younger than 60 will no longer qualify if they have household assets of $5,500. While food stamps are a federal program, states can impose asset tests, and the Corbett administration has moved to reinstate a test the state dropped in 2008.
Representatives of groups that work with the poor, along with an organization of food merchants, spoke against the asset test on Thursday at a hearing held by the House Human Services Committee. Many said reinstating the test would burden caseworkers charged with reviewing documentation of household assets and intimidate people from asking for help.
"More red tape means more needy families without help or food," said Louise Hayes, an attorney with Community Legal Services.
Rochelle Jackson, a welfare advocate with Just Harvest, a Pittsburgh organization that addresses poverty and hunger in Allegheny County, spoke about her own experience receiving food stamps.
"Most people who utilize the food stamp program are also very honest and very grateful for the assistance they receive," she said.
The number of people receiving food stamps in Pennsylvania is in line with the state's rates of unemployment and underemployment, said Ellen Vollinger, legal director of the national Food Research & Action Center. She said the decision to reinstate the test is counter to a trend of states to eliminate the tests or allow recipients to accumulate more assets.
Representatives of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association said the asset test would impose a hardship on poor people while cutting into the business of Pennsylvania grocery and convenience stores.
The state will count savings and checking accounts, cash, stocks, bonds and secondary vehicles toward the asset limit, but not a person's home and the surrounding land, household goods, burial plots, life insurance or pension plans. Until the asset test was eliminated in 2008, the state restricted food-stamp recipients to $2,000 in household assets, or $3,250 for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Recipients will not have to provide documentation of their assets until their regularly scheduled review, said Carey Miller, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Welfare.
"The asset test is being imposed to ensure that individuals first deplete all readily available resources before relying on public assistance, and as a result preserve the benefit for those who have no additional means," Ms. Miller said.
The Department of Public Welfare estimates 4,000 households will lose food stamps because of the asset test. Across the state, 1.8 million people receive the benefit.
Karen Langley: klangley@post-gazette.com or 1-717-787-2141.
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