bahmer wrote:
My daughter and her husband were at the grocery store last year and a couple ahead of them had a birthday cake, steaks, hamburger, hot dogs, buns, chips, and other party supplies and they paid with a wick card and then they loaded all of the food and supplies into a Cadillac Escalade.
I'm with you on cutting them off.
They couldn't have paid w/ WIC for ANY of those things, they could have with an EBT card, but NOT Wic, Wic is Women, Infant, and Children, and there are ONLY certain things they can purchase with WIC. Milk, eggs, peanut butter, cereal, juices, formula, baby foods, fruit, and vegetables. (you can download a list of foods that WIC can be used for https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/final-rule-revisions-wic-food-packages )
Now, EBT, Party supplies that are NON food or drink items can not be paid for using WIC OR an EBT card.
But also, IF a parent gets Child Support, IF it's paid to the state they have the OPTION of having the money directly deposited into their bank account OR put on a card much like an EBT card, which can be used as 'cash payment' as an option on the card.
Something else people apparently do not consider is that the person MAY have had an awesome job and purchased that Cadillac, and then lost their job.
And instead of selling the car they kept it, and the assistance they are getting is temporary, and that assistance they put money into it when they had that awesome job--and now they are merely getting a portion of THEIR OWN MONEY back.
My son-in-law works two jobs, one making around $11 and a part time job making $15 an hour, he had medical emergency and was laid up in the hospital for 4 months and the doctors didn't release him until the end of last month, he just went back to work this month, so he hasn't had an income since Oct of last year. He's been working since he was 16 years old, and people try and make them 'feel guilty' for getting food stamps, and other assistance, that he's been paying into FOR YEARS. They were blessed that the ONE of the companies he worked for assisted them in paying their rent and other bills--through their employee emergency assistance program. They don't own a Cadillac, but one of their daughters birthdays fell during this time, should they not attempt to make her birthday as special as they can, using their EBT card??? If not, why do you think they shouldn't??
We as her parents, couldn't help as much as we would have liked to, because my husband lost his job in Oct. the company he worked for closed down his department, 8 people lost their jobs. We had enough money to pay all of our bills and make it 4 months, but because he got a severance package, he couldn't even get unemployment benefits until the end of what they consider the end of the severance payments. So if you get eight weeks worth of severance pay--well, you can't get unemployment benefits until that eight weeks is up, if have a certain amount of money in the bank even if it is set aside so you can pay your bills, you can't get assistance. He was applying for jobs, but people weren't hiring, he finally found something in March, so he was out of work for nearly 6 months, should we have sold our car?? We don't have a Caddy either, but we do have a nice car, that was purchased when he was working and making a great income. (oh, and Unemployment benefits can also be placed on one of those cards). But I'm curious, how do they know what 'type' of card the person used?
The thing is, when you say such things, you don't know the person's circumstances. You don't know if they JUST started receiving those benefits after having been out of work for months, and they received a severance package and they limited their grocery shopping to the basics to make sure their bills were paid, but couldn't get those benefits because they had the money from their severance pay, or if they had a medical emergency, or another job loss or something, so they decided they would splurge a little when they got them, after they have paid into the system for years. Why shouldn't they get some of their money back and use it for what they want??