osewalrus

Was reminded by reading this Ars Technica article that a lot of state and federal aid programs (as well as a lot of assistance programs run by private companies like pharmaceutical companies to forestall federal regulation and have a captive audience of adorable puppies to threaten when regulators come around) are linked to being on one of the 4 major federal aid programs: disability insurance, SNAP (aka food stamps), and TANF (aka Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, aka welfare), subsidized school lunch program. Most programs use these to determine eligibility because actually figuring out who is poor and needs aid is expensive and controversial and an overall pain in the butt. So why do it yourself when you can rely on the feds?

Raising the bar to kick people off these programs therefore does more than deny them the benefit of the program. It has a cascade effect for other safety net programs such as Lifeline (phone service).