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That's the thing Happy... the forms aren't even being sent all the time anymore. Apparently in the state of West Virginia, if your listed address isn't a traditional single family home or apartment you are considered homeless. Now I realize that in most cases that is probably true... but taking West Virginia for example.. There are thousands of oil/gas people who are there, living in RV's, motel's, etc., all classified as homeless and receiving free lunch's when in all actuality they can probably afford it more than some of the other resident's. You'd think the schools would at least qualify the kids before just putting them on... unless... their getting more in subsidies perhaps?
It works like this......One year a program is funded with 10 million dollars. Politicians assume it's always going to grow and next year provide 11 million dollars. Those running these programs know that if the 11 million isn't spent somewhere, someone might actually question whether or not 12 million is need the following year.
That why the graph shows a far higher participation rate than growth rate with those needing free lunches. If a need is being met you have to create a new need to continue to grow the programs.
In all schools. At the beginning of the school year all kids get a form sent home about the free lunch program. It's a self-certify ..you check the box that your children are entitled to free lunch and send the form back. Schools do not require any proof.
The person that I was asking said they didn't need to fill out anything but the whole school got it.
They were saying that you didn't need to fill out the paper work to get it.
Only in some states. Did you not have any kids in school ?
My son graduated HS in 2009 and I got that form the beginning of every school year going back to when my son was in elementary school.
And even if you didn't qualify yourself that form still had to be returned as the Fed mandated 100% response. I don't recall which year it started but I didn't fill out the form as we didn't qualify.
After 2 weeks I got a call from the principal about the "missing form". I told her we didn't qualify so I didn't bother sending it back and she informed me that everyone had to send it back because they had to have a 100% response rate to the government otherwise they wouldn't get their money. Since I had thrown out the form I had to go into school to fill out the form which qualified you for free lunch saying I didn't qualify for free lunch.
You think this is bad, which it is, I know a couple of people that tried to cancel their food stamps and welfare money because they got a job. After 4 attempts to cancel, they still get them.....
Just do nothing (including NOT using the food stamps) and eventually they stop. You have to 'recertify' annually, so if you do nothing, they stop at that time, also if you have unused food stamps they also expire eventually.
Well neither the phone companies nor the FCC have released any stats on Lifeline subscribers.
How did you come up with "majority are White" ?
Racist much ?
If you are poor, like the 59% that submitted proof then your phone/plan were not canceled.
The rest..assume they are scammers that cannot prove they are poor or only have one subscription per household.
I'm not buying your crap about how I'm attacking the poor. Go peddle that sob story on someone else.
41% of $2 billion is significant money.
Now this part bothers me. I rent a room in a house with several other people. There is no landline in the house, everyone has their own cell phone (I have a cheap prepaid phone.)
If one person has a subsidized phone, why should that make everyone else in the house ineligible? If you're too poor to have your own housing, why should you be penalized for that?
41% is no chump change. 41% of the 6 million lifeline subscribers cannot/have not provided the FCC with eligibility requirements. And the FCC initially thought a mere 15% were scamming the program.
The top phone companies providing lifeline plans have refused to give the number of plans they dropped because of this.
The FCC finally cracked down last year and demanded that subscribers provide verification of eligibility or they would be dropped.
Lifeline cost $800 million in 2008 and soared to $2 billion in 2012.
41% is more than a "few cheaters" ..that's so close to half that it should shock people.
And the FCC instituted this with "self certify" requiring no documentation.
Just sign up and check a box...no one will verify your eligibility and no one will turn you down.
They found DEAD PEOPLE with phone plans. You want to talk about corrupt programs then look no further than our own social welfare programs.
Millions Improperly Claimed U.S. Phone Subsidies - WSJ.com
The U.S. government spent about $2.2 billion last year to provide phones to low-income Americans, but a Wall Street Journal review of the program shows that a large number of those who received the phones haven't proved they are eligible to receive them.
..
Suspecting that many of the new subscribers were ineligible, the Federal Communications Commission tightened the rules last year and required carriers to verify that existing subscribers were eligible. The agency estimated 15% of users would be weeded out, but far more were dropped.
A review of five top recipients of Lifeline support conducted by the FCC for the Journal showed that 41% of their more than six million subscribers either couldn't demonstrate their eligibility or didn't respond to requests for certification.
..
The FCC until last year allowed consumers to self-certify, without requiring documentation, that they met federal poverty guidelines. Subscribers didn't have to recertify once they were enrolled in the program, and there were few checks on whether households signed up for more than one cellphone.
Why is it considered to be a "necessity" to own a phone? If you can't afford one, then don't get one.
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