#45 Buying Perrier With Food Stamps

For anyone receiving unemployment checks the idea of getting free money is so novel they end up exploring other ways of scamming the government for goods. Now that food stamps (aka Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) are distributed via special debit cards rather than actual stamps, the unemployed for sure have looked into whether they’re eligible to participate. Free food? Why not?

These are tough times, and for some unemployed people it takes food stamps to help make ends meet. Depending on food stamps to feed your family is no joke. Using food stamps to buy luxury food items kind of is. For some unemployed people who have been laid off, they understand the concept that food stamps are intended to help low income people buy healthy groceries instead of resorting to cheap fast food, and they aim to exploit it. 

A lot of people who lost their jobs weren’t “fortunate” enough to have maxed out their weekly unemployment benefits and receive a tiny percentage of what they used to make. If their salaries were on the low end of the spectrum there’s a good chance they might actually qualify to receive food stamps, and will apply just for the “novelty” of telling people they’re on them. The food stamp for novelty recipients will end up purposely abusing the system by buying stuff that hasn’t exactly been blacklisted by the government. They’ll pop into the corner store because they’re thirsty and want a snack and walk out with Perrier and a pint of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. And they can get away with it because they can argue they needed it as a clean water source and a nutritious dairy product.

Instead of using the food stamp benefits to maintain a healthy diet on a low income as intended, the unemployed are set on figuring out exactly what they can and can’t get away with it. Steak? Sure. Hair loss pills? Probably not. The fancier the food, the more glee there is in knowing the government has once again helped in enabling a lavish lifestyle. In some cases, it might even help them enjoy foods that were too expensive to buy when they were employed!

Tags: endless unemployment benefits, food stamps, on the government