When you think of the working poor, who pops into your head?
Nursing aides? Orderlies? Cashiers? Retail clerks? Home health aides?
Well, they should because these occupations are the most commonly reported for SNAP and Medicaid recipients. Imagine, that person who cares for your loved one (feeding, bathing, dressing, talking to, cooking for them, holding their hand) facing the possibility that they won’t be able to feed their families when the next wave of safety net cuts comes.
I’m going to add one more occupation to this list: childcare workers, because 23 percent of W.Va. childcare workers live in poverty.
Did that surprise you? And most of the ones I have met are caught in that gray area where they make too much to receive assistance, as in SNAP and/or Medicaid, but not enough to be able to live comfortably. I was told a story the other day about a childcare worker without transportation because she can’t afford to pay the deductible to get her car out the shop after an accident. Imagine, the person who is teaching your child not being able to afford to live! And yet …
I’ll be heading to D.C. this week to testify at a Subcommittee hearing on Government Operations by request of the Committee for Oversight and Reform about the current administration wanting to change the way the Federal Poverty Guidelines are calculated.
What my soul has told me to speak about is the fact that the guidelines are already out of touch and need to be updated. I’m going to be sharing stories I’ve heard while working, such as the single mom who received a promotion, reported her income change within 30 days to DHHR, and lost every form of assistance within 60 days. That’s called the “Cliff Effect,” and it’s forcing the working poor to do things like this mom. She resigned from her promotion because the loss of benefits so quickly put her in such financial hardship that she couldn’t afford the job. She went back to working part-time so she and her kids could be free from the worry of not having enough to eat and a place to live.
A couple of years ago, I was joined in our state’s capitol by a group of women who personally had experienced the “Cliff Effect” and their testimonies and brave honesty won a legislative victory for the working poor in West Virginia. SNAP benefit income guidelines were changed to alleviate a bit of the dilemma. Now, the federal government wants to swoop in and strip that victory away.
I hear a lot about how our unemployment numbers are dropping, but I also hear a lot about how folks are working two jobs to survive. People are dying because they can’t afford health insurance and make too much to receive government assisted care. It’s painful to watch and listen to folks talk about what they have to do to simply survive, and there’s never a solution that makes sense to those who are living through the pain.
Election season is quickly approaching, and these are the issues that I want to hear about on the debate stage. I want to know what the plan is and who is going to make it happen. I want to learn which candidate is most aligned with my values. At the end of the day, I don’t care with which party someone is registered.
What I do care about is whether I feel as if they give a damn as to whether or not people are hungry and dying within our current system. We have to pay attention. We all know someone who has too much to lose.
