I've chosen to ignore any comments by a certain someone...HE WHO SHOULD NOT BE NAMED...which, btw, makes reading this thread somewhat of a challenge. It's been a while since I've been here.

First, I forgot to give kudos to Bobert a while back for his case study. It was truly moving. And, yes, you're right about beer not being able to be purchased with food stamps...I guess I didn't make that clear. What I meant to say is that I've seen people rag on those who buy beer and, say, cigarettes with their welfare money as well as buying chips with food stamps.

Second, thanks to both Bobert and Janie (your case study was also poignant) for lending us their expertise and for their patience with us. It is truly a difficult subject, but I think your examples make it easier to understand, for some, at least.

dianavan was right about it being somewhat better to be poor in a rural rather than urban setting, however, it's been my experience that in the rural communities I've lived in, there's more people who are willing to stick their faces into your business, and who have no qualms about making you feel the size of a peanut, but less worthy. Manners don't seem to exist. People say out loud whatever their brains are misfiring over when they're in public, or in private for that matter. The gossip is outrageous. It's far worse than that game of Telephone we used to play. It adds depression to the mix and skims what little self-worth you had down to the bone.

Janie's case study pointed out exactly what happens in the system. Your furnace goes out in the middle of winter, for example. You call the company that services it and provides you your fuel. They send a guy out to examine it, incurring a service charge. He says he can't get it to run, goes out to check your fuel meter and discovers you're out of fuel. Ironically, you have an appointment to see social services for an emergency fuel allotment check you qualify for that very day. Service guy says, I'll talk to my boss and get him to deliver 50 gallons of kerosene before you have to leave for your appointment, even though you've made it clear that you're behind in your payments to the heating co. because you've been waiting on the appointment with social services. The fuel is delivered, the guy can now check the furnace and finds, much to your relief, that the problem was the lack of fuel. Off you go to your appointment.

Instead of getting the "nice" social worker you've had in the past, luck of the draw gets you one of the angry "thinks it's his/her money being doled out" ones, who proceeds to run you through a mini-version of the book, "Catch-22." (Mind you it's been a while, but) the dialog goes like this:

SW: How much fuel do you have in your furnace? (Remember, they have your supplier on record, so there's no point in fudging.)
C(lient): 50 gals.
SW: 50 gals? Well, then, you don't need emergency fuel funds.
C: But, I do. My furnace went out in the middle of the night, and when the fuel co. finally called back from the message I left on their machine, they sent out a service man.
SW: Well, you're not supposed to contact your supplier to fix a furnace. We have a contract with a business here in town (45 mins. away from your house by car.)
C: I didn't know.
SW: Well, I'm not responsible for what you don't know.
C: Sorry, I was just trying to explain. So, what was I supposed to do?
SW: You were supposed to call us and tell us your furnace was down, and then we'd send a repairman from that co. to check it out.
C: I didn't know. Besides, as it turns out, I was out of fuel.
SW: How'd you know that?

The dialog went on in this circular reasoning for over an hour...almost reducing the client to tears, but not quite breaking her. I think that po'd the SW even more than the fact that the client really wasn't trying to scam her, and the SW knew it. BTW, the client never got the emergency funds, but instead had to make due with the annual allotment to which she had already qualified, because, of course, since the furnace now had 50 gals. in it, it wasn't empty, was it! This is a true life story, and a real participant was hurt in the process, but she's since recuperated...yet dreads having to visit Social Services ever again.