Response to Walkers new law to drug test welfare recipients.
On Monday, November 9, a new law goes into affect in Wisconsin. Thanks to Scooter Walker.
This law is requiring welfare recipients to take and pass a drug test to obtain benefits.
I am NOT a supporter of this and I'll lay out additional reasons in a moment. Until then, please review the following articles that I link below.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/welfare-drug-testing_56156d38e4b021e856d344cd
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/maines-welfare-drug-tests_55ce1b56e4b0ab468d9d266f
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/florida-welfare-drug-testing_n_6807268.html
http://time.com/3117361/welfare-recipients-drug-testing/
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/26/3624447/tanf-drug-testing-states/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/30/the-myth-of-welfare-and-drug-use.html
Ok, I could post more, but they all say basically the same thing. That is, testing welfare recipients is pretty much a waste of money.
Lets do some basic math shall we? In Wisconsin, the minimum wage is $7.25/hour. IF our person is working 40 hours a week, the gross comes out to $1160/month. Net would be about 1/3 less for an approximate $770 in take home pay. That is worth repeating- $770 in take home pay. (side note: many do not work full time and many more work two part time jobs to come up to 40-50 hours per week but are not eligible for over time because it's different employers.)
Now lets look at the expenditures:
Rent for a one bedroom of course varies from place to place. I took a look and around here the rent is an average of $400/month. If water is included its about $450 so lets split the difference and use $425 for our guy.
Next is utilities. Electric and gas will of course vary but lets use a ballpark figure of $150 per month.
When was the last time you went grocery shopping? Your' lucky to get a weeks worth of food for $200 much less for a month. An average grocery bill for one person per month we can say conservatively is $300. That is with little meat, using coupons and growing veggies yourself and perhaps skipping some meals.
So, we are at:
rent $425
Utilities $150
Food $300
total: $875
We still have not bought gas for the car or other transport, insurance, clothes or shoes. And we are now already in the hole $105.
So our guy decides to go and get food stamps and other possible help with rent and heat. Now he has to pass a drug test before he can get help.
Put yourself in his shoes. How would you feel? You are doing what you can with what you have and now you are made to feel like a criminal, heaping shame upon shame to be able to get help.
Some of you have said, "well I have to pass a drug test to work what the difference?" My first question/response is, who pays for your employment test? You? your employer? or the tax payer?
For welfare recipients tax payers are footing the bill.
Ok, so how much can it cost? Depending upon what test is being used, anywhere from $40 to $200 per test. Then of course there is lab costs, and personnel costs to test the sample.
Now lets talk about false positives. There are in fact many foods that will cause a false positive, but if you tested positive because you ate something that has metabolized as a possible drug, you loose benefits or you will have to pay for confirmation testing- which will further delay obtaining your needed benefit.
When you read the above articles, you will see that there is less than 3% of welfare recipients tested that have tested positive for some drug. Most states are less then 1%.
This is why it is such a colossal waste of time and money. The amount of drug use is simply not there to support the cost of this program. Rather then spending the money on testing for an almost non-existent problem, we could be spending it on education programs so that people stuck in this cycle can get a better job to make more money so they do not have to depend on welfare just to survive.
This law is requiring welfare recipients to take and pass a drug test to obtain benefits.
I am NOT a supporter of this and I'll lay out additional reasons in a moment. Until then, please review the following articles that I link below.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/welfare-drug-testing_56156d38e4b021e856d344cd
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/maines-welfare-drug-tests_55ce1b56e4b0ab468d9d266f
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/florida-welfare-drug-testing_n_6807268.html
http://time.com/3117361/welfare-recipients-drug-testing/
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/26/3624447/tanf-drug-testing-states/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/30/the-myth-of-welfare-and-drug-use.html
Ok, I could post more, but they all say basically the same thing. That is, testing welfare recipients is pretty much a waste of money.
Lets do some basic math shall we? In Wisconsin, the minimum wage is $7.25/hour. IF our person is working 40 hours a week, the gross comes out to $1160/month. Net would be about 1/3 less for an approximate $770 in take home pay. That is worth repeating- $770 in take home pay. (side note: many do not work full time and many more work two part time jobs to come up to 40-50 hours per week but are not eligible for over time because it's different employers.)
Now lets look at the expenditures:
Rent for a one bedroom of course varies from place to place. I took a look and around here the rent is an average of $400/month. If water is included its about $450 so lets split the difference and use $425 for our guy.
Next is utilities. Electric and gas will of course vary but lets use a ballpark figure of $150 per month.
When was the last time you went grocery shopping? Your' lucky to get a weeks worth of food for $200 much less for a month. An average grocery bill for one person per month we can say conservatively is $300. That is with little meat, using coupons and growing veggies yourself and perhaps skipping some meals.
So, we are at:
rent $425
Utilities $150
Food $300
total: $875
We still have not bought gas for the car or other transport, insurance, clothes or shoes. And we are now already in the hole $105.
So our guy decides to go and get food stamps and other possible help with rent and heat. Now he has to pass a drug test before he can get help.
Put yourself in his shoes. How would you feel? You are doing what you can with what you have and now you are made to feel like a criminal, heaping shame upon shame to be able to get help.
Some of you have said, "well I have to pass a drug test to work what the difference?" My first question/response is, who pays for your employment test? You? your employer? or the tax payer?
For welfare recipients tax payers are footing the bill.
Ok, so how much can it cost? Depending upon what test is being used, anywhere from $40 to $200 per test. Then of course there is lab costs, and personnel costs to test the sample.
Now lets talk about false positives. There are in fact many foods that will cause a false positive, but if you tested positive because you ate something that has metabolized as a possible drug, you loose benefits or you will have to pay for confirmation testing- which will further delay obtaining your needed benefit.
When you read the above articles, you will see that there is less than 3% of welfare recipients tested that have tested positive for some drug. Most states are less then 1%.
This is why it is such a colossal waste of time and money. The amount of drug use is simply not there to support the cost of this program. Rather then spending the money on testing for an almost non-existent problem, we could be spending it on education programs so that people stuck in this cycle can get a better job to make more money so they do not have to depend on welfare just to survive.
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