Editor’s note: In September, the Caledonian-Record published an exclusive series by AP award-winning writer Bethany Knight of Glover on poverty and cash welfare benefits in the Northeast Kingdom. The Caledonian-Record and Knight have generously allowed VTDigger to republish an edited version of the series.
“Thank God for those food stamps,” says Jody, a Brownington senior citizen. Her small Social Security check and $367 in food assistance keep her afloat. Jody’s husband has been denied disability and is too young to collect Social Security.
With a $4.50 box of cereal and a gallon of milk nearly killing a $10 bill, Jody speaks for close to 14,000 residents of the Northeast Kingdom who buy food with food stamps, in Vermont now called 3SquaresVT. About half the participants are households with one or more children under 18, another 30 percent of the households include a member over 60. The remaining households include young disabled, immigrants, veterans and the homeless.
Statewide, rising food costs and low wages have doubled the number of Vermonters on food stamps in seven years, from 44,783 in 2005 to 95,150 today. Benefits are issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. SNAP is a $75 billion enterprise, born out of a simple federal scheme years ago, to sell farm surpluses.
This fiscal year, Vermont will claim $145 million in federal food assistance to slake hunger, up $7 million from last year. In 2011, $19.4 million in 3SquaresVT came to the Kingdom.
In 2009, the most recent year for data, Vermont led the nation with the highest percentage of eligible residents participating in the food program: 91 percent. That number was 72 percent in 2000, coincidentally the national average of eligible participants. Vermont achieved this top status by eliminating the assets test and raising the income eligibility ceiling, allowing households with incomes 185 percent above the poverty line to apply. Just 12 states have a higher ceiling.
Depending on the household size, 3SquaresVT benefits paid through a state-issued debit card called the EBT, run from $200 to $1,200.
The majority of recipients use their EBT card at grocery stores and farmer’s markets to buy food. Liquor and nonfood items are illegal, but elderly and disabled recipients of 3SquaresVT can convert monthly benefits into cash. The cash conversion policy was introduced before EBT cards were implemented, when food stamps were the program currency.
“The intent is to increase anonymity and confidentiality for vulnerable clients,” says Ames Robb, Vermont’s EBT director, “to prevent abuse and stigmatization. We still see value in doing this for clients who find it easier to manage their benefits as part of an overall budget for food and household expenses.”
“I wouldn’t even shop at the store in this town, if I had to show my card,” says a disabled woman living in Orleans County. “I know what the owner thinks of people ‘on welfare.'”
Disabled and elder Vermonters receiving 3SquaresVT like this special treatment, offered in just three other states. Being able to give cash to a friend to shop for a few items, rather than making a trip to town in a wheelchair is convenient.
“I wouldn’t even shop at the store in this town, if I had to show my card,” says a disabled woman living in Orleans County. “I know what the owner thinks of people ‘on welfare.'”
A simplified annual renewal for eligibility would be helpful, suggests Michael Gruteke, 56, of Derby Line. “I think the state could save so much money. Right now, the darn thing is like 15 or 16 pages long. Why don’t they have you do it online, and the first question could be, ‘Has any of this information changed?’… “If something has changed, they could just send you a redacted form, like five or six pages, to update.”
Living alone in a government-subsidized Section 8 apartment, Gruteke receives the standard 3SquaresVT grant for a household of one, $200 a month.
Gruteke has always been intrigued by the $5 check he receives annually in fuel assistance. “I don’t know why the heck I get it, but I won’t turn down a check!”
Turns out, Gruteke and other unsuspecting disabled and elderly Vermonters were enrolled into the fuel assistance program by the state of Vermont, though their heat is included in the subsidized rent.
“This provision draws down more money to Vermont,” explains Ken Gordon, executive director of the Area Agency on Aging. As food stamps are awarded to anyone who qualifies for fuel assistance, adding Gruteke’s name to the rolls tricks the feds into sending Vermont more funds, not unlike the popular “Mediscam” provider taxes levied on hospitals and nursing homes.
Gordon adds the provision has been cut from the U.S. House of Representatives’ version of the proposed Farm Bill. His agency is worried about the loss of aid dollars to Vermont if the mechanism disappears.
Social Security and other benefits
The Northeast Kingdom is full of seniors and disabled folks, dependent on Social Security, SSI, SSDI for disability, food stamps, fuel assistance and Medicaid, all checks signed by Uncle Sam.
According to the Social Security Administration, 15 percent of the Vermonters who receive SSI/SSDI, or 2,323 people, reside in the Northeast Kingdom.
“Disability, that’s how you retire in the Kingdom,” says Alice, a divorced senior in Glover. “But they’ve set me up to be poor and to barely exist. ‘You’re on disability, you’re not to work at all, you’re finished, washed up, that’s the message.'”
During a physical examination required to determine Alice’s eligibility for SSDI, upon seeing her X-rays, the doctor asked, “Why I wasn’t in a wheelchair. She had me in tears.”
Living on $970 a month, Alice is ineligible for benefits if she earns more than $65 a month. She is currently filing for bankruptcy.
“Everyone I know has vibrant under-the-table stuff going on,” she says, noting she can’t live on her government-funded budget. “I’ve always had an independent streak, that I can make it on my own,” she says, as she prepares to leave her rented home for nonpayment of rent.
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Keeping warm with fuel assistance
The federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, LIHEAP, has assisted the nation’s poor for close to 40 winters. More than 27,000 Vermonters receive heating help. For five of the past eight years, the Vermont Legislature added state general funds to the program. Of the $25.6 million spent on heating the homes of poor Vermonters last winter, $7 million of that figure is state dollars. In 2010, the Kingdom claimed 16 percent of the state fuel dollars, paying for wood, oil, propane, electricity or kerosene.
Benefits are based on need, how little income a household has and how much it costs to heat the home. In 2010, 5,516 NEK households benefited from the program, averaging $900 per home.
Responding to the economic downturn, in 2010, Vermont’s General Assembly took action that dramatically increased the number of households qualifying for fuel aid. Applicants no longer have their assets considered when eligibility is determined. Income used to calculate eligibility for seasonal aid was also changed, to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, gross, meaning the total amount of household income. For the crisis fuel limited assistance program, the income limit was changed to 200 percent, or gross. Previously eligibility was calculated using household income minus household expenses, or net. Crisis fuel in the Northeast Kingdom is administered by NEKCA, to the tune of $400,000 last winter.
Unemployed Vermonters receiving fuel assistance who can work must register with the state Department of Labor. There are 18 reasons recipients do not have to work, including being over 50, a caregiver, or impaired by mental or physical problems. In addition, jobs can be refused if no transportation is available.
In 2011, the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute issued a report on the growth of heating assistance rolls. Study data identified the nation’s most reliant consumer of energy assistance is, indeed, Vermont’s Reach Up mothers, “households headed by a single parent, particularly in rural areas.”
Advocates who help the poor of Caledonia, Essex and Orleans counties say they “love fuel assistance, because we have enough for everyone,” as opposed to housing funds, of which there are never enough.
“The vast majority of clients have their benefits issued to their certified fuel supplier,” says Richard Moffi, Vermont’s fuel assistance program director. Moffi further adds that the state can seek to recoup a fuel assistance benefit “resulting from intentional program violation, fraud, or benefit issuance that occurs by department or client error.”
Any fraud found within the fuel assistance program, including benefits wrongly issued due to client or department error is subject to collection. A national study in 2009 showed just 4.36 percent of recipients were overpaid.
Bethany Knight of Glover is a former newspaper reporter, magazine editor, college journalism instructor, gubernatorial speech writer and health care executive. She co-authored five reports on Vermont issues produced by the Ethan Allen Institute. A licensed nursing home administrator, Knight’s books for caregivers are sold by Hartman Publishing. Her first novel, “On the Edge of Tickle,” can be found at www.smashwords.com.
