By Jeff Salisbury

Meme… e-mail… truth… fiction… urban legend…

Hope you’ve seen or read the chain email or Internet meme called either “How to get $75k in benefits for you and your girlfriend” – or – “New American Way of Life”… I really hope so because if not, this “moan” likely won’t make a bit of sense.

Check out the meme. Then read on.

Here’s the chain email…

Follow these proven steps.

Don’t get married to her.

Use your mom’s address to get mail sent to.

The guy buys a house.

Guy rents out house to his girl girlfriend who has 2 of his kids.

Section 8 will pay 900 a month for a 3 bedroom home.

Girlfriend signs up for Obamacare so guy doesn’t have to pay out the butt for family insurance.

Girlfriend gets to go to college for free being a single mother

Girlfriend gets 600 a month for food stamps

Girlfriend gets free cell phone

Girlfriend get free utilities.

Guy moves into home but uses moms house to get mail sent to.

Girlfriend claims one kid and guy claims one kid on taxes. Now you both get to claim head of house hold at $1800 credit.

Girlfriend gets disability for being “crazy” or having a “bad back” at    $1800 a month and never has to work again.

This plan is perfectly legal and is being executed now by millions of people.

A married couple with a stay at home mom yields $0 dollars.

An unmarried couple with stay at home mom nets.

21600 disability +

10800 free housing +

6000 free obamacare +

6000 free food +

4800 free utilities +

6000 pell grant money to spend +

12000 a year in college tuition free from pell grant +

8800 tax benefit for being a single mother =

———

75,000 a year in benefits

I am going to commingle my reply to the meme and chain email… so here goes.

“The guy” who owns the home has to register the rental with a local housing agency in his area and have it inspected and approved. The maximum housing assistance is generally the lesser of the payment standard (in that rental market) minus 30% of the family’s monthly adjusted income or the gross rent for the unit minus 30% of monthly adjusted income. So I don’t know where this writer came up with the $900 figure. Yes, if she has some income, “the girl” could purchase health insurance on the marketplace and likely would qualify for a subsidy to defray some of the premium cost. It’s also true that the income-based Pell Grant program could provide “the girl” with just under $6000 a year to cover tuition, fees and books.

To be eligible for Social Security disability insurance (SSDI), “the girl” would have to earn less than a certain amount of money each month (or she’d be considered able to do substantial gainful activity) and she’d have to have paid FICA taxes for a certain number of years to the Social Security Administration (generally at least five to ten years), and fulfill certain citizenship or lawful residency requirements. The writer’s income numbers are gross exaggerations of benefits. In 2013, the average SNAP client received a monthly benefit of $133.07, and the average household received $274.98 monthly. $278.98 per month does not = $6000 in FREE food yearly. SNAP benefits are limited to a three-month period, at which point the recipient will have to submit a renewal application. Most households under the SNAP program receive benefits for a six-month period before requiring renewal.

Benefit periods can range from one month to three years. Finally, the writer is flat out wrong when he tries to make a connection between the national debt and these various programs. SSDI is funded by Social Security payroll taxes — the PELL Grant program is operated by the Dept. of Education and is subject to congressional approval and reauthorization — and there isn’t even a guarantee that prospective students, regardless of their income or lack thereof, will even qualify.

Inferring that HALF the population (50% of 318.9 million) is “sitting around letting the other half pay their way” is so ridiculous it’s absurd. Perhaps as many as 15% of the population is over the age of 65 and on SS and about 23% of the is under 18.

Now, I think we can forgive 48% percent (half?) of the population given those to categories for either “sitting around” because they worked their whole lives or for “sitting around” in either strollers, baby carriages, high chairs or school classrooms! Go volunteer in a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter or stop by your nearest United Way offices to sign up to volunteer elsewhere in your community instead or ranting about things you’ve clearly no real experience or knowledge because it does nothing but push people to be as much of an old mister grumpy pants like you!

Oh my goodness! Where do folks come up with these legends?

Tax law recognizes that businesses may be owned by non-Americans who are not permanent residents. These people are referred to as nonresident aliens, and because they’re not living in the U.S., they’re not considered immigrants. Nevertheless, income they earn from U.S. sources is subject to U.S. tax law — the same laws that apply to citizens and resident aliens. No one who earns income in the U.S. is exempt from tax responsibility because of citizenship or immigration status. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/new-immigrant-businesses-pay-corporate-taxes-first-five-years-us-72319.html

You might be thinking of the MI Bridges “emergency assistance” program run by the MI Dept of Human Services. DHS does operate county offices. I am not sure how those offices are funded, but in any case they only provide temporary services. DHS also receives federal funding to operate the SNAP program. SNAP benefits (the old Food Stamps program) can be used to purchase any approved food item for human consumption and seeds and plants that produce food.

Clients receive their benefits via an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system that works like a debit card to transfer their benefits to the food retailer. The benefit amounts, to my knowledge, are set at the federal level, are income based not on geographic location however.

The federal food assistance program is administered by each state and not by the individual counties in the state.http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility

I’ve been on the Internet regularly since at least 1995 and I cannot believe how rumors like this persist. It doesn’t matter sometimes how often they are debunked they somehow, sometimes have a life all their own.http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/immigrants.asp

Don’t take my word for any of this if you don’t want… try…

http://m.snopes.com/new-american-way-life/

http://www.truthorfiction.com/email-explains-how-to-get-75k-in-benefits-for-you-and-your-girlfriend/