I see this move by Harrisburg as unnessessarily cruel.
Department of Public Welfare said that as of May 1, people under age 60 with more than $2,000 in savings and other assets will no longer be eligible for food stamps. For people over 60, the limit is $3,250.
So basically, you must be absolutly destitute to get any sort of help. Doesn't take much at all to reach a $2,000 asset level.
Critics of the DPW plan say it particularly punishes elderly people saving for their burials; poor people trying to save enough money to get out of poverty; and working- and middle-class people who lost their jobs in the recession and may now have to liquidate assets to feed their families.
Exactly. Its just another way to punish the poor and jobless for being poor and jobless.