Social Assistance needs Overhaul but it is still a Need

I am so tired of hearing people complain about Social Assistance and people on it.

Too many people are under the distorted impression that social assistance means people are lazy drug addicts and that can’t be further from the truth.

Do you have a job that benefits are included? You are one lucky person. Many jobs do not include health benefits like dental coverage or medications. If your child comes down with an illness and you have no coverage, those medications are out of pocket. Have you looked at those receipts lately and thought, “Gosh, I’m lucky I have coverage.” Well, you are.

We talk about how Wal-Mart and McDonald's are not paying their workers enough money. Guess what, their employees don’t get those important benefits either. So those eye glasses you just paid $300 for your son/daughter so he could see from the back of the classroom(and will be reimbursed for), are not something a full time worker from Wal-mart could afford for their kid so they have to sit at the front of the class, only to be picked on by yours because he/she is "poor".

We also talk about the mental diseases that abound out there these days. More people can live and cope with mental disease because of medications, but working full time is not always possible and if you actually understand mental disease you would know this…but too many people close their eyes to this, they tell you to get over yourself, believe me I have heard that NUMEROUS times.

Before I was diagnosed I was a Nursing Aide, sounds like big bucks huh? Well, I made $7/hr during the day and $7.50 if I worked nights. I had gone back to school to become a N.A. while I was pregnant with my son so I wouldn't have to be on welfare (my student loans took 15 years to pay back on minimum payments, I was on disability pension I kept paying them though) Without mental support from family who had their own lives, I snapped. I had too much on my plate and the plate not only broke but it imploded. I was in the hospital for a couple of months. Work was the furthest thing from my mind, getting better and taking care of my children was all I could think of doing...but you have to eat, you have to have a roof over your head, utilities get cut off if they are not paid. So tell me, do you throw someone like this back into the work force or do you use assistance programs?

Working full time would be impossible for me, but helping out in my community when I am well, taking care of a very big garden, doing my chores around the house can be as much as I can do sometimes. Many people do not want to understand that, but that is okay. They do not need to understand my life, they should, however, respect that those who cannot do for themselves need help and that is what government assistance is for.

I will ALWAYS agree that Social Assistance is NOT a life style, it is NOT something you live off of and there are many that are allowed to abuse it. Especially women, who keep having babies, keep trying to trap men who make money or just live off the system.

But you cannot get rid of a system that helps those who need it because of those who abuse it. You have to take it apart and fix it just like an old car.

An example, women who have one child should have birth control shots/IUD/birth control implants, they should be drug tested and if positive drug rehabilitation is required, and a job placement is mandatory if they are to receive assistance. Having a child every other year so you can stay on assistance will be a thing of the past. If you become pregnant while on assistance like this the children are given up for adoption if you chose to carry and are still on assistance at the end of the pregnancy there are many couples that would be able to care for a child. If you cannot afford to take care of yourself, you have no business bringing a child into this world.

Social Services should not be scraped because some people abuse it. It should not be scraped because a few people do drugs while they collect taxpayer dollars.

I will remind people, there are politicians (who also live off the taxes of your hard earned dollars and do not have drug testing) that do harder drugs and have more money to spend on drugs then people living on less than 25 grand a year.

Not all Social Assistance Cases are druggie bums, many people collecting a check are as hard working and their taxes are based the same way as yours…they just don’t have the high paying jobs with the benefits like you do.