College students no longer automatically eligible for Bridge Card food assistance
State leaders today vowed to tighten oversight of taxpayer-funded food assistance to college students by the spring, a move prompted by the potential for abuse of the system, the Grand Rapids Press reported.
Student aid fraud in the food assistance was identified as a problem by Rep. David Agema, R-Grandville last month, Dave Murray reports. In a release, Agema said students who don't really need the benefits had been taking advantage of the system for "too long" and potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Food benefits are accessed through a Bridge card, which works just like a debit card and requires a personal identification number.
According to the department, the Food Assistance Program, serves almost 1.9 million state residents. Around 18,000 college and university students were receiving food assistance last year, getting a maximum of $200 per month, Murray writes.
Grand Rapids Press photo
The story continues:
Under federal guidelines, college students do not qualify for food assistance except in very limited circumstances. Attending college by itself is not an approved exception, a policy the department will enforce starting in April, state Human Services Department director Maura D. Corrigan announced today. “We’re ready to extend a helping hand to any citizen who is truly in need - including college students who care for young children and are taking the right steps toward becoming self-sufficient,” Corrigan said is a news release. “But those who don’t meet federal guidelines won’t be able to take advantage of what is meant to be a temporary safety net program.”DHS administers the federally funded program, and benefits are determined based on income, household size and other criteria, and can only be used to buy food.
Comments
jrigglem
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 : 11:38 p.m.
Have to agree with Rachek on this on. If a student can only find a job on campus, the law states that they cannot work more that 29 hours per week. If that student is even lucky enough to find a job that will give them so many hours. While in school I worked at most 15 hours at an on campus job and had to find another off campus job to supplement. I always had to have 2 part time jobs to make ends meet and even then it would cover bills and not much more of anything else. Instead of targeting college students the SOM should be looking at families that abuse it. I've seen it more than once while living in Ypsi. A person would get cash assistance, withdraw money off the car and turn around and buy cigarettes with that money. I also read recently about people using the cash benefits in casinos. Maybe this matter should be investigated more thoroughly before taking from the hands of our future Social Security supporters.
godsbreath64
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 : 5:31 p.m.
This is what Maura Corrigan was hired to do. It is all she knows. Her opus is mere as clear class warfare. A high schooler could tell her what this will do to the ecomony. Everbody say a prayer for Maura Corrigan. She really needs it right now.
John
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 : 6:52 a.m.
This is stupid, someone who needs help and asks and are doing or trying to do something great with their life is denied bc they are in school. Lets feed our college kids so they can be part of this new knowledge based economy and save them 2400 bucks a year while they over pay for college. Also would you rather feed a criminal in jail or a kid trying to make it.. easy decision in my option!!!
Rachek
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 : 3:01 a.m.
As a college student, I am rather frightened by this. While I understand that at some universities the majority of students use bridge cards so they can save their income from mom and dad for beer, within my circle of friends this has never been the case. A large number of the students at my school (I am in my fourth year of school at Ferris), are paying for school completely on their own, or with very limited assistance from their parents. While Ferris is one of the cheaper schools in the state, many people's financial aid doesn't cover their tuition. It doesn't help that even though an undergraduate student may be paying for college completely on their own, their parent's financial status still impacts their ability to recieve aid. On top of going to school (which for those of us who are the most ambitious, can be a full time job), many students here work at part time jobs. However, these often don't pay very well, and especially for students in more intense programs, the ability to work can be limited by the need to spend hours a day studying. What this all means is that, we all live well below the poverty line, according to standards. We either pay large sums to live in the dorms, or even here, where rent is cheap, pay upwards of $300 in rent, plus utilities. Here at Ferris, there is very limited public transportation, and the town is not made for walking and so owning a car becomes almost a necessity, especially in the winter. This often means that a student has to pay off some sort of loan for their car every month, whether that is an arrangement with a family member, or a bank loan, as well as insurance, maintenance and gas. For most students, these expenses eat up their paychecks long before it's time to go to the grocery store.
whatsupwithMI
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 : 1:21 a.m.
This change brought to you in large part due to full-ride Athletics and wealthy "private but public" universities located off of Huron drive. Per my conversations with multiple local grocery store managers that reported perceived abuses to the state. Yes, local merchants who were benefiting from the monies helped stop this abuse.
amazonwarrior
Wed, Feb 9, 2011 : 7:02 p.m.
I've done the calculations several times, I'm shocked and I can't believe what I'm seeing, so somebody please correct me if I'm wrong: 18,000 students x $200 per month = $3,600,000 PER MONTH x 12 months = $43,200,000. Is that correct??? No one ever gave me a "hand out" while I was going to university, I had to "make do" with what I had. Unbelievable!
DBH
Wed, Feb 9, 2011 : 8:55 p.m.
Not quite. It's more like 0.95%, not 0.0095%.
Epengar
Wed, Feb 9, 2011 : 8:45 p.m.
The article says students are getting a *maximum* of $200/month. It doesn't say what the average payment is, or a total per year. The program goes to "households," so a single parent with kids would only get the single payment (and probably that's the sort of circumstance that generates the maximum payment). I'll be surprised if single students are getting the maximum. 18,000 is less than one hundreth of one percent of the total number of recipients (0.0095%). This seems like it's going to be a drop in the bucket.