- 30,000 college students kicked out of food aid program in Michigan, By Paul Egan, August 8, 2011, Detroit News: “Michigan has removed about 30,000 college students from its food stamp program – close to double the initial estimate – saving about $75 million a year, says Human Services Director Maura Corrigan. Federal rules don’t allow most college students to collect food stamps, but Michigan had created its own rules that made nearly all students eligible, said Brian Rooney, Corrigan’s deputy director. As a result, the number of Michigan college students on this form of welfare made the state a national leader. For example, Michigan had 10 times the number of students on food stamps as either Illinois or California, Rooney said. Cutting off the students is part of what Corrigan says is an effort to change the culture of the state’s welfare department and slash tens of millions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse…”
- Michigan will cut public assistance to families who received federal aid, By Robin Erb, August 10, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Federal assistance may be running out for nearly 14,000 of Michigan’s needy families. The five years allowed to them have expired, and the state no longer is willing to extend the time through hardship exemptions. At the same time, the state is revamping how it hands out the assistance and plans to limit the total time allowed to four years in most cases, likely beginning Oct. 1, according Maura Corrigan, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services. On Tuesday, DHS began sending out notices that assistance will end to Michiganders who had passed their five-year federal limit, but received extensions…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty