Families feel the pangs of SNAP cuts, By Lolly Bowean, Juan Perez Jr. and Vikki Ortiz Healy, November 10, 2013, Chicago Tribune: “It wasn’t until years after Amy Jezler lost her job at the Salvation Army and her family lost their south suburban home to foreclosure that money got so tight she had to resort to signing up for food stamps. And even then, it was difficult to visit the Family Community Resource Center in Blue Island and ask for help, Jezler said. ‘I was always taught to do it on your own,’ the Park Forest resident said. ‘I was getting to the point where it was harder and harder. (I had) to make the decision: Do I pay bills this month, or do I eat?’ For a year and a half, Jezler has collected $193 a month from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to help feed her husband, who has been in and out of work, and her 10-year-old daughter, she said. But on Thursday, she learned her food stamp benefits had been slashed by $30…”
Should Oregon pay $1.5 million to put photos on food stamps, welfare cards? Lawmakers consider fraud reduction options, By Yuxing Zheng, November 14, 2013, The Oregonian: “It would cost Oregon at least $1.5 million in the first year and about $930,000 annually after that to put photographs of cardholders on the Oregon Trail cards used by food stamps and welfare recipients. That’s the estimate recently heard by lawmakers on an interim legislative work group considering methods of reducing public assistance fraud. A May audit from the Secretary of State’s office found that hundreds of Oregonians who were deceased, incarcerated, or won the lottery benefited from one of three public assistance programs intended for low-income individuals…”
Group says child poverty on the rise, By Debra Pressey, February 14, 2013, Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette: “More than one in five Champaign County kids were living in poverty in 2011, according to the new Kids Count report released this morning. The county’s child poverty rate nearly doubled in 12 years, growing from 12 percent in 1999 to 23 percent in 2011. The child poverty rate in Vermilion County also grew in that same time span, from 19 percent to 35 percent. Done each year by the nonprofit, non-partisan Voices for Illinois Children, Kids Count takes a look at the health and well-being of children in the state…”
Kids Count: Economics at root of children’s issues in Illinois, By Deirdre Cox Baker, February 15, 2013, Quad-City Times: “The future of children in Illinois was a common worry Thursday as a group of professionals gathered in the Quad-Cities to announce the Illinois Kids Count 2013 findings…”
Kids Count report presents grim findings, By Pam Adams, February 14, 2013, Peoria Journal Star: “Illinois is a national leader in early childhood education, but state funding for pre-school programs has been cut substantially since 2010. The state has one of the lowest percentages of uninsured children in the nation, but childhood poverty rates keep increasing in the Tri-County Area…”
Report: 1 in 3 Illinoisans living in, near poverty, Associated Press, January 16, 2013, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “One-third of Illinois residents are living in or near poverty, more than during the depths of the Great Recession, according to a new report that suggests the trend is not slowing and that state budget cuts have exacerbated the problem. Almost 1.9 million Illinoisans, or 15 percent, live in poverty, up from 12 percent when the recession began in late 2007. An additional 2.2 million, or 18 percent, are close to the poverty level, compared with 16.2 percent in 2007, according to the report issued Wednesday by the Chicago-based Social IMPACT Research Center…”
1 in 5 in suburbs in or near poverty, By Jamie Sotonoff, January 16, 2013, Daily Herald: “Carolyn Schutz has a college degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee, plus decades of experience as a teacher and a business manager. She actively searches for full-time work, but the 66-year-old Wheaton woman has been able to land only a part-time administrative job that pays $8.25 an hour. Her monthly take-home pay is around $350, she said. It’s made basic necessities, like the furnished room she rents and gas for her car, almost impossible to afford, despite government assistance and help from suburban charities…”
