Troops on food stamps stories…again
Chief Tango sends us a link to the Daily Caller which is all breathless about the rise in food stamp usage among the troops. I always doubt these stories because I was in the Army when pay was a lot worse than it is now and I never used food stamps to feed my family.
When my youngest daughter was born and we became a family of five, I earned $8300 as an E-6. That was in 1981, using an inflation calculator, that’s $21,271 in today’s dollars. There wasn’t much money left over at the end of the month, but we didn’t get food stamps. What the Army Times used for their revelation was the dollar amount spent at the Commissaries in food stamps;
In fiscal 2013, commissary patrons redeemed $103.6 million worth of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, formerly known as food stamps. That’s up 5 percent over fiscal 2012. The number of transactions rose by 2 percent, to 968,358.
SNAP redemptions in commissaries began climbing in 2009 when eligibility rules were expanded due to the national economic stimulus programs. But the growth appears to be leveling off.
Commissary officials track the number of transactions and the dollar amount, but they don’t track the status of those using the benefit, so there is no way to compare usage among retirees with active-duty members, for example.
From the Daily Caller;
Food stamp redemption at military grocery stores, or commissaries, has nearly doubled since the beginning of the “Great Recession,” topping out at $103.6 million in fiscal 2013, from $31.1 million in 2008.
[…]
Commissaries only track the benefits used, not the status of the individual using them, like whether they are retired or active-duty.
Pentagon officials told CNN that while the military does not track who is receiving assistance, the military members likely to be on food stamps are those at the bottom of the ranks with children, where base pay — not including housing or food — for a new soldier with a spouse and child is about $20,000. With housing and food allowances, an Army private with two years experience would make about $40,000.
I don’t see a private having to get food stamps with a $3300 monthly pay check. Maybe what they need is financial advice instead of assistance. Or, maybe it’s not even privates using food stamps, since the commissaries don’t know who is spending that particular form of remuneration – it could be retirees and widows using the food stamps and not the troops at all.
Category: Military issues
I can remember the ‘big’ pay raise in ’77 when a PFC went from $300 to $330. Guess that was an order of magnitude ago!
“since the commissaries don’t know who is spending that particular form of remuneration – it could be retirees and widows using the food stamps and not the troops at all.”
That says it all to me Jonn. There may be more AD service folks on food stamps but again the numbers they use without the breakdown rally means…nothing to me.
I agree, there probably needs to be more personal budget management.
Last week, for the first time, the cashier at the commissary swiped my ID. The claim to be collecting the data to determine usage rates and not to track purchases, but the cashier admitted that the new software matches purchases to ID.
Perhaps they will be means testing the users to levy rank specific surcharge rates?
Granted things are a little different now, but waaaay back in the early eighties when I joined, we didn’t see too many E1s with a wife and a bunch of kids nor did we have (or could we afford) a shiny new car(s). If we were married, our separate rats STOPPED when we went to the field and we weren’t even eligible for on-base housing unless we were at least an E4. We got stuck having to live within our means and do without for a while until we could afford it.
SNAP use has skyrocketed since Obungler took office, not a surprise that Military use has went up. If someone wants to get SNAP they pretty much can manipulate their statement of income to qualify, and the people that work in the SNAP office will help them do it. Instead of making sure that people that need SNAP get it, they are more concerned with enrolling higher numbers and justifying their jobs.
As far as junior servicemembers getting on SNAP, it rests solely on how responsible they are. I have seen 20 year old PFCs with two kids who lived well with in their means and others who got on every assistance plan they could, all the while driving a brand new car, buying every electronic device there was and eating take out 7 days a week,
I recall a day back around 1967, when I was an Air Force Brat, when you could not step foot into the commissary without ID. Now I’m a retired E7 and maybe they check my ID at the checkout. Maybe. Don’t get me started on the AAFES gas scam with the star card
I hadda check. E-5 1968 – less than $300. Not remotely relevant, but kinda fun anyway.
Yeah, but Zero, gas was $.35 per gallon then, too.
After we got back from Iraq we had a Lance Corporal buy a used Escalade at 99.9999% interest. Our 1st sgt nearly killed him after they repod his car.
Maybe the troopies don’t “need” the food stamps, but they do qualify for them. Can you really fault them for using the benefit? 1998 I worked with a 1LT that qualified for WIC benefits. The big O didn’t invent the welfare tit, he just increased the cup size
In the early 80’s, my wife and I were both active duty, young USAF airmen. E2 and E3. With one child. At the time, we qualified for Virginia’s food stamp program. Did we take them? No. We figured that there were folks worse off than us.
Looking back, we should have. Could have bought a nicer car than the Chevette and Vega we had.
Sounds like another case of Big Gubbment attempting to justify it bloated existence by pointing to an increase in SNAP (which they themselves created), and to which they can show no actual numbers, but none-the-less, “it’s for the hungry chiiildrennn”.
I can’t visualize taking food stamps. Especially when you consider that as a senior E-6 drawing RATS/BAQ/VHA I still made less than what an E-3 makes today.
Jonn-
Ha. I remember that my yearly salary in 1985 was about 6k as an E-3. I do remember some families getting food stamps- And the actual reason had more to do with them supporting extended families besides their own immediate.
If the law makes it so they qualify, then, they are smart. In my year in Shitcago the section 8 housing was an eye opener. A roommate of my spouse who was a young, single accountant took every advantage of that law to buy properties to get the subsidies and while working full time. He made a shit-load of money in subsidies because of who he could rent to and as an accountant he scratched his head all the time because of how absolutely wasteful and stupid it really was.
Until the law is changed, what needs to happen is a bankrupting of said system. Until then, you can fault them for having no pride, but you can’t fault them because they know to take advantage of what exists. The laws say they can.
Privates get paid $3300 a month? Wow–times have changed-I remember when it was $696 a month as an E-3 (Lance Coolie). It was a fortune back then!
DevilChief: that’s base pay, sep rats, and housing allowance (presumably at the married rate for a relatively high-cost area). Base pay for an E3 with 2 years TIS is a bit over $1915/mo.
HOndo, that’s about what I made in a year as a PHAN. Then I got PH3, so that upped my income by $15/month.
Listening to you guys I feel bad about complaining about what I got paid in the 90’s.
I’ve seen many in uniform who don’t “need” it, but since they qualify for it, take it anyway. It’s pushed on them by the Family Service Center as part of new parent programs. Same with WIC.
All: if you want to see historical military pay, DFAS has the pay tables back to 1949 available at:
http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/militarypaytables.html
It’s my understanding that prior to the 1949 pay table, the pay tables were the same as during World War II. Many enlisted grades got a huge (50+%) raise in 1949.
Have you not seen some if these wife’s. They are whales. How can a private afford to feed someone that weights three times his size. I’m a chick and crap on a cracker, these beasts could use some portion control. I can eat, but my husband still outweighs me. Put down your 12th taco Hefner.