FEMINIST LEADERS ISSUE "WEEK ON WELFARE CHALLENGE"
TO PRESIDENT, HOUSE SPEAKER AND OTHER LEADERS
FEBRUARY 6, 1995

Do some people prefer welfare to a good job? Do young women have children just to get on welfare? Are women who are raising young children "not working?" These are the questions being asked in the Washington welfare debate, yet the people making policy decisions based on their answers to these questions have never lived on welfare themselves.

The Week on Welfare Challenge is an attempt to remedy this problem of unqualified decision makers producing unworkable solutions. Feminist leaders today challenge President Clinton, House Speakers Newt Gingrich and other policy makers and shapers: Live on a welfare budget for one week -- and if possible, try being the sole caretaker of young children, too. Here is how the challenge works:

AVERAGE INCOME: $150 A WEEK

Most welfare families are comprised of a mother and only one or two children. A mother with two children qualifies for an average of $393 in Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC, the most common form of welfare) and $252 in food stamps, a total of $645 a month. That makes for a combined weekly sum of $150 -- $91.39 in cash and $58.61 in food stamps (dividing the monthly figures by the 4.3 weeks in an average month).*

EXPENSES

Here's what that $150 a week for a family of three must cover:

FOOD $58.61+

HOUSING $69.77

UTILITIES $ 5.25+

ALL ELSE $16.38

*The monthly figures for AFDC and food stamps here and in the narrative and chart following are March 1994 averages as reported by the Agriculture Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. They are included in the booklet, "Living at the Bottom," distributed by the Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law.

FOOD The average monthly food stamps allocation of $252, divided by 4.3 weeks, provides just $58.61 a week in food stamps for groceries. Divide that by 21 meals and your challenge is to feed your family on $2.79 a meal for all three of you. However, the reality is that some welfare recipients are forced to use food stamps illegally, as a form of purchasing power in order to, for example, pay a neighbor to care for one child while the mother takes another child to the doctor.

HOUSING Contrary to myth, most welfare recipients do not get additional housing subsidies; fewer than 10 percent live in public housing. So suppose you pay the low monthly rent of $300 -- and imagine what kind of housing that will buy -- you have already spent $69.77 a week (again, given the average 4.3 weeks in a month). When you deduct that $300 from your available AFDC payment of $393 a month/$91.39 a week, your family of three now has $21.63 a week in cash to live on.

UTILITIES This means all utilities, from heat and water to telephone. Assume you rent includes heat and water. To get an understanding of how phone calls add up, try putting aside 25 cents of your $21.63 for every phone call. At three calls a day, 21 calls a week, that would mean you now have $5.25 less left, $16.38 total in cash on hand. Better yet, use some of your cash to place a lock on the phone so no children or neighbors can use it. If that doesn't work, try living with no phone.

CLOTHING You're probably starting out with a supply of clothing, but suppose you weren't. For example, imagine this is the week your kids' shoe sizes change.

One pair of shoes will clean out your cash on hand. You better be a bargain hunter.

FURNITURE Forget about this now.

EVERYTHING ELSE You'll have to stretch that $16.38 to cover toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, diapers, non- prescription medicine (or you could go to the doctor for prescriptions to treat illnesses that can be treated with over- the-counter medicines), lightbulbs, shampoo, tampons, newspapers, school supplies, school trips. It kind of gives new meaning to the word "incidentals," doesn't it? But remember, don't try anything the system hasn't dictated, like trading food stamps for cough syrup. That's illegal and turns you into a welfare cheat.

As Sen Daniel Patrick Moynihan once wrote, "If American society recognized home making and child rearing as productive work to be included in the national economic accounts, the receipt of welfare might not imply dependency . . . It may be hoped the women's movement . . . will change this." Senator, we're trying. That's why we're asking for accuracy and empathy from the policy makers. One congressman who participated in this simulation 20 years ago said he couldn't think of anything but food by day three. Another said he found himself fighting with his own children over how much they ate. Partly due to this experiment, one punitive cut in welfare levels was avoided. It's time this experiment was done again -- on a larger scale. So just one week, President Clinton and Congressman Gingrich. That's all we ask. Then we'll talk.

Feminist leaders issuing the Week on Welfare Challenge include:

Gloria Steinem, Ms. magazine founder

Patricia Ireland, NOW President

Robin Morgan, author and activist

Theresa Funiciello, welfare veteran and author of Tyranny of Kindness

Michelle Tingling Clemmons, Up and Out of Poverty Now! Coalition

Karen Johnson, NOW National Secretary and former recipient

Timothy Casey, activist attorney and former recipient

Here is a photo of Karen Johnson, Patricia Ireland, and Gloria Steinem issuing the challenge.

NOW's participation in the Week on Welfare Challenge is part of its 100 Days of Action designed to counter the Republicans' plans for the first 100 Days of Congress, as spelled out in the Contract ON America. NOW's actions will culminate with a massive Rally For Women's Lives April 9 on the mall, which will call for an end to all violence against women, anti-abortion violence, the Contract ON America and the war on poor women.

Return to NOW Home Page