Settlement On Food Stamps Loss In Welfare To SSI Transition

After "welfare as we know it", which was actually Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), was dramatically altered during the Clinton administration to something now known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), it became clear that many who had been receiving AFDC were really disabled. They had gone on AFDC because dealing with the welfare bureaucracy was less difficult than dealing with the Social Security bureaucracy to get SSI, which says something about the Social Security bureaucracy. After the switch from AFDC to TANF made staying indefinitely on "welfare as we know it" impossible, most of these folks ended up getting on Supplemental Security Income (SSI). In the process, many ended up losing Food Stamps because of bureaucratic mistakes, at least in New York state. There has been litigation over this. The New York Times reports that the case has now been settled and 100,000 New York residents will be getting a total of $4.3 million to make up for the errors. Whether this problem extended to other states is a good question.