Raise the welfare grants
Stop the 5-year limit on MFIP
Give Aid to All in Need

Lots of people can’t get any help at all
Under MN law, many people who have literally no income do not qualify for any cash assistance at all. Zilch. There is no program for childless people whose unemployment has run out. Most working class families who fall on hard times are shocked at how poor a person has to be to qualify for MFIP. We are told to cash out our 401Ks, sell the car (that we need to find and keep a job), get an eviction or utility shut-off notice before we can get anything. Then, in most cases…
• People can’t qualify for unemployment if they were working temp jobs.
• People whose unemployment has run out get nothing.
• Children and families where the parents have hit the 5-year lifetime limit on MFIP get nothing. The clock started in 1996.
• Minnesotans can only get General Assistance ($203 per month) if they have no kids and can prove a disability.
• Most adults can only get food assistance (SNAP) for 3 months in a 3-year period of time.

We need to expand GA or create a new program to “give aid to all in need!”
Welfare grants have not been increased since 1986.
• It has been 28 years since the state of MN increased the General Assistance or the MN Family Investment Plan cash grants.
• The cost of living has more than doubled since 1986.
The state of MN should double the GA and MFIP grants.
Over 70,000 kids live in ‘Extreme Poverty”
• A family of three on MFIP gets $532 in cash per month. They get less if they are in a state of “sanction.” They get nothing if the parent has hit her 5-year limit.
• A disabled person on General Assistance gets $203 per month. A disabled couple on GA gets $260 per month.
• Current MN law puts children into EXTREME poverty; this has to change.Double the welfare grants!

The reality about “education”
Federal, state, county and city officials love to talk about how “education” can save our kids. Many ignore the fact that it’s very hard for homeless kids to learn. Give families survival support, and watch our kids succeed.

Federal welfare funds have been misspent by the state of MN
The state of MN gets a $264 million block grant every year from the federal government for MFIP for poor families.
• Only 25% of that money goes directly to poor families in cash grants.
• 36% goes to so-called Consolidated Support Services – money to counties and to agencies that are supposed to ‘help’ us. Many of those services used to be paid for out of the General Fund. Other services should be paid for out of the DEED or Childcare or Education budgets, like they are for other Minnesotans. For example, over $40 million in TANF funds per biennium go to the Working Family Tax Credit, making the poorest of the poor pay for our own tax credit…this is outrageous. All TANF $ should go to TANF families!

People are suffering hour to hour because of the current system. Federal, state, counties and the “non-profits” are bungling it. Just give people enough to pay for rent and basic needs.

Support the 2015 bills to “Double the welfare grants” and “Give Aid to All in Need.”