Welfare | featured news

Tennessee state senator Stacey Campfield has reintroduced his infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill, with enhancements, including the tattletale clause requiring school teachers and counselors to tell parents if their kids are gay, under various scenarios. Campfield recently introduced a bill that would cut welfare to families if their children don’t perform well in school, calling it a step toward “breaking the cycle of poverty.”

North Carolina lawmakers are drafting legislation that would ban people on welfare or those who are in bankruptcy from buying lottery tickets. Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, R-Wake is helping draft the legislation. Stam told ABC11 the vendor selling the lottery ticket would be penalized if they knew the person was on welfare or in bankruptcy.

Amanda Clayton, who caused a stir by continuing to take food stamps after winning the state lottery's $1 million Make Me Rich! game show, has died of a possible drug overdose, police said Saturday.

Mitt Romney claims he's got a winner with his criticism that President Barack Obama is giving welfare recipients a free ride. Never mind that aspects of his argument against the Democrat are factually inaccurate....

The Australian government is rolling out a radical new way of paying welfare benefits that may be instructive for other countries around the world. Instead of being given cash or cheques, thousands of people are now issued with electronic "credit" cards.

“The Obama administration, working with the Republican governors of states like Nevada and Utah, is giving states additional flexibility only if they move more people from welfare to work – not fewer," said spokeswoman Lis Smith, adding that Romney, as governor, "petitioned the federal government for waivers that would have let people stay on welfare for an indefinite period, ending welfare reform as we know it."

Amanda Clayton, a Michigan woman who won $1 million from the state lottery last year, was arraigned today in district court on felony charges stemming from an investigation that found she failed to report her lottery winnings and employment status to the Department of Human Services in order to continue receiving public assistance.

Beware of too much good luck, warns a classic Greek myth – a lesson that a Michigan woman who won a $1-million state lottery jackpot has learned the hard way. Michigan’s Department of Human Services has cut off $200 a month in food aid to Amanda Clayton in the wake of media reports that she had won $1 million in the state lottery in September. To make matters worse for Clayton, who lives in Lincoln Park near Detroit, her case has been turned over to state anti-fraud officials.

Records show that government inspectors were aware that a Seattle resident was receiving housing assistance to live in a $1.2 million home on Lake Washington.

The US must learn from this: "The Beveridge Report ushered in the welfare state which destroyed social problems but created a new monster - the idea that the state owes us something. When Sir William Beveridge wrote his report 70 years ago arguing for the creation for the welfare state he wanted to give the poor a hand up from the grim life they faced. But a dependency culture has since emerged which provokes fury among politicians and public alike. So is the nation ready for change? Are we on the brink of another welfare revolution?"