Work Is Better Than Handouts

                What happens when states stop handouts and require residents to work for what they get?  More than a year ago we learned that Maine acted in favor of work over entitlement.  The state instituted a work requirement and watched its caseload plummet by 80 percent.  There were 13,332 recipients in December 2014 and only 2,678 in March 2015.

                Now another state has reinstated work requirements for food stamps.  Before Kansas changed the requirement, "93 percent of food stamp recipients were in poverty, with 84 percent in severe poverty….

                “Once work requirements were established, thousands of food stamp recipients moved into the workforce, promoting income gains and a decrease in poverty.  Forty percent of the individuals who left the food stamp ranks found employment within three months, and about 60 percent found employment within a year.  They saw an average income increase of 127 percent….” 

                The experiences in these two states prove that people will take entitlements without work but will be better off financially by working for what they need.  I hope more states wise up and reestablish work requirements.