Laurel Patrick, a spokeswoman for Walker, said the “entitlement reforms” in the 2013-15 budget “help childless adults transition into the workforce.”
Scott Walker's Wisconsin Is Taking Food Stamps From The Unemployed
Credit: DonkeyHotey
November 30, 2015

You can see why the Kochs love Scott Walker: Get rid of hungry people and convince them you're virtuous for doing it!

Nearly 15,000 people lost access to food stamps in the first three months of a new law that requires some recipients to seek employment, new state data show.

The Department of Health Services figures were released to the State Journal after a request under the state’s open records law. The agency subsequently published the data on its website.

The 2013-15 state budget created a rule for some recipients of the state’s food stamp program known as FoodShare: If you’re an able-bodied adult without children living at home, you must work at least 80 hours a month or look for work to stay in the program.

That rule went into effect in April, and between July and September, about 25 percent of the 60,000 recipients eligible to work were dropped from the program when the penalty took effect, according to DHS data.

Meanwhile, about 4,500 recipients found work through a new job training program for FoodShare recipients.

Participants can get three months of FoodShare benefits before being kicked out of the program if they decline to look for work.

The data provide the first look at the effect of the work requirement, which lawmakers approved in 2013.

“They will bankrupt our food banks,” said Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Milwaukee-based Hunger Task Force, a supplier of food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters with emergency food.

In Wisconsin, about 770,000 people receive FoodShare benefits as of September, according to DHS.The law automatically enrolls eligible recipients in a program designed to help them find employment called the FoodShare Employment and Training program.

Since the new law took effect, just 7 percent of recipients in Milwaukee County — where about half of the able-bodied childless adult recipients live — that were referred to the program were placed in jobs, state data show.

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