by Jack Lee
Sheila K. is 32 and just had her first child. Her husband works as a computer tech and she works for family support (welfare) as a case worker. Sheila is not her real name, she spoke to me on condition of anonymity, because what she was about to reveal was criminal.
It all began when I casually asked Sheila how the new baby was doing. She said fine, but she said she wished she could stay home and take care of her. Currently husband and wife are doing the tag team thing, each caring for the baby while the other is at work, and this has been very difficult.
I said, so why don’t you be a stay home mom for a year or two? She said even after they eliminate all the frills, their budget was about the sum of their bills (on her husbands income alone). They have about 3 months salary saved up and that won’t be enough to allow her to quit her career job.
One big factor was the house payment of $2200 a month, that keeps her working and uses up most of her salary. They bought their home about two years ago, just in time to see the home prices drop and now they are upside down on the mortgage by about $65,000. She said there are days when they would like to just walk away and let the bank have it, but she said she can’t do that in good conscience and added that too many people have already done that and it’s hurt America too much.
She sees a lot of flakey people in her line of work and it seems like they all have stories about how they defaulted on credit cards, cars or homes and are now trying to scam the government for something they don’t deserve and are not entitled. She said they would prefer to struggle along and keep paying for a house that isn’t worth what is owed on it because this is the honorable thing to do. I was pleasantly surprised by her answer!
So, I suggested “Why don’t you find a good child care center where they take newborn babies for the day?” (Her reply is what set me off.) Sheila said the typical child care center in her town charges about $500 a week and they absolutely could not afford a $2000 a month child care bill… plus a $2200 a month mortgage! They make decent money with two incomes, but not that much!
$500 a week for child care? I asked. That seemed outrageously high and I wondered how anyone but the rich, could anybody afford that? Her answer was shocking.
Shiela confided, if you are single mother today you get state aid to keep you employed and then they pay 100% of the child care bill. If you are low income you can still get state aid and it’s almost all paid for and in some cases it’s paid 100%. In other situations she said the parents have hired a close family member to do what they would normally do for free, (watch the baby) but they (the relatives) get paid so well by the state as a child care person they are easily tempted to sign up for the money. Sheila said, of course it’s illegal for family members to do that, but she added nobody really checks and she said one of her co-workers is doing that right now. Her sister is getting paid. “How could anyone, especially a welfare worker, do something that immoral at a time when the state is flat broke?” I asked. She said, “Most of the people just think, hey, if nobody is going to know and it appears that nobody really cares, then why not it’s easy money. Somebody else will be getting it, if they don’t take it, so why not get theirs?”
Sheila says the day care people are getting this $500 a week price because the state will pay it, but if the state was in not involved their prices would likely be much more competitive. She said nobody she knows actually pays the $500 price; they either have most of it or all of paid by the state. She said it was her personal experience that most Hispanics will play the welfare system because they know how easy it is to get money and because they have a need with their big families. She said some get helped legally, but most are getting aid the illegal way.
Why pick on Hispanics I asked? (she was Hispanic) She said she wasn’t really, it was just what she knew. She said it was sort of an epidemic within the culture, in her opinion. It seems like in her world they all know so many of their friends and relatives that have taken the system for years and nobody ever gets caught, so they feel almost obligated to take the money. “Why suffer when getting the grant money is so easy?” She said.
With cut-backs in welfare fraud investigators Sheila says it is easier than ever to get away with this type of fraud. She said most people don’t really consider it stealing because it seems like everybody does it. Unfortunately, and this is just an educated guess…it is costing California tax payers billions every year for benefits for unqualified recipients, white, black, brown, etc., this is a problem.
In her case where she makes ok money, but she still can’t afford to pay the $500 a week childcare cost, they are left to fend for themselves. Absolutely no State help for them. She says the day care prices aren’t ever going to come down as long as the State of California is a codependent an “aider and abettor” in massive welfare fraud. She felt that if the State would butt out and let the free market set the price it would be affordable to families like hers. I was fuming at this information and said I want to tell people what was happening and she said I wish you would, but don’t use my name or location. I agreed and now you know what I know…makes you mad doesn’t it?
In a related stories Calif. Democrats turned down a proposal to include welfare reform with cost cutting, saying it’s an either or situation. They are not going to cave in to both reform and…. cost cutting. California’s Gov. Schwarzenegger was furious, but so what? The dems are in charge and the waste, fraud and abuse continues, this is more of a vote buying issuing for them. (authors opinion).