NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) - Tuscarawas County’s Job And Family Services director says he sees pros and cons to the proposed food stamp eligibility requirement changes. 

The Trump administration wants to close a loophole so that the recipients who automatically receive food stamps because they are on welfare would have to start going through further income and asset checks. JFS Director David Haverfield says that could slow the process down for those affected clients and create more work for his staff, and this is something that’s been debated in Congress repeatedly in recent years without action.

“At the end of the discussion, the conclusion has always been that we’re better off just kind of leaving it the way it is,” he says. “Whether there may be some people that are getting benefits they wouldn’t be entitled to otherwise, the burden of all the work and the small number of people you’re going to catch doesn’t make it worthwhile.” 

However, Haverfield says he is also in favor of preventing people from obtaining benefits that they aren’t entitled to.

“We don’t want to be giving food assistance to someone who may not have any source of income right now but may have half a million dollars of cash in the bank. The President’s right that purely the way things exist now, we would likely miss that,” he says.  
 
Haverfield says he still only believes this proposed rule change would affect about a half-percent of food stamp cases in the county, based on asset checks for other public assistance recipients.  

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