Tell Indiana to Stop Yanking Assistance Out From Under Disabled Adults

by Josie Raymond · 2010-07-21 13:02:00 UTC
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Oh no they didn't. According to a damning AP article out this week, the state has been cutting back aid payments to developmentally disabled adults just because those people also get food stamps. It's against the law, and Indiana's been doing it for 10 years or more.

Federal laws say that food stamps cannot be counted as income and therefore cannot decrease a person's benefits. But Indiana has been reducing grocery allowances as food stamp benefits increase, so that no one receives more than $200 in food assistance each month. The $200, by the way, is an arbitrary cap that hasn't been adjusted in years. Really, Indiana? You think that disabled adults who need assistance to live on their own should be restricted to just over $7 per day for food?

Nobody noticed the practice until this month, when a severely autistic man's father took the state to court over it. Steven Dick, an attorney, is working with the ACLU on a suit on behalf of his son Michael, a 26-year-old who functions as a six-year-old. "The problem this class of people face is they're in a position of either take it or do without as far as the state is concerned, and 90 percent of them don't have the wherewithal to fight the system," the elder man said. As usual, father knows best. The filers hope to turn the suit into a class action affair with some of the 6,700 people enrolled in Indiana's Developmental Disabilities Medicaid Waiver Program. No one knows how many of those people also receive food stamps, though.

Already the USDA and Medicaid officials are investigating, but so far, the state is standing by the thievery. "Receiving a benefit reduces their need," said Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. "If your need has been reduced, then you should reduce the supplemental program. .... We stand behind our practice." Ballsy. And entirely incorrect.

Last month Indiana was fined when it tied with Maryland to lead the nation in misappropriating food stamps. It has also recently come under fire for dramatically increasing the number of children it places in foster care. Now this. How do we solve a problem like Indiana?

Photo credit: janetgalore

Josie Raymond has reported from the streets of the South Bronx, written for several magazines that folded (not her fault) and fixed thousands of typos.
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