I am writing this article to expand upon a blog I posted on Open Salon, Taboo Jive and my own website, The Black Feminista earlier this week named The Harsh Realities of Being on Welfare

In order to receive TANF benefits in Illinois, which is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the head of household must work. Because I have one child under the age of eighteen, I am eligible to receive $318 dollars per month (because I reside in Cook County); in other counties, a parent with one child receives $277 per month.

According to TANF and other names for public assistance, welfare recipients must work for the amount they receive from the government depending on the age of the children. If the children are under six years old, they must work for twenty hours per week. If they are over six-years-old, the parent must must work for thirty hours per week. They are sent to corporations such as Walgreens (I know about this because of ear hustling), banks and other companies. Corporation are not hiring because these corporations can use a never ending supply of desperate welfare recipients who have to work to get their meager wages.

In the midst of writing this, I received a phone call from a lawyer with the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. I was told that working for slave wages is legal in America as long as the individual is receiving welfare benefits and that there is little I can do about it. I am crying with tears of rage because it is unbelievable that people are treated like shit because they have the misfortune to be poor enough to receive Public Assistance. I am a slave for all intents and purposes because I am poor and this is supposed to be a democracy? Bullshit of the highest degree!