Michigan man still on food stamps despite winning $2M

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by preciousjeni

Apparently, because he took a lump sum, it's considered a liquid asset instead of income. Unfortunately, the "loophole" that allows him to do this is the same one that allows people who have lost their jobs to keep their homes.

It's unfortunate because I foresee a drastic decision being made that will affect thousands of people in the name of cutting off services to this man.

I agree to an extent. If you liquidate retirement funds while in dire straits financially and use it to pay off your house or something, then I could see still allowing food stamps. There are ways to close this particular loophole without hurting too many people. There could be a threshold that is much lower than $850K after taxes.

[preciousjeni]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I agree to an extent. If you liquidate retirement funds while in dire straits financially and use it to pay off your house or something, then I could see still allowing food stamps. There are ways to close this particular loophole without hurting too many people. There could be a threshold that is much lower than $850K after taxes.

I'm with on you the concept. I just can't help but think of people who have high value houses that they can't unload. Closing the loophole would get complicated pretty quickly, which is my concern. It will be interesting to see how the politicians spin this one.