GOP lawmaker proposes to create child support requirement for food stamps

[TexasTowelie]

Jessica Harding’s story didn’t start out with poverty, she told lawmakers on the House Human Services Committee on Thursday.

But that’s the situation she was thrust into during the pandemic, out of work for the second time in recent years and in the midst of a six-month wait for unemployment to hit. Though she once made in excess of $80,000 a year, she was now relying on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, better known as SNAP or food stamps, to feed her family. SNAP was a godsend, she said, as she could not receive cash assistance from the government because she refused to pursue child support payments from her son’s father, a necessary requirement for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families payments.

The father her son had never met was abusive, to her and to other children, and in the depths of drug addiction, she said.

“Filing for child support would make him fight for custody to ease his financial burden, but ultimately would put my child in danger,” she told lawmakers.

Read more: https://dailymontanan.com/2021/02/19/gop-lawmaker-proposes-to-create-child-support-requirement-for-food-stamps/