“The Undeserving Poor,” by Kristina Cooke, David Rohde, and Ryan McNeill. The Atlantic. Dec. 20, 2012.
The 34-year-old Indiana native has learning disabilities and endured a childhood of abuse. Relatives say he was thrown through a plate-glass widow by his grandmother when he was a teen, leaving him with a permanently numb left hand. Social workers consider him well enough to work, though, and he need qualified for disability benefits. So, in the past decade Case has scraped by in temporary jobs, never making more than $10 an hour. Now he’s out of work again. He gets no unemployment benefits; he was in his last gig long enough. He can’t get Medicaid because he has no dependent children at home. Until October, his only help was $200 a month in food stamps. Because of a paperwork error, the government cut him off. With or without food stamps, he has to scrounge for cash, selling plasma at a blood center twice a week for $30 a pop. “What’s out there for people like me?” said Case. “There’s nothing.” Read more…