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Or here's an interesting fact: SNAP (food stamps) have cost-of-living adjustments. When food prices go up, SNAP benefits go up.

But SSI benefits count SNAP as income and there is a dollar-for-dollar downward adjustment for every increase in SNAP.

So if you have SNAP, your SSI benefits will _decrease_ with an _increase_ in cost-of-living!

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If you own a couple of grand in assets you no longer qualify for SNAP. Which is crazy given that 15 million people rely on SNAP.

Seems in a lot of cases the limit is $2500! Even a very modest emergency fund is probably going to be double that...

The idea of food stamps is to give you food when you literally can't buy it yourself, not when you have a couple grand in your bank account.

Yeah it's a dumb idea. Making people spend down their savings when they have no income to pay for food.

What else are savings for then?

Well if you only have $2.5k and no income it's probably going to housing costs.

(Am I here to answer stupid questions...)

The idea of an emergency fund is for unexpected expenses like car repairs or a medical bill. The primary use of SNAP is to supplement an employed person’s income so they are able to afford food.

In practice you can just keep your savings in cash and not disclose it.

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