A discussion On Food stamps:

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Ready-packs indeed are another possibility. One pack per week, for an adult for example so and so much milk, butter, tea-bags, apples, bananas, citrons, eggs, bread, some ordinary cheese, potatoes, and so on.

Again, no cigarettes, no soft drinks, no whisky etc.

On cloathes and school material, you probably still are better off with a stamp system. The needs are too diverse and cannot be systematically predicted.

Social aid, wellfare, is about the essentials of life, and staying healthy. It's not about luxury. The system we have in Germany now, called Hartz-IV, in itself again is not perfect, since it is too theoretically founded, and not pragmatically oriented towards reality. It was thought out by some disconnected egghead in the locked ivory tower, I think. As a result some parasites - singles for the most - live relatively comfortable by it, while others, especially hard-trying families with kids, who are good-willed to get out of fate's pit indeed, get too little.

Oh, and one thing. Getting pregnant while on wellfare should get rewarded by punishing sanctions. Protect the new baby, if you think that is a moral imperative, but let the parents feel the penalty for sure. Only bread and water, so to speak.

Perhaps for items like clothing and school supplies, there should be an audit system requiring welfare users to justify and account for every bit of currency spent?