Both my wife and I are citizens of the United States, and we’ve just moved into an apartment together this past June. Unfortunately, my wife hasn’t been able to find a job yet, and I’m working with minimum wage ($7.50 per hour in Texas). It’s nowhere near enough to cover all of our expenses (I get around $950 per month, but expenses are over $1000). Am I eligible for welfare? And if so, how can I apply for it? anon483

Anon48367: If you have a job, it would be very considerate of you to help your son’s grandmother with the house expenses. Many parents charge their adult children rent, and if you are enough of an adult to take on the responsibility of a child, then you should be enough of an adult to help pay the expenses you and your child are incurring in that home. anon483

I am 16 and will be 17 in December.I have an 11 month old old son and I live with his father, aunt, mother, great-grandmother and cousin. His mother receives food stamps for me and my son as well as her son. Should I have to pay rent even though she receives foodstamps for me? carandty

i’m 20 years old and i’m six weeks pregnant. i live at home with an alcoholic mother, i have no job and i don’t go to school. my boyfriend lives with my mom and i and he has a full time job but doesn’t make enough money. i have already had a miscarriage and i do not want to go through what i went through last time. i need help asap my living situation is not good at all. please help . anon480

I am 54 years old, and for the last seven years (until she died) I was full-time caregiver, 24/7 for my mother who had many health problems, but did not want to go to a nursing home

I am 18 years old. At 17 i was kicked out of my house. I have no job, no money, I have not many clothes. I need help. Do I qualify? anon473

i’m 18 years old and attending college. I have a job but do not make enough. Looking for a second job but that’s not going too well. I don’t live with my parents and they are not willing to help with the expenses. I’m paying for a car, insurance, and braces and school. I need a place to stay but I don’t have enough money for all that. do i qualify for welfare? jessa

Food stamps are not enough

I am 28 years old and pregnant. I work full time but my employee doesn’t offer maternity benefits, and the last person to take time off after having a baby got laid off. i want to know if this would qualify me for benefits. I want to be sure my child gets proper care and food and i am afraid i won’t find another job quickly enough. anon467

During that time I had no income — my mother and I lived on her small pension from my deceased father’s employer. Before that, I worked for fifteen years in retail. I have had no income this year, which I have fruitlessly spent trying to find a job. I’ve been going to free job search workshops at the Employment Development Department and joined a woman’s job search support group (formed by women who were laid off last year from a credit union when taken over by another company — despite over 200 years combined experience in banking, only one of them has found a job). It finally clicked that the reason we are not getting hired for jobs that we are more than qualified for is that employers would rather hire inexperienced teens, people on welfare and food stamps or felons — because businesses can get paid up to $2400, or in some cases, $9000, for hiring such people who often have few job skills (reason why they may have ended up on welfare, etc.) So next time you are “helped” at a business by an employee who doesn’t seem to know what they are doing (for example, I’ve read reviews for one place where I applied at, but of course wasn’t hired, about cashiers who don’t know how to make change), you can see the results first hand of how this practice of not hiring applicants who are best for the job, ultimately can hurt more people than it helps. anon466