<story><title>Policy punishes disabled people who save more than $2k</title><url>https://fullstackeconomics.com/how-policy-punishes-disabled-people-who-save-more-than-2000/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gwright</author><text>I most recently saw that with some criticisms of Section 8 housing.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m paraphrasing but basically to be eligible for Section 8 housing you can&amp;#x27;t have too many assets. Good financial planning would say to scrimp and save so that you can get make a downpayment to get a mortgage but you&amp;#x27;ll be kicked out of the section 8 housing long before you&amp;#x27;ve saved enough to get out yourself.&lt;p&gt;Catch-22</text></item><item><author>colechristensen</author><text>Seen this kind of thing several times.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Assistance&amp;quot; programs meant to prop people up with so many reporting requirements and perverse incentives that punish you for improving your situation to the extent that the best path is to not even try to improve your situation and be entirely dependent on the program because when you do start earning income or saving anything, they take so much away from you that there is a significant cost to any amount of improvement until well after you&amp;#x27;d be self-sufficient.  i.e. it is more expensive to earn any income than it is to earn none, and the constant threat of losing support of the program (explicit threats) is much more anxiety inducing for the most vulnerable populations often than the situation they were trying to exit.&lt;p&gt;Being homeless, getting into a program to help the homeless, and then constantly being threatened with a return to homelessness if somebody doesn&amp;#x27;t do the paperwork exactly right is just crazy, but I&amp;#x27;ve seen it first hand.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;m paraphrasing but basically to be eligible for Section 8 housing you can&amp;#x27;t have too many assets. Good financial planning would say to scrimp and save so that you can get make a downpayment to get a mortgage but you&amp;#x27;ll be kicked out of the section 8 housing long before you&amp;#x27;ve saved enough to get out yourself.&lt;p&gt;The progression would be Section 8 -&amp;gt; Renting -&amp;gt; Home Ownership&lt;p&gt;The purpose of programs like Section 8 isn&amp;#x27;t to subsidize people while they save up to purchase expensive assets and leapfrog past non-subsidized renters. It&amp;#x27;s to backstop people who couldn&amp;#x27;t afford normal rents.</text></comment>
<story><title>Policy punishes disabled people who save more than $2k</title><url>https://fullstackeconomics.com/how-policy-punishes-disabled-people-who-save-more-than-2000/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gwright</author><text>I most recently saw that with some criticisms of Section 8 housing.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m paraphrasing but basically to be eligible for Section 8 housing you can&amp;#x27;t have too many assets. Good financial planning would say to scrimp and save so that you can get make a downpayment to get a mortgage but you&amp;#x27;ll be kicked out of the section 8 housing long before you&amp;#x27;ve saved enough to get out yourself.&lt;p&gt;Catch-22</text></item><item><author>colechristensen</author><text>Seen this kind of thing several times.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Assistance&amp;quot; programs meant to prop people up with so many reporting requirements and perverse incentives that punish you for improving your situation to the extent that the best path is to not even try to improve your situation and be entirely dependent on the program because when you do start earning income or saving anything, they take so much away from you that there is a significant cost to any amount of improvement until well after you&amp;#x27;d be self-sufficient.  i.e. it is more expensive to earn any income than it is to earn none, and the constant threat of losing support of the program (explicit threats) is much more anxiety inducing for the most vulnerable populations often than the situation they were trying to exit.&lt;p&gt;Being homeless, getting into a program to help the homeless, and then constantly being threatened with a return to homelessness if somebody doesn&amp;#x27;t do the paperwork exactly right is just crazy, but I&amp;#x27;ve seen it first hand.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alistairSH</author><text>Eh. Why should the jump from Section 8 (subsidized rent) be straight to home ownership (and not renting with your own income)?&lt;p&gt;Section 8 might have some inefficient cliffs. But not allowing savings for a mortgage doesn’t strike me as  one of them.</text></comment>