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The Washington Post reports:
A dollar bill is a special kind of thing. You can keep it as long as you like. You can pay for things with it. No one will ever charge you a fee. No one will ask any questions about your credit history. And other people won't try to tell you that they know how to spend that dollar better than you do.
For these reasons, cash is one of the most valuable resources a poor person in the United States can possess. Yet legislators in Kansas, not trusting the poor to use their money wisely, have voted to limit how much cash that welfare beneficiaries can receive, effectively reducing their overall benefits, as well.
The legislature placed a daily cap of $25 on cash withdrawals beginning July 1, which will force beneficiaries to make more frequent trips to the ATM to withdraw money from the debit cards used to pay public assistance benefits.
Since there's a fee for every withdrawal, the limit means that some families will get substantially less money.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @02:30PM
Want to skip the withdraw fee? It is *dead* easy to do. Nearly every bank does it too. Go inside. It is a bit more hassle but there is almost never a fee on the teller. The ATM was supposed to reduce their costs. But they did not incentivize it correctly.
At my bank there is usually a line at the ATM. The tellers are usually just hanging out. I use the same method at the drive thru for fast food. Go inside. The line is usually tiny.
This is not always convenient but most 'random' ATMs charge silly amounts of money to get at your money.
The problem with giving away money is that it is 100% fungible. People may not use it on what you think they should. But its cash. The only way to not make it so is to pay directly and cut them out of the picture. Anything else well they will work around it. There is money involved so therefor an incentive to game the system.
The effective cash limit is 750-775 a month.
This does not 'fix' the problem. It just makes it a headache for those trying to do the right thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @05:08PM
Want to skip the withdraw fee? It is *dead* easy to do. Nearly every bank does it too. Go inside. It is a bit more hassle but there is almost never a fee on the teller.
I call bullshit.
I have never seen a bank that charged an ATM fee for the ATM in the same building as the tellers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @07:44PM
That only works if its your bank. If your bank doesn't have a branch where you live, because you moved or your local branch closed down, then you're fucked. That also only works during bank hours, which means if your work hours are the same as the bank hours, or if they're slightly offset but travel time covers the difference, you're fucked.