There was a time, a few years ago, when I lost my job due to an emergency surgery I had. My husband and I have two children. We have typical four person family type things, nothing extravagant. We have a mortgage, we pay bills, things get tight sometimes. My husband just switched jobs that July. I had the surgery in August. His new job had a probation period where he earned 17 dollars an hour. At the time I was earning 15. We weren't living large by any means but we were squeaking by just fine. I lost that job and it was about to get real. I should add my mother came to stay with us. She is handicapped. She stayed with us for six months before she had back surgery. It's going on October and I can't find any work due to the restriction I still had from the surgery. Our bills were backing up. It was getting a bit scary. My poor husband was stressed the hell out. I broke down and went to the welfare office to apply for food stamps to help us until I either found work or my husband's probation period was up and he would be making his full union wage. I applied and I got a phone call two weeks later. We weren't going to get any food stamps because my husband made too much money. My husband has had a steady job for the past 25 years and paid his taxes. I have always had some sort of job and have paid my taxes. We own property that we pay taxes on. My husband served this country in the Marines. We have never asked for help for anything except this one single time, while we have two kids in the house and a disabled senior citizen, and we were told to fuck off. I still get really angry when I think of that.