When they’re handling your health care, they’ll move just as swiftly:

50,000 Food Stamp Recipients in Cook County May Have To Find Jobs Starting Jan. 1
The Chicago Tribune | November 20, 2019 | Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz

About 50,000 Cook County residents who receive food stamps are going to have to find jobs next year — or risk losing their benefits.

Starting Jan. 1, food stamp recipients in Cook County who are able-bodied, under the age of 50 and not living with children or other dependents will be restricted to three months of food assistance in a three-year period unless they work at least 80 hours a month. They can also meet the requirement by participating in a work-related activity, such as job training or volunteering.

The vast majority of Illinois’ 1.8 million SNAP recipients — most of whom are either elderly, children or people with disabilities — are unaffected by the change. But it will be a huge shift in Cook County, where 50,000 of the county’s 826,000 food stamp recipients will be subject to work requirements for the first time since the federal rules went into effect in the mid-1990s.

State officials and social service groups worry people who struggle to find or keep jobs will be driven out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, leaving them hungry and putting pressure on food pantries. They say there isn’t enough federal funding to help connect them with jobs.

“Quite frankly, a lot of the folks who are not able to meet those requirements will not participate in the program and just drop out,” said Grace Hou, secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services. Single adults receive, on average, $200 a month in food aid.

And how will these folks who “just drop out” (choice is such a good thing!) recoup those lost gratuities?

Anyway, I’d suggest avoiding Cook County if you don’t want to become that alternate source of income. Everyone except Jussie Smollett seems to get mugged there.