Government Assistance

This post will be more political and less about feminism.

I know a person who is pregnant, 24, and un-married. She and her boyfriend want to keep the baby, but so far it has been is extremely hard for them. She works 25 - 30 hrs/week, as does he, but it's just not enough. Usually, I'd say, "If you're not making enough at one part-time job, get another!". Myself, I have four-ish (sometimes, only three). However, a pregnant woman should not have two jobs. In my opinion, a woman whose body is going through the extreme upheaval of pregnancy should have the added physical stress of working too much.

So, she applied for government assistance. She was denied because she works more than 20 hrs.

She was denied assistance BECAUSE she works.

...

Another person I know has three children by three different men, hasn't worked in more than a decade, and was recently arrested for some serious stuff... Stuff she'd been doing for years, but didn't get caught until now.

She has never had a problem with getting government assistance. She's had SNAP, WIC, LINK, as well as child support payments to pay almost all of her bills for many, many years.

Why is this system punishing people for actually working but needing a bit more while rewarding others for having lots of kids they can't pay for?

P.S.

As a very healthy woman in her mid-twenties, I cannot get affordable health insurance. If I had a kid, no problem, but as a responsible woman who is waiting until she is financially ready for kids, I can't get health insurance.