[There are, of course, quite a few different assistance programs (and variations) in the U.S. - I'm sure the following generalization fails in various specific

[There are, of course, quite a few different assistance programs (and variations) in the U.S. - I'm sure the following generalization fails in various specific cases] Your comments about assistance for temporary bad luck nicely describe how many assistance programs should work. Unfortunately... > It's also the sort that the assistance programs in the U.S. are designed to help ...this is not even remotely true for almost all of the assistance programs in the U.S. Unless you have literally no other choice, you will be rejected. This what we get after decades of rhetoric about "welfare queens" and related fears that someone could be scamming the system. Do you still have at least ~$30 in your wallet? A lot of programs will reject you for too much cash. Own anything?[1] Sell it first. Have a pittance in a retirement package that you're not allowed to touch for 30 years? Take the 90+% penalty to cash it in first. Unfortunately, we have effectively optimized most of our welfare/assistance programs in exactly the wrong way. I suspect we could save quite a bit of money if we dropped the suspicion and helped people early, while they still had a job. [1] A single "used-econobox" tier car (YES, they check models and current market price) is often excluded, in the theory that you can't actually get most jobs without it.