Pennsylvania to impose asset test for food stamps

"I'm very pessimistic about our ability to meet people's needs," Clark said. "This will be a mind-boggling, self-inflicted wound. It makes no compassionate, political, or economic sense."

For many elderly especially, $3,250 in the bank serves as "the poor man's medical insurance," Clark said.

That sounds about right, said Doris Gray, 72, a divorced, college-educated former graphic artist from Mount Airy with a heart condition who gets $200 a month in food stamps.

Rent, insurance, and medical costs are more than her $1,079 monthly Social Security check. She relies on $14,000 in savings to survive, but Gray estimates it will be depleted in two years.

But before that - as of May 1, if the DPW plan holds - her food stamps will be gone. "It means I'll have to give up paying for my health insurance," she said. "I can't afford food and insurance.

"I feel panic, dismay, and bewilderment. The state doesn't understand that there are so many of us people living on the edge."

Contact staff writer Alfred Lubrano at 215-854-4969 or alubrano@phillynews.com.