Octuplets' mother receives public assistance [UPDATED]

Nadya Suleman, the woman who gave birth to octuplets last month, is receiving $490 a month in food stamps, and three of her first six children are disabled and receiving federal assistance, her publicist confirmed to The Times.

Publicist Michael Furtney confirmed the information after two sources told The Times that Suleman was receiving food stamps and federal supplemental security income.

Suleman had told NBC News correspondent Ann Curry in an interview that she was not receiving welfare. Furtney said Suleman didn't consider the food stamps and SSI to be welfare.

“In Nadya’s view, the money that she gets from the food stamp program ... and the resources disabilities payments she gets for her three children are not welfare," he said. "They are part of programs designed to help people with need, and she does not see that as welfare."

Furtney declined to say what kinds of disabilities the three children have. Nadya Suleman told NBC that she was struggling financially to support her six children before the birth of her octuplets, but that she knows she will be able to support them, especially after she earns her master’s degree in counseling.

"I will feed them," Suleman said in the interview, responding to criticism that she would have difficulty providing emotional and financial support for them. "I will do the best I possibly can. In my own way, in my own faith, I do believe wholeheartedly that God will provide in his own way."

[Updated:

--Jessica Garrison and Garrett Therolf

Photo credit: NBC

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Comments

[KSnative]

This is fraud! In her tv interview, you can see her newly sculptured set of acrylic nails...for her to be spending money on frivolous things such as this, while taking government assistance, is fraudulent. Child services, please investigate! Thank you, LA TImes for reporting the truth to this story.

[Ruby Jackson]

Big surprise.

[Call me Cassandra]

Is there anyone on the planet who didn't see this coming? And anyone who is surprised that this woman doesn't consider food stamps welfare?

[ceesee]

This is so sad. I feel terrible for all 14 chidren. They were unlucky enough to receive a parent far more interested in feeding her own emptiness than offering something substantial to them so they grow up healthy and well-adjusted. And, she has no qualms about her own parents and the rest of us taking care of all 15. How she would provide for the kids emotionally and financially was clearly an after-thought.

Most important to Ms. Suleman is taking care of her own immediate need to feel loved and less alone. She open critizes her parents parenting yet lives with them and takes from them daily.

And the audacity of this woman to go take TV cameras to these young faces while they are recuperating in the hopes of capitalizing on this situation is the height of crass. This is truly the sign of the times. Everything is wide open for public consumption and everything has a price tag.

Some day famous and infamous parents are going to eat their words when their own children are old enough to Google themselves and realize they were the subject of public ridicule, criticism and judgement.

[Marie]

Blah, Blah Blah..who the devil cares anymore! when one of the kids ever gets lost in the grocery store she wont' even notice she has so many! one less won't make a difference ...and by the way the next time I go to Kaiser.. I'll tell them Nadya's paying my bill! lip injections and all.

[Tie Her Tubes]

The clinic who performed her IVF should be responsible for any financial assistance she gets. She is a good example of abuses in health care costs.

[Maxwell]

Oh hell no. I'm not going to help this crazy woman feed her kids when I have trouble feeding my own. I would love to have more kids, but dont because I CANT AFFORD IT. Its not fair to expect other people to help raise and feed your offspring.

[nathan]

Okay, I don't get her mother's comments now. Angela Sulemon has done a bunch of interviews saying that her daughter hasn't supported the children and the grandmother didn't even know about the workman's comp payments. Well. what about all this welfare money? Certainly the grandmother must have noticed $490 worth of food stamps. Why not mention that the tax payers are helping feed this family.

[Lilly]

For your informaion, those three kids that are receiving SSI are also receiving Medi-Cal. The gov't pays more money for medical bills than in Food Stamps or Cash Assistance. I would't be surprise if those three kids are also receiving In-home Supportive Services and Nadia is the provider which means she is getting paid for taking her of her disabled children. This is so sad because she doesn't have her kids' best interest at heart. What's wrong with society.

[Angie]

I DONT AGREE WITH PEOPLE SAYING THEY WISH FOR THE KIDS TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM THEIR MOTHER BUT IF YOU CANNOT PROVIDE FOR THEM AND ARE LIVING OF OFF WELFARE THEN IT WILL BE IN THE BEST FOR YOUR CHILDREN TO BE PLACED IN A HOME WHERE EVERYTHING THEY NEED WILL BE PROVIDED TO THEM... DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT $490 A MONTH IS ENOUGH TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR 14 BABIES... BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL BABIES I MEAN I JUST HOPE THAT YOU DONT ALSO GO APPLY FOR THE WIC PROGRAM THESE PROGRAM ARE DESIGN FOR PEOPLE WITH REAL NEEDS BUT YOU ARE NOT CONSIDER A PERSON THAT NEEDS THESE THINGS... WHY BECAUSE YOU PUT YOURSELF THRU THIS TREATMENT AND YOU DECLINED TO REMOVE SOME EMBRYOS SO YOU WOULDNT HAVE SO MANY BABIES "8" ALL AT ONCE!!! I AGREED WITH YOU WHEN YOU SAID YOU DID NOT RECEIVE ANY TYPE OF WELFARE OR GOVERNMENT AID BECAUSE I DIDNT BELIEVE YOU WERE ASKING FOR NOBODY ELSES MONEY BUT NOW THAT WE KNOW THAT YOU ARE ON WELFARE THAT IS NOT GOOD WHY WOULD YOU KEEP ON HAVING KIDS IF YOU KNOW YOU CANNOT SUPPORT THEM! NOW THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! REMEMBER IT IS ALSO ONLY TEMPORARY, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN THIS AID IS STOPPED AND YOU WILL HAVE TO SUPPORT YOUR KIDS ALL ON YOUR OWN ARE YOU WAITING FOR YOUR PARENTS TO DIE ON FRUSTRATION BECAUSE THEY ARE TO OLD TO HANDLE ALL THIS PRESSURE YOU ARE BRINGING TO THEM... AND MAYBE THEN YOU WILL INHERIT SOMETHING FROM THEM... ARE YOU PLANNING ON ALWAYS LIVING OFF OF OTHER PEOPLE?

[Emma Goldman]

This woman should have all of her children taken away from her by the state. Anyone who knows the family and the exact street address where they live needs to call child protective services and file a complaint. She is obviously a pathological liar and a dangerous caretaker for fourteen children, at least three of them who are disabled.

[Andrew]

This woman needs a reality check. Firstly, what does she consider "welfare" if she doesn't think that SSI and Food Stamps are welfare? Also, assuming that she gets her master's degree in couseling and gets a Marriage & Family Therapist license from the State of California, the average annual salary for someone with that license is $45K to $55K. Not sure how she works the math, but certainly that is no where near enough to support the 14 children she now has living in the Los Angeles area. And if these kids have special needs, as they most certainly will, she is way in the hole. The physician who agreed to this should have their license revoked. That physician implanted a clearly unstable woman with more eggs than she could support.

[Mayu]

what a freakin liar.

She claims she doesn't accept welfare and refuses to even consider it, yet she is on food stamps and SSI.

She decides to have 8 new born babies when a few of her 2 of her six children are disabled, and she claims to be disabled herself.

Her doctor should have his lisence revoked for allowing her to have this procedure if he truly did know she already had 6 kids, 2 of them disabled, was disabled herself, getting welfare, with no job prospect...

and she should have those kids removed from her since the ONLY reason she had those kids is for selfish reasons, which is abusive. It's not about the kids. Every word out of her mouth is me me me me me.

"I was lonely."
"I was an only child and it made ME sad."
"I want Oprah to pay me 2 million to interview me."
"I want my own TV show where I can be an expert on raising kids."
"I wanted to use all the embryos because these are MY kids." (So much for the thousands of women who have jobs AND husbands that could have used donated eggs so they could have a child.)

It's I, I, I, I, I, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me.

NOTHING she says is about her kids, or her children's welfare, or how she's going to care for these kids with no job, no husband, no boyfriend, no child support...

she's a selfish person and SHAME on the media outlets who've paid her for interviews to feed into her disgusting behavior.

[Elizabeth]

Food stamps and SSI. That figures. Did anyone notice her manicured nails as she showed off those poor babies? Her parents need to kick her sorry behind out of that house and let her start paying bills like the rest of us, especially after she's broadcast her "dysfunctional childhood" all over the place. I just want to smack the daylights out of her.

[FauxMaven]

The only public assistance Nadya Suleman should get is irreversible sterilization and her children removed from her "care".

[mike]

I feel sick now and it's only going to get worse!

[Ann]

Good god, what planet is this chick on? She's not in denial, she's just a liar with mental problems. Three of her first six children are disabled? Then she decides to have EIGHT more! Who knows how many of them will be disabled? She doesn't really love children; she's a narcissist who only loves herself.

[Skippy Jiff]

Take the kids and remove this womens reproductive organs.

[CS]

Seriously!!! She doesn't think food stamps and SSI is welfare??? She in school getting a master? Really?? Someone need to give her a dictionary first and explain to her what is welfare because food stamps is a type of welfare, which is supported by a federal entity, i.e. USDA. I'm guessing she is also getting medical for her children, especially the three that are disable, which I don't mind because kids are kids and shouldn't be held responsible for their parents actions.

Oh and she have eight more kids after three of her six kids is having problems already.

ITS ALL JUST MESS UP. To the taxpayers and to the children that she have. GOSH!!!!!!!! CAN'T FREAKIN BELIEVE IT.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/welfare

[Vicki]

She doesn't define food stamps and SSI as welfare. That reminds me of the Bill Clinton statment about the definition of the word "is". Food stamps and SSI are taxpayer dollars for which she does not work, That is defined as welfare in my opinion and I daresay in the opinions of many in this country who are tired of raising our families plus those who sit on their rears and expect to be rescued. She should have to get up every day and get to work on time, and work 10 hour days like I do before she gets a dime from my taxes.

[JG]

This just keeps getting better and better. Please tell me that Social Services will soon be knocking on her door. All of her children need to be taken away and she should be sent to the nearest jail for child abuse. The system and tax payers are already footing the bill, at least something positive should come from it.

[ballrmom]

okay, i wondered if this woman was mentally stable, it seems that she really isn't. who is going to take care of her disabled children while she tries to juggle the care of six infants? She doesn't think her income and food stamps are welfare? the quack doctor needs to be investigated and jailed!

[Alan]

This makes me sick. "God" is providing via the socialist policies of what used to be a free country. I'd almost be willing to cut a deal with her and give her public assistance if she'd agree to steralization.

[Susan]

Who in the world would take counseling advice from this woman? She's clearly disturbed. I doubt she'll be making much of a living at anything.

[Ricardo]

Of course it's not "welfare." Welfare is only for people that don't have a publicist to to the spinning for them.