Stigma, Luck and Public Assistance

I'm reading one of Tony Judt's last books, Ill Fares the Land, and it has gotten me to thinking: why is accepting public assistance--to the extent it still exists--a source of shame? Why is it so difficult to acknowledge that all of us may need a little help from others from time to time? Of course, I suspect that the answer lies in the age-old conflict between individualism and communitarianism, a conflict that appears to define American culture to a greater extent than is the case, say, in Europe.