Living as a VISTA, part 4

If getting benefits is difficult, I want you to get a glimpse of how frustrating it can be to actually KEEP those benefits once you get them, especially when there are other people in your household to keep track of.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this process has been very invasive and at times, degrading. To make matters worse, I am also on edge that we will lose our benefits due to a misunderstanding or lack of communication from JFS. A few weeks after we got our food stamp card, Taylor got his second job as an ambulette driver and I was about to begin my service with AmeriCorps*VISTA. Our income information had changed, and we knew our benefits would decrease a little bit. We had to have our employers fill out forms to verify those changes. But guess what. Employers have better things to do than fax your measly little form to Jobs and Family Services. While my letter made it (thanks Sarah Brady!), Taylor's did not. There was a lot of confusion, and at the end of the day, we received a letter saying our benefits would be reduced from $367 to $91 a month. The reason: because JFS received no documentation from Taylor's employer, they overestimated Taylor's income, and guessed he was making $1350/month, which was FALSE. You saw that we barely made that much money even with my $835/month included in the total. Our letter told us that if we didn't agree with the decision, we could file an appeal, so we did.

Appeals are heard at state hearings, but they take 8 weeks or longer to happen. We wouldn't lose our benefits while we waited for the hearing, but I really just wanted the issue resolved. I ended up calling my county JFS to sort some of this stuff out, and I think I spent more time on hold than I did speaking with an actual person. Turns out they had a lot of stuff wrong in our file. They had overestimated Taylor's income at both Miami and EMT, Inc. And they tried to say my VISTA income would, in fact, count in our eligibility because I started receiving benefits after I started my service as a VISTA. Lies! We received food stamps one month before my term began. I guess they weren't really reading our file, because they had confused my former employment during my college years with my position with AmeriCorps*VISTA. Whatever.

No matter how patiently I explained and re-explained our situation, the person on the other end of the phone was rude and snappy. By the time I hung up, I was shaky and upset, but I thought we had everything straightened out. I figured our benefits would go back up, but I never received a letter saying so.

Instead, about a week later I got a notice that our food stamps were expiring and we had to reapply.

Now, I should explain that typically people who are working and live in a stable household only have to reapply/recertify every 6 months. It's a routine check to make sure all income and household information is up to date. But at the time that we initially applied, our household was pretty unstable with neither of us working a full time job, so we were scheduled to reapply every 2-3 months. I have requested to have that changed to the 6 month recertification timeline, but I still have to go to this appointment. The time they originally gave me would have been impossible to make (I had an OBB event scheduled the day of my appointment, 8/21) so I rescheduled it to Monday, August 3rd at 8:00am. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, I am a lucky lady to be serving at Shared Harvest because I have some pretty awesome inside connections. I was complaining to Meredith about this whole thing, and she connected me with one of our Food Stamp Outreach coordinators, who actually used to work at JFS. She gave me some tips, including a direct email address for a woman from Quality Control, and I emailed her the details of my case. The woman researched my file and called me back within hours. I couldn't believe it--she agreed that there were several mistakes on the file and she even found an additional credit we should receive for paying our own air-conditioning costs. She said she believed our benefits should go from the $91/month they had quoted to $244/month, and finally we received a letter detailing that information 2 days later.

To any VISTAs reading this, if you take anything away from this post, let it be this: if you encounter excessive difficulty in explaining your case, ask for someone in Quality Control to review it. Chances are your caseworker will be unfamiliar with the income exclusion thing, even if you bring them a letter from CNCS that explains it. People in Quality Control are thorough and will take the time to really research your "unusual" situation. And remember that if ever you don't agree with a decision, make like a banana and appeal (yuk yuk yuk!)

In all seriousness, I didn't write this post to discourage anyone from applying for public assistance. I just want to shed some light on a system that is often difficult to navigate to give you an idea of what people in poverty, including us VISTAs, are really up against. Chasing up papers and making trips to JFS is exhausting, and can be nearly impossible when you are working full-time. I can count the number of times I have felt like giving up on both hands, maybe even both feet. From what I've heard from our clients and other VISTAs, that frustration, embarrassment, and anxiety is fairly common for many people applying for and receiving benefits. And I think that's a shame.

In the midst of this recession, the demand for public assistance is higher than it has ever been. Unfortunately, more and more caseworkers are being laid off due to budget constraints as we speak. If you are applying for food stamps or any other type of public assistance right now, please try to be as patient as possible. JFS offices are short-staffed and overworked. But don't be afraid to stick up for yourself either. Know your rights and stay organized! In the end, it will be worth it. At least I hope so.

Good luck--I'd love to hear any of your comments and experiences with this kind of stuff.