Here's the latest from the Bizarro World of the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance:
While I still haven't been able to reach anyone or get my messages answered by this bloated and glacially slow bureaucracy, we got a sheaf of paperwork in the mail today. Apparently, the reason why they'd cut us off with two days' notice was because when we'd re-certified last month, they never sent us paperwork to fill out to enroll in a mandatory job search/training program.
Now, theoretically, I was also supposed to do this when I was on UI until April 2011. And that's fine. I'm all for people being given the chance to pick themselves up and that the social safety net for working age people should not foster, God help me for using this phrase, "a culture of dependency."
What I'm critical of is the fact that we'd gotten cut off from our one reliable lifeline, our EBT card, with little notice and no explanation because my incompetent case manager never sent us paperwork for a program we didn't even know existed much less one that was mandatory. We're paying the price for some low level bureaucrat's ineptitude and weren't given a fighting chance to hang on to our benefits.
This process could take weeks and is still subject to review. Under MA law, the first time you're rejected, you lose your SNAP benefits for three months. The 2nd time, six months. The 3rd time? A whole year. This could last for weeks or even months if they don't like what they see. Essentially, we have to provide evidence of job searches totaling 24 hours or so a month. Barb's first name misspelled, what was supposed to be two-sided paperwork was only copied on one side and they also got our address wrong twice. The "brochure" looked as if it was mimeographed by Stevie Wonder. Seriously, these are the psychopaths I have to deal with on a regular basis.
About dozen and a half or so kind souls, mostly those making donations of $10-25, have responded to my plea for help but we're far from being out of the woods. Which is where wolves happen to live.
So, if you'd read the previous post and passed on helping while being able to, you might wish to reconsider this time because I'm plainly dealing with morons in a bureaucracy in which the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.
It makes no sense that we, the wealthiest country in the world, is sending billions to Israel and Egypt and bailing out Wall Street to the tune of trillions while there are so many people here at home with food insecurity. It would make much more sense if the SNAP people and the SEC would trade places so we'd catch a break while the DTA bureaucrats go after the robber barons of Wall Street who really are mooching the economy dry.
Bottom line: If you Kossaks have the financial means to help, please do through the Paypal link at my place. It'd be wonderful if someone could front page this and give it some notoriety for a day. Failing that, if you could provide the link in my tagline on your G+, Twitter or Facebook accounts, that would help.
JP
http://www.welcomebacktopottersville.blogspot.com/...