Perversity

In yesterday’s post I mentioned amongst other things that I’d finally landed a part time job working for Dominick’s. A bright spot… sort of. The down side is that it only pays $8.20/hour and at that pay rate – even with full time hours – I will need a second job just to pay current living expenses, let alone play catch up on overdue bills.

Still, it was the first positive I’ve had since beginning my unemployment odyssey in April. It was a start & I was prepared to make the most of it. Between that income, the ongoing proceeds from my Aluminum Harvesting & my Food Stamp allotment, I felt there was at least a light at the end of the tunnel…

Today it was driven home to me that that light was mounted to a train engine.

The State of Illinois, through the offices of the Department of Human Services – those fun loving folks who administer the Food Stamp program - struck a telling blow.

My Food Stamp allotment has been discontinued. When my LINK card was issued to me & was told I needed to mail my caseworker copies of my electric bill and my bank statement. She supplied me with a SASE to with which to mail those documents to her. I put that envelope to use on the Thursday before Labor Day.

The USPS never delivered them to DHS. Lacking those documents she put the kibosh on my Food Stamps. I’m now a non-entity as far as DHS is concerned. My account has been closed for non-compliance on my part.

I understand the State has a set of Rules & Regulations the State Workers have to comply with lest they find their asses in line alongside of my own. Fine – I knew that when I applied for assistance, knew it when I went through the approval dance and I know that now. So be it.

What I don’t understand is why The State has to go out of their way to make dealing with them so damned difficult, not to mention expensive. Now keep in mind, if you will, I haven’t had a paycheck since the first week in April, as I run this down for you:

There is only one DHS office from whom I may request assistance. It is located on the far east end of Skokie, a full 18 miles from my home. For those of you not up on the new math, that’s a 36 miles round trip I had to make. In a vehicle that gets an average of 15/mpg in City traffic.

To qualify for assistance I had to make 3 separate trips to the DHS office. That’s 108 miles or just over 7 gallons of fuel. At an average cost of $4/gallon, I invested $28 just in fuel to apply for the privilege of eating courtesy of the Food Stamp program.

I was told my LINK card would be recharged on the 11th of each month. I called the Toll Free number three times on the 11th and two more times on the 12th to check my balance, as I didn’t know what time of day my LINK card would be “recharged.” After the 5th call telling me my balance remained under $4, I selected the option to learn when my account was SCHEDULED for refilling. The computer told me I had to contact my local DHS office to obtain that information…

Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

I don’t know how it is in other States, but if you call an Illinois State Agency, the phone rings off the wall. Sometimes somebody will answer it, more times not. I called the Skokie DHS office three times today. I let the phone ring 15 times, 30 times, 45 times – no answer. After the 3rd attempt I bit the bullet & drove the 18 miles into Skokie.

I stood in line 30 minutes to tell the front desk clerk why I was there. I had to tell him 3 times – English is obviously not his primary language. He then had me take a seat and wait (since I didn’t have an appointment) for my case worker to “fit me in” to speak with.

Forty minutes later she escorted me to her cubicle. Once there she asked if I knew why my account had not been refilled. I said no. She then asked if I sent the documents she’d requested. I confirmed that I did so on either Wednesday or Thursday, the 27th or 28th of August.

She never received them. She asked if I had brought the originals with me today. Well, since I had no indication that was the problem, no I hadn’t. The original documents are at home. Since she didn’t have the documents she had closed my account. I could FAX her the originals, reapply for Food Stamps and go through the approval dance a second time if I wanted to.

Amongst other things, I included my cell phone number, email & snail mail addresses on my original application. My case worker did not call my cell phone, send me an email nor a snail mail to advise there was a problem with my account. In order to learn this I had to run up an additional 36 mile round trip to Skokie, lose two hours time waiting to hear the word and then be told that because the USPS cannot deliver the mail I get to go hungry…

Does this seem as ludicrously perverse to you as it does to me?

Welcome to life amongst the aluminum, folks. It just doesn't seem to get any more real than this...

More soon, friends & neighbors.