I hear of the discrimination, of the systems a lot. So, I, as a single white mother of two, decided to go and apply for assistance. Seeing as I work 40 hours and attend college 16 hours a week I do have a need.
Stopping by the local Department of family and children services, I find an African American male exiting, wearing head-to-toe FuBu, new shoes, hologram on the hat, “Iced” out and talking on his cell phone telling a friend of his across the room that he had to RENEW his food stamps. He proceeds to exit the building and gets into a pearlescent impala. How nice! I have my review, I have to bring with me the following:
- A rental lease and rental receipt
- Daycare receipts
- Birth certificates and social security cards
- 4 pay check stubs
- School information
I satisfactorily had all of these things. The gross income limit for a family of 3 is $1799.00. My income for the month was $1427.50. plus I received $311.00 of child support bringing my grand total to $ 1738.50. Which is below the limit. So I qualify right?? Today I learn the is wrong , The “system” as I lovingly call it, takes your income for the month and divides it by 4. Lets do this little trick together.
$1427.50 / 4 = $356.875 per week
Then we take this figure and multiply it by 4.33, because we have 2 months out of the year that have 5 weeks, so we penalize every month as having 4 ½ weeks to make up for that.
$356.875 x 4.33 = $1545.27 a month “on average”
So you see, once the “system” got finished with me I actually made an extra $100 for the month of March that never existed. So if we add my child support to that my new monthly income is $1856.27, which in OVER the limit. WOW, I still don't understand why I had to prove my income to the penny if it ended up being based on an “average” anyway!!
To be honest I am outraged!! A man flaunting his possessions can get help more easily than a hardworking mother with children. It is a shame when someone meets the requirements, but over adding and dividing the same numbers a few times, it throws it off. And for those in the dark, a few words of advice. If you tell the caseworker you have a vehicle or make mortgage payments you are automatically denied. Her reply was that the state feels like you could sell your house or vehicle for money to buy groceries in that time of need. Oh great, please do not call on your government for advice!!
