About to Snap: The Welfare Diaries

By T.C. Junior

T.C. Junior is a current case worker for Welfare recipients. He represents no agency, state or federal, and only gives his own accounts to his experiences. He has a very extensive work history with the most costly state and federal programs (Criminal Justice and Welfare Services), as well as other jobs in the private sector as a part of the process of developing his transferrable skill. T.C. Juniors career in Human Services have expanded in 2 different divisions, Long Term Care Programs with the Elderly and Disabled, and with Health and Human Service conducting eligibility determination and case management for SNAP, TANF, Medicaid and CHIP. T.C. Junior also was chosen by supervisors to be a part of the ACA application processing group which handled the Medicaid testing portion of ACA applicants before being sent to the Market Place for insurance. T.C. Junior is a Psychology Major and during the course of the book was able to apply concepts of his education along with work experience to understand the Welfare system and does his best to expose Americans to this sub-culture in America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503569676

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Copyright © 2015 by T.C. Junior.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015907488

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5035-6966-9

                Softcover        978-1-5035-6968-3

                eBook            978-1-5035-6967-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 10/20/2015

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This book is dedicated to all Middle Class American’s who are footing the bill for this county and the children of America; I hope this experience opens the eyes of Americans and changes are made to ensure you children have the opportunity to seek your American Dream that my generation has grown to no longer believe in.

INTRODUCTION

I am not a disgruntled employee and I do not represent any agency state or federal. I am nothing more than a tax paying American that was put in the unique situation to witness first-hand the function of welfare and its recipients. I am very good at what I do and my record in this course of employment has been considered to be distinguished. I have been recognized by my supervisor and fellow employee and one of the most reliable and fair case workers. If I was to describe my work ethic philosophy in dealing with public service I would say over the years I have proven to be Firm and Fair. Recipients have personally requested me to do their cases because of my quality of work and the service I provide to them. My goal here is not to put down the Welfare service, but it is to expose the failed policies and the negative impact it has had on society and the American work ethic and culture. Though these interviews took place in 2012, there is no change to what a case worker deals with and hears on a daily basis. At the end I will explain the difference ACA has made on eligibility determination of Medicaid, but you will see that there was really no impact on Medicaid.

Have you ever gone to the supermarket and watch someone in front of you use their food stamp EBT card? Have you ever seen what they are buying? Have you seen them use their stamps at convenience store and pay twice the price for items like cheese, lunchmeat, eggs and milk than what a grocery store charges for them? What is worse, have you seen people use that food stamp card (EBT) and then unload the groceries into a new car? Let me tell you who is all on food stamps, people you would not believe. They have iPhones, they have new cars, they own homes and rental properties, and some own successful businesses. Truthfully, you would be amazed at who is all on food stamps and receiving Medicaid or CHIP and now qualifies for ACA healthcare. But you know who doesn’t receive what we are required to refer to as benefits, honest people. True, a politician would say something along the lines of Everyone has a fair and equal opportunity to apply and are evaluated the exact same, but that does not mean that the eligibly process will result in what most people would consider a fair outcome.

The idea of food stamps is so different now. You interview people and the attitude it so strange. I would say an easy 2/3 of the clients I talk to treat the interview as a nuisance and the request of verifications as a hassle or act of harassment. I talk to them in my office and they sit there texting and talking on the phone and the information you ask them for is second to whoever else is of their concern. They give the clerks a hard time, and when they tell a lie, they will look at you with the expression of why are you even taking my time for this interview, I’m gonna get my food stamp anyway. And they are right, I would like to say I’m a case manager, but that is completely false, I’m a file updater. The difference is that a case manager deals with the same case on a continual basis, so if a client tells that case manager one thing, it is harder for them to come back and change what they said the next time they speak with that same case manager. A file updater is someone who updates a case to its current status, the cases change so much and are passed between worker to worker. So whatever a client tells one case worker, the next case worker that works the case only has documentation to go on and these people can twist a lie good enough to beat that. I have been told to document some of the most insane explanations to the point that I told myself I cannot believe I am actually writing something this stupid in documentation, I ought to be wrote up or even fired for accepting this. But we are stripped of any right to use common sense.

I remember I was so excited to start this job. Me and my wife previously had good jobs with benefits but were laid off as a result of the bad economy, we were offered another position but took a pay cut to remain employed. We loss our car followed by our house and been living with my mother for 7 months. I got the call because I had been applying for this a state job for about 18 months and had already had several interviews. I busted my ass, call every-one I could track down to find out where I was on the hiring list or how my scores where, or if any openings had recently come available. I knew I was at a disadvantage because I only had my associate’s degree (the passed job transition put a pause on my education) but I did have 5 years worth of data entry, accounts maintenance, and computer experience to bank on. I was competing with individuals who had their bachelor’s degree, but for a lot of them it was going to be there first job. So it was a sense of accomplishment when I got the job over some of the competition. Or it could be possible I just pestered the right person long enough until they caved, either way I got the job I thought I want but knew I needed. I knew my family would now have medical benefits even though it would cost me a little more than 1/6th of my salary, along with life insurance and retirement. Plus I was going to school for my Bachelors in Psychology and it would help me get some state time in and I could transfer within the Human Resource Commission’s five umbrella agencies which all had postings that a Psychology degree would be beneficial for, as well as a loan forgiveness program.

Now it’s important to know a little about me before we get to what I really want to say and it is significant later as I will reference. But I’m going to keep it short. Didn’t think I would go college, my dad owned his own business and was successful but his personal foolishness landed him in prison when I was 16. I got my GED early, quite high school and worked a few jobs till I went to work for the prison system at age 20. I did well at the prison, bought a truck, moved to Colorado, worked at the prison there, met my wife, moved back to my home state and worked at the prison till a few months after my son was born. The prison is for a lot of people and is a good job in my home state, but it is not for everyone. After a while, my wife and I decide we would start over due to the stress of the job at the prison was so easily brought home and affected my family. We knew it would be hard, but we decided to do it while our son was young so my wife could be with him. So we did it, I quit the prison and went to work at Wal-Mart but made nothing and decided we needed to go where some work was. So right before we did it, my wife filed for some help, Welfare as I knew it. My mother had only filed one time, when my dad hurt his back and could not work. They told her my father would have to sell his business equipment first. My mom asked what he would do when he can work again if he sells all his equipment and it was responded with a shrug. We didn’t get any assistance.

If it had been just myself I would have never applied, but having a wife and kid, when my wife applied I did all they asked. And after we jumped though some hoops, for about two weeks (really not so bad I thought, but knowing what I know now was more than I needed to do), I ended up with some fuel cards and my wife had a EBT card. My wife and kid went to Colorado to stay with her mother for a time, I shot off to a larger town with more economic growth and took a trim carpenter job, my closest friend help me find. And to know, this is right when the recession began but before the housing market crash and I had 3 job offers after 1 week of putting in applications; an offer at Subway, changing oil, and a trim job. The trim job seemed to be the best cause there was a lot of building going on and was a good trade to learn. I save enough money to get an apartment after 3 months my wife and kid where back just as we were cut off of assistance. No biggie, I’ll take it from here. And I have. And even with me losing everything I worked for recently with the housing market crash because of government failure I have not asked or received any food stamps or Medicaid. Now, Uncle Sam gets more back from me then any of the assistance I took from him. I have paid that bill and then some.

My sister has use assistance, after her divorce she used assistance as she went to college, and when she got married she got off, but was able to acquire 2 associates’ degrees and a nursing degree. Uncle Sam will get a solid return on his investment there too, I promise you.

I and many others believe that is the over purpose of assistance, you receive assistance which is funded by tax payers, you progressively work towards getting off of assistance, and eventually become a person that contribute to the tax pool. When you contribute to the tax pool the assistance is there for another person who has fallen on hard times and to help them achieve a self-sufficient life, and continue the cycle. It is the idea and philosophy of the policy I read and what is sold to the tax payers.

Now, let’s talk about what I mean by that and truly defining what a tax payer is. Just because you work does not make you a tax payer, maybe more like a temporary contributor; with political jargon you are a tax payer; but mathematically you are not. And let me put it in a nutshell. If you get back $1 more at the end of the tax season then you paid in, then you did not pay taxes, you are not a tax payer. Example, over the course of a tax season you pay in a total of $3000, you file and get your deductions and you get a $5000 return. You did not pay taxes. I didn’t create math but I can do it. If you pay in $3000 and you get $700 because you have fewer deductions, you just became a tax payer. I only have 1 kid and my wife and I both work, so I became a tax payer long ago. And honestly we don’t make that much, but I am proud to say I am a tax payer and even when people tell me how I could get more back or what I should say, I would rather hold my head high and explain this to them just as I explained it to you.

But back to my new job, I reported to work, and was given this large binder of policy and put in front of a computer screen reading SNAP and Medicaid policy. I was amazed at some of the things I read and I first though, This is a good policy, air tight, I’m going to be able to help people that need it and if I follow policy I can keep those try to abuse the system off of it. I had these ideas that I could help some people find a job, that some of these people just don’t know how to look for a job and would even put up pictures of those I help and at the top of my office wall as a boarder. However, I started to question myself because, when I got tired of reading policy over and over, I would go to the front desk and help out the clerks. I felt I could learn a lot there and I did. I was able to dive into some computer work, learn the data entry system a bit, but what I noticed was not what I expected. It was the response of the attitude from the people coming in. It wasn’t the attitude of some coming is when they are rock bottom, it wasn’t that attitude people trying to get it together. It was rude comment after snidely remark, followed up with either a demand or a complaint. It was not the attitude of some-one trying to help you help them. And mainly because this was not viewed by the recipients’ as help. It’s not help to them, it’s your job to do what they say is the attitude. I had better attitudes and cooperation from inmates. I soon gave the front desk a comedic nick-name, The Trenches, in reference to the trenches in WWI.

After about three months of working The Trenches and my face in a computer screen reading policy I was in the vigorous 8 week SNAP training followed by 8 week Medicaid training with a two week OJT. As we where learning policy my trainer was talking about how we explain when we are accused of giving benefits to illegal immigrants, and I remember say that I don’t have to explain myself to anybody, I do a job just as they do. But I have also been a political thinker, and paid attention to how much I pay in taxes since I bought a home and lost it due to the economy. But I feel differently now, I feel the tax payers should know where their money is going and who it is going to, and I feel I am also due an explanation from my government to how you let it get like this.

Don’t get me wrong there are cases I feel good that I get processed for people, but many and a larger number of the cases I process I feel wrong and/or unjust. I hate seeing elderly who just because they have paid their home off in their life time only get $16 SNAP, then we will let a Sex Offender right out of prison walks out that day with $200 SNAP and could be more. I give and grand-parent taking care of their 2 grandchildren $100 SNAP and an undocumented immigrant with 3 kids $526 SNAP. And the lack of common sense and just plain stupidity we are forces to accept. Learning that there is an actual premium paid on Medicaid every month and seeing all the non-sense people do just to keep the Medicaid and not pay for CHIP. But more importantly, I want the tax payers to know about the future direction it is going and how much worse it’s going to get if change is not demanded.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not some conservative thinking Welfare should be run out of town. On the contrary, I believe that change is significant so that it can be kept. However, what is happening now is not fair or just, and more importantly not sustainable, it throws money away left and right. So much so that I feel like I’m single handedly contributing to the bankruptcy of the nation.

Now there is no way I can give you a training course so you can understand the entire program and program requirements vary from state to state. So I’m going to give you a list of terms and what the mean and explain it along the and hope I can make it understandable.

Terms:

SNAP = Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program; Food Stamps

AP = Absent Parent

OAG = Office of the Attorney General

CS= Child Support

Sanctioned = to have benefits cancelled or denied for non-compliance of requirements. An individual can be sanctioned and only that individual is sanction not every member of the household, for example four member receive $668 SNAP, 1 members is sanctioned, all his income and resources count but only for 3 eligible members, this will drop the SNAP. The Difference, a 3 member house may have $526 SNAP, a 4 member home with one sanction member might only get $442 SNAP, depending on income.

DQ = Disqualified member either from sanction or a felony drug conviction. Only a FELONY, only a CONVICTION, and only for DRUGS.

TANF Level Family Med = Medicaid cover for entire family to include adults, if a single parent is to receive they must supply the absent parent (AP) to the office of attorney general (OAG) to seek child support and/or medical support.

CMA = Children’s Medical, you are required to supply the AP, however there is a loop hole, there is no penalty for non-cooperation. Also the premium that is paid on Medicaid is different depending on age. CMA 1-5 cost more and has a lower income limit, CMA 6-18 close less and has a higher income limit, TANF Level Medicaid has children and adults premiums.

PWE = Primary Wage Earner = is suppose to be the person with the most income and or most dependable or stable source of income, however this is really just the only person who must at all time stay in compliance with requirements or the entire household will lose benefits. In training I was taught to set the person who was exempt from everything as the PWE, so that the entire household is least likely to get sanctioned.

ABAWD = Able Body Adult without Dependents, is any person 18-50 that is not been excused by a doctor. These people have work requirements, these individuals get 3 months of SNAP assistance after the initial 3 months, and the individual must then complete a work requirement which is 30 consecutive days, working 20 a week, for at least minimum wage. When this work requirement is completed, the recipient then gets another 3 months of SNAP assistance, after which ends for 3 years. The only way to receive any more SNAP assistance is to at least be working 20hrs. a week. However, the work requirements are exempt if you have a child in the home, which does include an 18 year old still enrolled in high school. So to sum up, you can have a household of five adults and one 16 year old child in school and all the adults are exempt from ABAWD work requirements.

E&T = Employment and Training, age range is 16-60, this is registration and cooperation with the State Workforce agency, involves 1 orientation and following up with job fairs, interviews, and any classes they offer and request the recipient to attend. E&T is important; Recipients are exempt from E&T if they have children under age 6. This is important; E&T is the key to voluntary quit. If you have a child under 6 you can absolutely quit a job and will not be sanction. If an individual has a child over 6 and quits a job without good cause, that person will be sanctioned and not receive benefits, if it is the Primary Wage Earner that gets sanction the entire household with lose benefits. On another note, exemption for the adults can only match the number of children under 6. For example, if a household has 3 adults and 2 children under 6, only 2 adults can get an E&T exemption. Again a point to make is that when you set up a case or add in a Primary Wage Earner, we where trained to set the person who is less likely to be sanction to avoid a chance of the entire household being sanction.

Now with those terms in mind let me explain the approach to working a case. We start with breaking them into 2 categories. 1st is an application and 2nd is a redetermination.

An application is due in 30 days, an application or New App in no way means it is a new client who has never received benefits before. More than ninety percent the time it is someone who has received benefits in the past but has let their case lapse, or not received for a couple of month or had to serve a sanction period. Basically you require verification for residence, income, resources, shelter expenses, and utilities. Management is a tool we use, and it basically goes on this theory, you reported you gross $600 a month, but your rent is $700 and your utilities $300 and your car payment is $300. Well you are reporting $1300 dollars in bills and you only make $600, at the application we don’t question it and it is just noted. It is at the 6 month redetermination it is reviewed, if you report the same bills and same income and all your bills are current, well something is wrong, because there is no way someone can bounce funds around like that, I mean I know all about robbing Peter to pay Paul, but that’s just not possible without getting help or more income. But this tool is completely bullshit and a waste of time because you cannot deny anyone because they cannot explain management. You can deny then if they fail to provide any verification in attempt to prove it, but if they give you anything you have to approve them. It does however sometimes allow you to add income or remove deduction and that is important because deduction are counted against income to determine benefit qualification amounts which reporting a change in either of these field will cause. But this also starts they cycle of bullshit, client will get pended for management, bring up a letter that states somebody is giving them money, it changes there benefit and they changes start to roll in after that so they can try to get the amount back. Other deduction include phone deduction, if one is paying Child support, Child Care and medical deduction (medical deduction are only for RSDI, SSI and people over 60). These deduction are not given dollar for dollar against your income, they are standard amounts. The amounts for the deductions only change for Households that contain less than 4 people. (But that application of policy is hardly ever notice able).

Redeterminations are just as they sound, redetermination of the case, you have a lot more of these so you are expected to do them faster. These are due by the last working day the month as long as the packet is turned in by the 15th of the last month the client receives benefits. So if the client gets benefit in March and filed a redetermination on March 14th, it is due by the same day as someone who returned there renewal packet in on Feb 15th. However, if you turn in the renewal packet after the 15th, we call it an untimely redet but it really just becomes an application with a thirty day time frame. Why is this important? If your benefits end on March 31st and you normally get your benefits load to your card on the 5th of each month, if you turned the renewal packet in on March 16th it does not have to be completed until April 15th (31 days in March, and unless that day is on a weekend as it is in 2012 so it goes to the next business day, always in the client favor). That means if the worker cannot complete your case, April 5th will come and the benefits will not be there until the worker completes the case. And trust they will let you know real quick when that date comes and the benefits are not loaded.

Expedites, are application that must be seen with in 24hr. and a card is given when they are interview. In an expedite everything is pended for the first month but must be received by the 30th day of the application to get the next months benefits. To qualify for an expedite, is a basic formula, over all shelter cost is taken for rent, and utilities, and then you are given a standard deduction if you have a phone. Yeah, I’m for real, a deduction for phone. That cost is subtracted from the amount of money you report you have on hand or in a banking account, and if the balance of that is under $150, you are an Expedite. So how quickly do you think expedites pile up, because the most popular thing you will hear at that window is I ain’t got nothing. Who would have thought that? Now this is called Emergency Food Stamp by the clients and you have to explain to them on many occasions because some will say they want Emergency Stamps while waiting for their Regular Stamps to be approved.

Verifications, most everything is verified by client statement such as rent amount, resources (such as cars, banking accounts, lands, property, houses), utilities and child care reported under $200. Verifications beyond client statement are things such work exemptions from doctors, residence, employment, unearned incomes (child support, RSDI, SSI, vender payment, cash gifts), and self employment. Self employment is the joke, we require verification but its verification supplied from the person who claims they are self employed. Now, theory behind it is that the first time we have them fill out the Self Employment form, and after that they are to keep more accurate records, but that realistically works out like a monkey doing your tax return. And to view some of these self employment verifications is a joke. The next real kicker to all this is that all these verification can be substitute by a signed statement for the provider. Meaning a person is not require to bring in a check stub, he’s only requires to bring in a written note that states he client works for the person who is writing the note, and includes a name phone number and date. We can also take verbal statement over the phone and are actually requires to make a reasonable effort to do so. The only thing these types of verification typically do not work for are doctor release from work requirements.

This will help you as you read my journal or diary, notes, testimony, whatever you think it is, I call them my interviews. What I explained about the interview I wrote while I was conducting it and finished it up right after the interview. However, work is extremely busy so some of the points I elaborated on where written usually later that day. When I first started writing I had no intention of writing a book, my doctor told me I had to find a way to relieve stress and not allow it to build up. I’m a Psychology major (though through recent experience am questioning my view on the educational direction it seems this field is going in) and when the doctor prescribe me anxiety medicine I felt that there was another alternative. I believe Psychology’s goals should to help people build strong minds to withstand the challenges of life, not diagnosis adults and children to medicate and assist perfectly healthy people in determining individuals mentally disabled for life so they can draw benefits.

3-15-12 Cut off

I’m starting this at cut-off, this is the day we complete case for April’s benefits. Cut-off is not as important for SNAP as it is for Medicaid, if we don’t certify Medicaid by cut off the clients Medicaid coverage would take another month to go into effect. Example, if I certify the Medicaid case by March cut-off the clients Medicaid will be in effect in April, if I certify the case after cut-off it becomes May when coverage goes into effect. However, it has proven that it means less because if the client goes to the doctor it is still covered, we even do what we call Prior Med in which we go as far back as three months to cover medical bill, and I was told in training that they case worker have had to go back as far as two year, as long as there was an application on file that far back.

For SNAP cut off is even less important, it is basically the last day for clients to turn in timely redet to insure they receive their benefits for next month without a break, those that turn in their redet after cut off, it is treated as an application and they risk have a break in benefits, but since we issue benefits based on the file date there is really no monetary penalty, it basically boils down to that they put themselves in position to where they might get there benefits on a different date on the next month, they might get food stamps on the 9th the following month instead of the 7th. But after that month they will get them on the 7th for