Today was supposed to be extremely busy but it turned into a napping/movie day.
Ricky and I went to bed a little later than we wanted to last night, 12:45am instead of 11pm. And we both got up at 7am. He had to get a shower for work and I had to get on the phone with DCF (Department of Children and Families). We have been receiving food assistance for the last 6 months since he is the only one working. I've looked for jobs, but it really makes more sense for me to stay home with the kids right now. There are no positions around here that my degree of Criminology would be useful for and if I went with part-time at Hobby Lobby (like I was thinking) then I would basically be paying for the daycare for the kids over the summer/afterschool and then what's the point? We still wouldn't have any extra money for things.
I keep being told to get a job in the school system, probably because I was a sub for a year when Ricky and I were engaged, but I really don't want to do that. First of all, to be a teacher I'd have to go back to school and that is another option we don't have. And if I did subbing, we'd still be stuck with no money for the summer, 'cause subs don't get paid if they don't work. Not sure about paras, but I really can't stand most other people's children so it's really not a good fit for me.
I have been having non-stop problems with getting our benefits together. It was great for the first 6 months, except for the phone-call interview. It is almost impossible to get through on the phone lines.
At the end of May we were supposed to re-certify online, which I did. Then I received paperwork on June 6th, saying that I had until June 8th to get my phone interview done. I checked the mail late on the 6th so that day was gone 'cause they were closed when I tried calling. I tried again all day on the 7th and never got through. Finally, I was able to get through after calling over 20 times and being on hold for 45 minutes. The whole interview took about 10 minutes. And she said all I needed to do was fill out the income form and mail/fax it back by the 16th.
Well, that week Ricky had a cyst on his backside that he decided to lance himself. Long story short, it got infected and he had to get it taken care of at the Urgent Care clinic and missed some work. Specifically he missed the deadline for turning in the papers. I was told one time before that if you miss the date you still have 30 days to get it in before you lose benefits. So when he went back to work on the 20th of June he faxed it in.
A few days later I received a letter saying that I never did my phone interview. So I called and after half an hour of waiting I finally spoke with a really nice lady. She told me that she did find in the computer where I had done my interview and she was unsure as to why they said I hadn't done it. So, she sent in an email saying that it needed to be fixed. And then I told her about how we had faxed the papers in a few days late. She said that it wouldn't have mattered if we had sent it in on time because they were so backed up that they still hadn't started filing the papers that they received on the 15th yet! She then told me to call back the next week to see if our faxed papers had been filed.
That night I received a phone call from the local DCF office. She said that she had received the email from the nice lady and that the best thing to do about the faxed papers was to bring them to her office on Monday (this was Friday). So I got her information and planned on doing just that.
I get to the office on Monday and it is packed. And you can tell that everyone that works there hates their job. And they don't care if they help you or not. Y'know, 'cause they hate their job. So I get up there and tell the lady at the desk what's what, and she tells me to take this yellow paper over to another lady who is directing people into different rooms. I do that and she tells me that the lady I spoke to on the phone, and wrote her name down doesn't even work there. No one by that name does! At this point I'm getting really angry 'cause seriously, WTF??I go back to the window and give her the faxed papers and tell her to just give them to who they need to get to and then I go home.
A few days later I receive two letters. One says that we have been approved for assistance again and another that says our account has been suspended! I immediately tried calling but again, it was after-hours. At this point, I'm freaking out.
To Be Continued...
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