From Hiedi:
Been meaning to submit this for quite some time, and after reading what happened to beauty bitch, I have to submit my own EBT card hell incident.
A couple months ago, when my husbands hours at his old job had been cut to about 10 hours a week (due to new owners running into the ground) he took a temp job with the state. At the welfare office.
No biggie. The hours were great-Noon to 4:30 three days a week. He was filling in for someone on maternity leave at the time. Anyway….
He worked at the reception desk/EBT window. His job was to sign people in and hand out new and replacement EBT cards. If someone came in asking about their case, he could look up some information, like if they were missing say a copy of their light bill or their caseworker needed a recent pay stub, he could look that up and tell them. He could also make copies of paperwork, help out with filling out applications ect.
Shortly after noon one day (keep in mind 11:30-1ish is when 95% of the staff/workers were on lunch) a black woman with an attitude came in. She walked up to him demanding, not asking, but demanding in a loud, rude tone where the hell my food stamps at, and snapped her fingers at him like he was a lap dog.
He asked her what her name and birth date was (to make sure he was looking at the right client) and she said I ain’t gotta tell you that. My babies are starving, where the hell my food stamps at bitch? I been in here every day this past week you should know who I am by now.
He said “Sorry, I have to verify your identity.” She snapped back with “Fine, whatever,” and told her his name.
He looked up her case on his computer and saw the issue right away-her case worker needed
a landlord statement. A week ago. And her case worker had noted in her file every day for a week when he talked to her he needed the landlord statement to finish processing her food stamps or she wouldn’t get any until she turned one in. He gave her a copy of the form, even offered to fax it to her land lord.
Note-In my state, a landlord statement is a one page form your land lord signs. It’s basically who lives in the apartment/house, how much is the rent, what utilities does the tenant pay for and does Section 8 or other house program cover all or part of the rent and the landlords name/address. It literally takes the land lord like 5 minutes, if that to fill out.
Hubby tells bitch this. She starts screaming about how her babies have been hungry for a week how dare he deny them food. Not just screaming, but screeching. He tells her there’s nothing anybody can until she turns it in. He offers to fax the form to her land lord, even call him personally to say please fill this out right away and fax it back to us.
She snaps at him and says that her landlord ain’t home today and he don’t need to know her business anyway and she wants to see a supervisor. He tells her that the supervisor and her caseworker will say the same thing-she needs to have the form filled out and turned in. He even tells her if she gets it in by 2pm today, her caseworker will have the food stamps processed by 3, and she’ll have her food stamps on her card sometime between 5:30 and 7 that night. He even offers to call a local crisis clinic food bank, a block a way, so she can pick up a bag of food so her and her kids have something to eat until the stamps show up on the card.
Now, this woman lived in an apartment complex 2 blocks away, a rather large one. Someone was always in the management office to sign the form.
Hubby tells her again the case worker needs the landlord statement. He can either fax it to the office, call them to tell them to fax it back to the worker right away because of the situation, or she can take the form herself go to the office and come back.
She’s still screaming about how he’s denying her children food, how dare he, she’s gonna call CPS on HIM for not allowing her children to eat and huffs away.
He helps the next client in line, and things start to calm down. 5 minutes later or so, here comes the same bitch back, cuts in line in front of 6 other people who were waiting nicely and huffs and puffs and snarls about how she “might” have that form in her purse.
She then proceeds to dump out the contents of her rather large purse. When she dumps, yes, dumped, the contents of her purse on the counter, out fell a couple $50 bills. BUT that wasn’t the kicker-sprawled out on the counter was 9 packs of name brand smokes. Yes, 9 packs of smokes and a receipt for them. He grabbed the receipt and looked at the date-it was for an hour before she came in screaming about her food stamps.
Hubby, trying not to loose her cool, said “You have the money for smokes but can’t feed your children?”
She snatched the receipt out of his hand and said “Don’t judge me! My babies are hungry. Here’s your fucking form. Now where the fuck is my fucking food stamps so I can feed my hungry babies?”
He takes the form and tells her the case worker will give her a call later this afternoon over when she can expect the food stamps and tells her to leave. He was ready to go medieval on her ass at that point. She leaves bitching and screaming about how he’s denying her hungry children food and that’s not right and he’s gonna be reported.
When hubby told the caseworker what happened, she was appalled to the point she put the client on protective payee status, meaning she had to go through a third party to receive any cash benefits from the state for a full year (Whatever was left over, if anything, the client would get after the payee pays the persons rent and utilities with the cash benefits.)
I don’t get it. Really. I don’t. While I don’t like smoking, and I think smoking is a complete waste of money-I understand the need to get a pack of smokes.
What I don’t get is if money is so tight, you are so broke you can’t afford to buy food without food stamps and you come across some cash and you and your kids are hungry/without a drop of food in your home-why in the world would you choose several packs of smokes over a day or two’s worth of food?
--Hiedi