Welfare

[MoseyWalker]

reform has been going on for over half a generation.

I just want to tell a small personal story of what I've seen in the past few days.

I work with families who have kids in foster care. A 2 1/2 year old boy, who has been with a foster family who wants to adopt him since he was 6 months old, lost his medicaid coverage yesterday. He was receiving SSI, which automatically provides medicaid coverage. His mother, who has not seen him in over a year, was receiving and cashing his SSI checks. The government found out, and stopped the checks. Unfortunately, they also stopped the medical coverage for the child.

The local ISD (welfare office) is saying they now, due to changes in the rules, need an original birth certificate in order to get him on section 032 medicaid.

Mom has the original certificate. Her whereabouts are now unknown.

This kid has no medical coverage.


I work with someone who inherited some land from her dad. She and her sister just got paid 7 thousand dollars for not planting any crops on their land. she and her husband make just over 80 thousand dollars per year.

What does "welfare" mean again?

[Warpy]

1. It means if you're wealthy, your welfare is assured

If you belong to the bottom 50% of us who hold a shameful 2.8% of the nation's wealth, fuck you.

[Monkeyman]

2. given it to oil companies

By the way she can get a copy of the child birth records from the hospital with a waiver. I have a child on SSI had to do the same when x took it

[MoseyWalker]

3. thanks, and

I understand the usual process, but it means that this kid is not covered at least through the weekend, and probably beyond that, because the paperwork people never work quickly.

thanks again and good luck with everything!

:hi:

[Monkeyman]

6. YEP IT TOOK ME SIX WEEKS

[Selatius]

4. Where the fuck is that child's mother?

She should be tried for neglecting her son. What was she doing with that money?

[MoseyWalker]

5. Last known whereabouts

Colorado somewhere. She has written letters saying she is okay with the family adopting, but then disappears.

[Selatius]

9. She should be punished for neglecting her son

It is people like her who make me red with anger. Social Security is meant to help people, and she's using it as her own petty cash account. She should be ashamed to call herself a mother. Can't she be tried for Social Security fraud and child neglect?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

7. Are you SURE an official state copy of the birth certificate

direct from your Secretary of State wouldn't be even better?

Hospital documents are now WORTHLESS for identification purposes in many places. But hospitals are supposed to record births with the State.

Nowadays, bureaucrats are under intense pressure to avoid accepting documents that might have been counterfeited. Google "Secretary of State" "Birth Certificates" for your state and you may find the PRECISE rules the caseworker is supposed to be following.

[MoseyWalker]

8. I'll give it a try

thanks!

:)

[kineneb]

10. don't know about the rules

where you are located, but in California, the county of birth retains the original birth certificate. They can be obtained by written request and a small fee. We had to get a copy for Hubby. I have had a copy of mine since I was a teen.

[sandnsea]

11. The guardian would receive those checks

It's routine, I'm surprised the child's case worker didn't know paperwork needed to be filed to transfer the child's benefits to the state or current guardian.

It also has absolutely nothing to do with farm programs that are there to help people from depleting soil or growing too many of one crop and flooding the market.

Today is sure a nonsense day on DU.

[MoseyWalker]

12. Well

"It's routine, I'm surprised the child's case worker didn't know paperwork needed to be filed to transfer the child's benefits to the state or current guardian."

You missed the basic point of the story. The caseworker missed nothing, the paper pushers failed to changed the child's benefit status.

"It also has absolutely nothing to do with farm programs that are there to help people from depleting soil or growing too many of one crop and flooding the market."

This is a family who has not planted crops in those fields for GENERATIONS. The older sister is in her early 30's, and they have never seen crops planted in those fields. Yet, they still get thousands of dollars every year for not planting where they never have.

Get it?

[sandnsea]

15. If it didn't get changed, the case worker missed it

It's the case worker's job to make sure paper work is in order. Get it?

Which has not a thing in the world to do with family farms and the fact that people apply for subsidies that they don't deserve. There is no fool proof system that is going to guarantee the people who need help are going to get it without some cheats sneaking in too. The problem is the dishonest cheats, not the system. Get it?

[ismnotwasm]

13. Whatever the fear mongers want it to mean

I was on welfare for many years. Even I knew it needed "reform". Some of the changes I felt were ok when they came down, but I KNEW what was really needed--money for schools, childcare, education, after school programs, job skill training that mattered, some of the ingredients that make "reform" work, would be gutted,under-funded or ignored. Instead it was time limits and inadequate preparation for the "real" world.
Add a struggling service economy where new jobs pay minimum wage, and even an education won't guarantee you a living wage, you get one big mess.

Those who are poverty stricken are usually voiceless and powerless. If you're not around, you don't hear them. (We form our own subculture, we know we don't belong) We do see the results of unchecked and un-addressed poverty. We see it every day. We might not know it for what it is though. It's channeled through dozens of outlets, from prisons to homeless shelters to drug and alcohol abuse to crime, to illiteracy to fostor care to parole boards. It's effects fills our court systems. To "problem" children in schools. It feeds racism. It feeds sexism. In fact it feeds just about any negative "ism" you can think of.

Not only are children being left behind, but they're being left behind in the dust. And the current powers that be aren't even looking back.

[MoseyWalker]

14. What a great response

I appreciate that very much!

I ask that you take those words, and start another post, because they mean so much. I want others to see them.

Thanks again.

[Rosemary2205]

16. That case worker must be a complete idiot.

I am a foster parent. The SSI benefits go to whoever has legal guardianship of the child and the state/county can easily provide a certified copy of the birth certificate. The paperwork is different by state, but the case worker will definately know what to do to solve all this and if not, the foster parents should be contacting the supervisor.