So, it’ been about 4 1/2 weeks since I became unemployed. I’ve been relatively calm about it, as there the unemployment checks cover my bills, and with assistance from food stamps, those dollars would go a little farther. I’d be able to look for a job while also working on some of the other stuff I want to develop – writing, photography, etc. That was the plan.
I applied for all the assistance available the day I lost my job. I knew it would be tight, but just enough room to make it. Unemployment, food stamps, liquidating my 401k – all to make sure we’d be ok. Got my first unemployment payment last week, 401k money came in – but where were the food stamps.
Just as I was about to call, I got a call from them. They had some additional questions for me. Seemed pretty standard. That was two days ago, and at the end of the call, they told me they would call me in an hour or two to let me know where things stood.
When I hadn’t received a call by this morning, I got on the phone. The good gentleman who answered the phone looked at my case, but didn’t sound very positive. He asked if he could call me back. And sure enough he did. I was denied the food stamps.
The reason for the denial is that I make too much money. “But I’m on unemployment” I replied. His answer floored me. My unemployment payments are too high to allow me to receive food stamps. Yup, that’s right, I make too much on unemployment to qualify for food stamps. Likewise for MediCal for my daughter.
W. T. F.
Now, it’s true, I get the maximum allowed unemployment check. I have been paying into unemployment funds since I was 15, more than 2/3 of my life. My last job paid enough for me to qualify. but let’s look at the whole picture:
Maximum unemployment check is $450/wk, about $1800 a month.
My rent is $1200 a month.
That leaves $600 for utilities, groceries, gas, car insurance – everything. With no health insurance or any other “safety net”.
That previous calm? Gone. My current stress level has, to paraphrase Spinal Tap, “gone to eleven”.
I’m still working on everything I have been working on. But now, it’ll be a little tighter, everything will be tainted by a little anxiety, my patience will be tested a little more.
How does this possibly make sense? To qualify for food stamp assistance, I would have to make over $300 less per month. Or have another kid. Given my current single-dad status, the latter isn’t exactly a possibility. Instead, I have worked for over 30 years, paid my taxes and did what I’m supposed to, all to be told I have to worry about being able to keep food on the table.
This is just wrong. I’m not a fan of “handouts”. I had to suck it up and put in my applications and confront the fact I needed help. But after 30 years, I should be able to get some of that back. Instead, I make too much.
Now this isn’t a screed about taxes, about how government spends its money. I’m grateful there is something there. No, it’s more about the disconnect between the different services. By the standards they have set (and from my understanding, they are federal standards), anyone with a gross income of approximately $20000 a year – that’s pre-tax – with two people in the home, makes too much money for help. So, after taxes, that’s about $15,000 a year. From that, you’re supposed to pay rent and do everything else, for two people. In some parts of the country, that may be a decent amount of money. In Southern California? Not so much.
I don’t live in a fancy apartment. It’s a little two-bedroom with a small kitchen and an ant problem. Ii have neighbors upstairs, next to me, and upstairs next to me that have babies. The kids take turns screaming day and night. But it’s close enough to my daughter’s school, and it’s a roof over our heads. And it was one of the cheapest I could find, not exactly in a great neighborhood. And yet, 2/3 of what I get in unemployment goes to my rent.
I don’t intend to stay on unemployment. But while I’m looking, it’s going to get tight, and my stress dial just went to 11.
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