Welfare: Being Investigated by "Program Integrity Division" (CA)

[daredtowork]

I couple of weeks ago I attempted to bring up a rather paranoia-inducing problem during Oakland's "Moving Toward Change and Crafting Solutions" Town Hall. I wanted to use that unique opportunity to address two rows of State and local political representatives to let them in know - in front of public "interested party" witnesses - that Social Services has been frightening everyone on General Assistance welfare by telling them that they were being surveilled by investigators, and this would involve interviewing their neighbors, etc.

If you think that was just an idle threat to keep people on welfare "scared straight", I've already received my letter. Perhaps it has something to do with me publicly pointing out that $336/month that goes directly to your landlord with no direct cash for basic necessities raises the question of A) where are you going to get a place that cheap and, B) how are you going to get basic necessities? (click my sig for details) This is especially a dire problem for people caught in the eternal application for SSI process.

How much do you suppose these Investigators make? Around $60k/year? And their job is to intimidate and terrorize people who literally aren't allowed to have money for basic necessities.

The Social Services supplicants were not even allowed to interact with their caseworker directly to ask questions or make personal appeals. They could only turn in their documents - and some vague threats were issued regarding documents that were imperfect or incomplete. The only phone number for the caseworker that people receive goes to an automated phone tree. When I received my acknowledgment letters, they indicated the exact same problems as last year: Social Services had no medical paperwork on file for me (how did they lose this two years in a row?) so they were threatening some rollback to 2012 unless I scramble to obtain whatever they need. It's always something, and the stress and time-consuming legwork is always shifted to the poor person.

Well I've been dealing with this crap for years, I'll deal with this. I just have to wonder if the social contradiction of this policy, attempting to "save" money by paying Investigators to drive people who are on the edge over the edge, isn't a basic ingredient in the current social unrest in Oakland.

Two rows of local and State politicians could have heard this at the Oakland Town Hall, and Keith Carson, the county Supervisor in charge of Social Services, saw me and cut my voice off.

(x-posted from CA group: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10408831)

[Unknown Beatle]

1. What did you expect?

As long as they get theirs, who cares about the poor. They're getting close to a "Let them eat cake" moment.

Why not write governor Brown directly?

[daredtowork]

2. Governor Brown is the same

He does not publish a toll free number for the poor.

The email on his web site errors out half the time and issues no reply.

For a paper letter you need a printer and a stamp. But Governor Brown's office does not recognize even those are hardships for some people, and those elicit no reply either.

Governor Brown should make a toll free number available and fix the web site so poor people will have a free way of corresponding.

[Unknown Beatle]

3. I guess it's the same in most states.

I live in Texas and people here are going through considerable hardships.

[daredtowork]

4. I would imagine it's harder in Texas

In theory California is a "progressive" and "liberal" state where people are supposed to imagine they could be poor, disabled, or otherwise need help one day. They are supposed to believe in investing in people so they can return to the workforce instead of constantly beating down on them with whacked-out wingnut ideologies about pulling yourself up with non-existing bootstraps. That's what everyone thinks those wild-eyed hippy Californians are like, at least.

Then there is the reality. Politicians have no reason to give a darn about the poor, so they let the issues that affect them fall to the bottom of the pile. The poor are left to live the hell of the mess that's left behind. This post is one example of the reality of inattention: some Tea Party wingnut started bawling about "welfare fraud" and the result is that these Investigators were inflicted on on welfare recipients without looking at the situation they were actually in. For example, in Oakland most non-disabled General Assistance recipients get their $336/month LOAN paid direct to their landlord for only 3 months out of the year: this piddling sum is worth an Investigator's attention? The amount of difficulty and stress involved in getting it is worth the frakking $1000 paid as minimum wage time spent per hour!!!! And, I repeat, IT'S A LOAN.

Is it worth adding to the atmosphere of surveillance and police state over this?

[jwirr]

16. Does California have a ombudsman office? Call there.

[daredtowork]

17. Do Ombsbudspeople ever do anything?

I'm actually not too concerned over this for myself. In fact I just got off the phone with the investigator, and she explained some pension was flagged for a minimum wage job I worked at for a few months over a decade ago. If there is in money any it, I'm sure the State will recapture it, and that will be that.

The reason I'm posting this at DU is I regard it as a political issue. Poor people are being intimidated en masse by threats of investigation. The situation really is threatening because they have been placed in an impossible situation since 1) General Assistance does not provide for basic necessities/utilitity bills/transporation/etc. and 2) the amount of bureaucratic dumb-frakkery screw-ups involved means that people are always covering for delayed payments in some way. So these threats to people who were on the verge of homelessness (they qualify for welfare because they have no assets and have run out of savings/income) if not homeless already was a form of TORTURE if not TERRORISM.

At the time I figured this was just some administrator's really bad idea of making a lot of people at once scared to commit welfare fraud. However, receiving a letter myself shows that these Investigations are happening. These Investigators are being paid State money even as they are claiming there is no money to put into the fund to help the people who need housing. $336/month for 3 month as a LOAN in the SF/Bay Area - WTH???!!!! That's going to drag people down into homelessness with stress, not pull them up.

Anyway, I'm trying to let people know that this is an uncool way to administer Social Services in an area that has recently been on the verge of having riots over the idea of a "police state". Where do they think this feeling of "police state" is coming from?

[jwirr]

18. I suppose it depends on which state and which party. I see your point though. There is so much

we do not hear anything about.

[daredtowork]

19. People on Welfare are totally voiceless

They don't support PACs and they have no millionaires funding channels of speech on their behalf. You might get a whiff of some of their issues if you read Street Spirit or if you subscribe to the newsletters/twitter feeds of some of the agencies that serve their needs. But their advocacy seems to achieve very little.

This is why I hung out at DU after I initially posted the link to my petition here. I realized I was in almost a unique position to spell out what was wrong with this picture. I hope some of my posts linger in the back of people's minds when it comes to talking about welfare policy or voting.

Now if I could just get a job that pays me to do that my problems would be solved, lol!

[jwirr]

20. I have been a welfare advocate since the 50s and I hear you. All of us work for free. One of the

reasons that I was listened to was because mostly advocated for my severely disabled daughter's problems. It helped that my daughter was one of the most disabled children outside of the institution in the state and that I was her care giver.

I think we might get further if we taught the poor to advocate for themselves. Who to write to, what to write and when to write. Especially those on welfare apart from a disability. I think our president also believes that is the way. He has often called for people to tell their stories in support of the ACA.

Years ago we had organizations that did that but I would not even know where to find them today. Also I think petitions are some help. They seem to be the only way we can act as a group apart from protesting. Protesting does not often work for the poor since the politicians just say "Get a job."

[daredtowork]

21. Yes and then the older people say

that younger people should be "politically organizing". But then the younger people have no idea what the older people mean when they say that because, as you say, most of the effective organizations have disappeared. A lot of the big organizations left today are known for corruption and overpaid CEOs, not getting things done for members. I wrote another DU post yesterday about setting up the next generation for fascism, because of the numerous examples that "voting" and "political process" don't work.

[Unknown Beatle]

5. Plus the gentrification of the

Bay Area goes unabated, leading to the misplacement of people already struggling to live a dignified life.

In the meantime, more tax breaks for the rich.

ETA: This was supposed to be a continuation of our conversation but I clicked on the wrong thingie.

[daredtowork]

8. Yes that only adds to the frustration

This area is swimming in money. A billionaire could stroll over to 2000 San Pablo and solve everyone's problems. But they don't. Because they don't know the problems that exist. And even if the problems were on the table, they would be twisted up politically with questions about who "deserves" and who is "working" and who is "gaming the system", etc. For the amount of money we're talking about to change people's lives, this is just stupid. We're talking about the amount of money that some of these people drop on DINNER for god's sake!!!!

Where is that Salesforce.com guy when we need him? Perhaps he can just pay off these darned Investigators and tell him to go the frak home. I volunteer to let them go ahead with my investigation to establish no self interest is involved with this request. I just think this is an idiotic thing to do to poor people in Oakland.

[Omaha Steve]

6. Call the sexy liberal Stephanie Miller

Her show is in CA.

http://www.stephaniemiller.com/

[daredtowork]

9. The problem with reporters is...

they actually want people to be on the show. This may work against the interest of poor people who are trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and don't need potential employers googling them and seeing them making trouble.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. Yeah, but it's nice to know Republicans are there to bail out Wall Street with no questions asked.

[daredtowork]

10. Republicans reached in YOUR pocket...to the tune of $6000/yr...

I wrote a DU post last week on how the average middle class taxpayer "contributes" $6000/year toward corporate welfare and only a few dollars toward "social programs" that help the poor. Those Welfare Queens, yeah they be scamming you.

[cstanleytech]

11. The biggest welfare Queens and Kings though are probably the Waltons and anyone who owns

a large share of Walmart stock.
After all they deliberately underpay their workers to force them onto welfare and other government subsidy programs because they know the government will pickup the slack and then they also profit because those people and others like them then end up spending alot of what little the government gives them at walmart so its a win win for walmart which is why walmart will continue to be a low wage payer.
Thats why I personally believe that retailers that have over 50 workers and over 35% or more of their workforce are being forced to draw on welfare that the company should be denied the ability to participate in processing and or accepting EBT until they mend their ways and most of their workers arent forced to apply for assistance anymore.

[daredtowork]

12. hmm

I may not be reading your last paragraph right, but it sounds as if you think halting EBT will punish the company. It won't. This will just cause the worker to go hungry or turn to Church pantries. The individual worker's application for aid from Social Services has absolutely nothing to do with the company at all.

On the other hand, I think your model would with if 35% or more of the workforce are drawing welfare then the company should have to pay some tax penalty that would be more expensive than the "savings" on the cut wages.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

13. I think the poster is saying

That such companies shouldn't be allowed to accept EBT, i.e., they shouldn't be able to "double profit" from their stinginess...first when they underpay their workers and then when those workers spend their EBT funds at the store.

[daredtowork]

14. Oh, I get it

The problem with that might be where Walmart has wiped out all the competing grocery stores in the area and poor people are actually dependent on them for food! This might have the same ramification for inner city neighborhoods. I'd like to underscore a big part of this problem is the unwillingness to subsidize public transportation for the poor, highly limiting their mobility - especially with heavy bags. They often can't even GET to food banks!

Raising the cost of public transportation is sneaky form of class warfare that people in the US don't talk about.

Anyway, in THEORY I see the point and don't like the idea of that money going to the Waltons, either. I don't like thrift and drug stores carrying food in general because it tends to be cheap boxed (filled with preservatives), outdated, and not kept frozen - forget the high fat/high sodium/bad cholesterol, you're lucky if you don't get food poisoning.

[cstanleytech]

22. That would just open the door to the competition actually and it could put them on a more level

playing field with walmart and if it forces walmart to mend its ways on wages then thats good because alot of chains wont feel like they have to play the race to the bottom on wages in order to compete at keeping prices lower by reducing their overhead.

[daredtowork]

24. Let's just hope neighborhood businesses

can re-establish themselves in time before the cashing out of the Waltons leaves everyone in the lurch.

I sure wish someone else on DU were in my situation. As the day went by I started to wonder if the Oakland political establishment had singled me out for investigation because I had spoken out about their welfare dumbfrakkery. I found myself looking over my shoulder all day like a character from a Philip K. Dick novel. The level of pafanoia caused by being the target of investigstion is very stressful, even if you don't think you have anything to hide.

I also found out to day Investigators make "a lot more than 60k" to terrorize people over their $336 loan.

I also found out I finally made it on the court calendar for SSI. In May it will be exactly 3 years since I started the SSI process, and I've had to hang on via the welfare system the whole time - $336/m. for rent, food stamps, and NOTHING for basic necessities. How I've lived under those DISGRACEFUL AND ABSURD conditions is what is being scrutinized by the California Police State.

[cstanleytech]

23. Exactly, its pretty much rewarding bad behavior by letting walmart do this and it needs to be

addressed.

[daredtowork]

25. Agreed

I'm just worried about rural areas where Walmart already pushed out all the local stores. In some places 5 tiny towns are dependent on a central Walmart - people have to drive there, so they need cars/cheap gas.

[cstanleytech]

26. I agree its a legit concern of course but keeping things as they are right now and allowing

Walmart and other retailers in the grocery industry to continue to exploit this wont improve things.

In fact I can give you an example first hand.
My brother worked for Bi-Lo, a large retail grocery chain here in the south for 18 years and they fired him and alot of other full timers claiming lack of work but then they went and hired part timers at a far lower wage and they cap their hours at about 24 hours.
Now this is a chain that used to pay well but because of Walmart they dont anymore because they are in a race to compete not that they can really but they are trying and the ones suffering are the employees and the tax payers because of the low wages alot of Bi-Lo employee qualify for welfare.
For example my brothers average raise for the last 5 years before they fired him was 5 cents and no thats not a typo and he was an assistant department manager.

[daredtowork]

27. Yup

I read somewhere that manager titles were also just code for getting around labor laws.

Wonder why only a few of (the same) people tend to comment on welfare threads. I bet if people kept asking their friends and relatives, they would find they personally know someone who is affected by these issues. It's kind of like the Poverty Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

[cstanleytech]

28. You think thats bad a former manager of his who works for walmart offered him a produce department

manager job for barely over 9 bucks an hour after he got hired at publix for 10 bucks an hour just as a simple produce clerk and imo it was downright insulting to ask him to take yet another pay cut for a job that comes with more responsibility.

[daredtowork]

29. Rural America

I grew up in a small town with no job prospects beyond "grocery store clerk" and "gas station attendant". I couldn't escape fast enough! In a way it's almost outre that the politics in this country is somewhat about maintaining/catering to these areas, when people are miserable there, and all they do about it is hate people who live in the city. I guess it's different if you're a farmer and you own you're property and means of production. But for everyone else it sucks, and because there is nothing else for miles around they have to work for crap wages for the few people with property and means of production.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

30. As an aside, IMO Publix is one of the best places to work

It was good when I worked there 30+ years ago, and I hear that they offer even more benefits to part timers now.

[ND-Dem]

15. K&R