Okay. Wait, what?

[madamesilverspurs]

Knowing that I would understand, a friend just emailed copies of two letters that showed up in her mailbox on the same day. She and I are both clients of the sender, Weld County Department of Social Services.


From the one dated May 11 —
Your Food Assistance benefits have increased because there was a change in your household circumstances. Starting May 2020, your household will get $194 each month until May 2020.
(Note: the only change in her household is that she now abides by the stay-at-home policy, just like me.)

From the one dated May 12 —
Your Food Assistance benefit amount has changed. Your case was eligible to receive a restoration of benefits for the previous period of 05/2020 through 05/2020 in the amount of $121.


My letter(s) will likely arrive shortly.

For the record, this department is overseen by the same county commissioners who have so totally botched the Covid-19 response, including the JBS meat plant that Rachel Maddow has been so angry about.


Welcome to the land of WTF.


.

[Stuart G]

1. K and R no text.

[Karadeniz]

2. Jeez.

[peacebuzzard]

3. social services departments are fragmented

It is difficult to figure out the bureaucracy.
It took days for me to straighten out a denial for my disabled sister who had the same benefits for ten years. I spent almost a week trying to re-apply for her benefits which, expired due to the office closing for covid19. She used to walk the forms over and hand-deliver requirements. The whole system changed and required fax, hand-delivery, which they could not accept, or upload to a website. I had to buy a printer to help with scanning and stop everything I was doing to figure out the printer and the Human Services Department. It made me nutty for a week, had to drop everything I was doing, and figure out the new paper-heavy, system...

[madamesilverspurs]

5. This office has always been difficult.

And very paper heavy. Most aggravating is their repeated demands for unchanging documentation that they already have on file, like the disability determination letter from Social Security. They finally stopped bugging one of my doctors when he replied to their repeated question about my continuing disability by stating that "stainless steel does not dissolve once it has been implanted in the human body". They also lose (or misfile) paperwork, then deliver a "hand it over or else" demand for a copy.

.

[peacebuzzard]

6. oh my. good answer by the doc!

I had the same experience.
They always want the same information.
It caused my sister to lose 4 months of home care benefits.
I was really happy when they finally accepted it, and now I know their complicated web site for uploading too.
But, it will probably change next time when I try to help.

[lunatica]

4. Ok, now I'm confused too

All I can say is good luck. I think.