I just got a letter in the mail saying my food stamps have been cut from $143.00 a month to $68.00 a month. The letter said I needed to contact them for a hearing on this issue with ten days of the date on the letter. The date on the letter was thirteen days ago, and I still couldn’t contact them if it was within ten days because our communal phone suddenly can’t call out. Every time I try to call someone I get that horrible recording - “This call cannot be completed as dialed.” They said the cut in my food stamps was due to “changes in the household situation”. I’m totally unaware of any kind of change in my household situation. None of the other people in our apartments got their food stamps cut. I suppose this isn’t the end of the world. I’ll just have to forgo my donations to charity. I was thinking about giving up my internet connection instead. I’ve been wanting to do more reading. I get really mad though, when I start to see this as some kind of harassment. I get mad when I take it personally. Maybe I can get my food stamps restored to their original level. If I can’t I won’t worry about it too much.
@crimby definitely try to contact them for an explanation. It’s quite possible that it’s a bureaucratic error of some kind.
I hope they will assure you that nothing is personal.
Our food stamp office does stuff like this all the time. AND they tell you they aren’t giving you enough time to do anything about it, too. Then when someone calls they find out the deadline means nothing and the change was a mistake. Seriously, when I dealt with food stamps this was a regular thing.
I would say an in person visit might be a good idea as well. Had this sort of stuff happen back when I was on assistance. Always got it sorted back out in my favour.
Good luck!
If you could contact them within the allotted 10 days, you probably wouldn’t be ‘disabled.’
Don’t give up without a fight, 10 days or not, get a hold of them by letter or phone, or both, and explain to them they made a mistake and why.
This is standard protocol for these people, but you don’t have to live with their decision as it is.
Fight it.
dude, that’s awful. I was awarded $8 dollars a month for food so I never got a card, but about a month ago the service called me and asked why I am not using my card in three years…they told me I had accrued $192 bucks on the card !! I bought a lot of groceries and now I have about $32 bucks on the card…man, that’s an awful blow to you though. I hate when people give you trouble…keep your head man…I hope you get justice.
I have to say that I strongly feel that if it is a choice between giving up charity or giving up your internet, I think the best, smartest thing to do is give up charity donations. It is very commendable and honorable to donate to charity but let other people who are in a better situation than you give to your charities. I think in this case you should be selfish and keep your internet. Maybe later down the road things will change and you can start giving to charities again but I think in your position you should keep the internet. There are other ways to help the unfortunate. Volunteer work for example.
I am sorry to hear you are dealing with that. It is an excellent possibility they have misinformation. Those letters are spewed out automatically. Go down in person and wait to speak wo someone who can answers your questions. I got cut off food stamps when I got on SSDI. They gave me money but then took money away. That’s OK. I live with my dad so I can deal with it. Food stamps help for sure.