deputydawg
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2004
- Messages
- 1,607
This past week I finally got my family off of government programs! We have had the kids on WIC which in this state is a food program for children under 5. They give milk, cheese, peanut butter, formula, fruit juice, eggs, beans and cereal. <br />We also got the kids off of Medicaide for children in this state called Kids Connection.<br /><br />It was great for us, but I hated every minute of accepting the bennefits. <br /><br />We got onto the programs 5 years ago so my wife could afford to go back to school. It would have cost us $512 a month to add my children to my insurance at work and another chunk of money to add my wife. Over half my paycheck. Then with my sons food alergies when he was little his formula cost $46 a can. We went through a can every other day, they were smaller cans. Then my daughters asthma medication, hospital stays, and all of the normal kid problems. <br /><br />My wife has of course graduated college a year ago december. This past January took a job full time. She is paid pretty low for teachers wages compared to the state average, but they provide health insurance and she is paid enough to break us even each month. <br /><br />So I am proud to say we are off of the programs. They did what they are meant to do and gave us a chance at improving our lives. One advantage to being poor!<br /><br />When I went to re-certify for the WIC food program I told them I wanted off that we were making enough money to survive now. They were so shocked and wouldn't let me. They had to run us through an application process anyway to verify we were over income. When I assured them that we were doing well enough to be off the program they went to get a supervisor. Then they discussed what to do from there. The supervisor agreed that they were not there to raise children, they were there to help people get ahead and if I could prove we had improved our lives they would just drop our case. I gave them a pay stub.<br />THEN they argued that I might need another month of bennefits to get by until paychecks were in. I told them that since I already had her pay stub that she was already getting paid and we were fine. I finally settled for 1 more month of bennefit coupons for food. These hit the trash as I walked out. They are in the form of IOU type vouchers, the stores are paid back at the end of each month. So my throwing them out does not deprive anyone else from collecting.<br /><br />I was just amazed that they were so slow to close our case. They said nobody ever comes and tells them they want off. Everyone waits until they are kicked off for making too much money. That would take over 3 months for us. <br /><br />We would never have made it to where we are now without the aid offered. I feel like a loser accepting it, but at least I am working full time. We used the system for what it was meant to be, a step up in life. Now I am finally independant!
