altoona.com

[Zane]

My family is struggling to survive right now. My wife got fired from her job and is lookng for another one, and I'm awaiting a decision for disability. Meanwhile, we file for food stamps and welfare, in their infinite wisdom, turns us down because my wife failed to provide a paystub for the day she started work. That's right, the very day she started work, welfare expects her to have been paid. We tried to explain the situation to our worker, but he doesn't understand. The fast food place where she worked pays their employees on the 5th and 20th of every month, and she just happened to start work on the 5th. Therefore, our worker believes she should have been paid that day. In the real world, people never get paid the same day they start work. It would be nice, but it's not gonna happen. Meanwhile, we have maybe 3 days of food left, and we already visited a food bank. In this city, if you visit one food bank,you aren't allowed to visit another one for a month. They barely give you enough to last a few days, so how in the hell are we supposed to survive now? Our local government workers have forgotten what it's like to be a person. They see their clients as simple numbers in the system. I'm so disgusted with this city anymore, I can't even go out without looking at it in pity.
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" I'm not even supposed to be here today! "

[Zane]

I would like to apologize to any workers I may have offended with the previous post. Welfare finally did something right and checked with the state regarding my wife's date of employment and pay checks for that date. Of course, they discovered she did not get paid the same day she started work, so they reinstated our foodstamps and medical benefits. I still feel as though they treat people as numbers in a system and not real people.
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" I'm not even supposed to be here today! "