They go through various assessment processes. And there are housing officers who oversee everything. Way too boring to go into in any detail here.

It really isn't easy to scam the housing system. There may be odd examples, but they are a small minority. There are far more families and individuals deserving of more help than they are getting, than are getting help they don't deserve. The trouble is a family not getting as much help as they need and deserve doesn't make as good a headline as the family that is living it up on the public purse or the single mum who just pops out a sprog (hate that phrase) as a housing solution.

Most people will have anecdotal evidence of someone gaming the system to a shocking degree. They either know someone, or they know someone who knows someone, who is claiming invalidity and housing benefit, whilst running their own landscaping business and holidaying in exotic locales three times a year. Or they know a girl who got pregnant young and is adamant she's just going to keep having babies, because once they get past a certain age the mother is expected to seek work...

This is cited as evidence for the system being completely fucked and everybody being a scam artist. But they conveniently forget the swathes of other people in their town and on their street who are claiming for good and valid reasons, struggling to try and make some kind of a life, or desperately trying to find a decent, stable job. Bouncing from one insecure position to the next, falling in and out of the system, getting ground down by the constant and unrelenting pressure of the breadline.

They're just not as interesting as the jet-skiing malingerer or the baby popping mommy machine, and they don't give one that lovely warm feeling of righteous indignation and self-elevation.

Thanks, Sundae. I suspected the truth was more along the lines you describe. I loathe being forced onto SSDI (disability). My stipend is very, very low; and I would far rather be making a contribution of some sort than surfing the Internet all day. I just called my voc-rehab counselor for about the 5th time in this past month. I was told she out sick. Big surprise. I have not been able to schedule a meeting with that woman since last spring. She is like the watch dog I have to get past before being considered for ANY voc-rehab assistance be it state or federal. The woman who handles my evaluation and potential training at the Federal level is mad at me because I haven't sent her the paperwork from the state lady. Round and round we go. :mad:

Thanks for taking time to explain all that. It would seem that things are not so very different no matter which side of the pond you are on.

Weeeeee. This is so much fun - NOT. There has to be a better way.


Dealing with similar BS myself. The whole thing is so frustrating and inefficient. Maybe we should send unemployed people there so that, at the very least, there is some understanding of whats happening.

There are times when I have to work very hard not to be consumed with rage at these people. Just what do they think, if anything?

I like the idea of getting rid of some of these uncivil servants and replacing them with people who have been laid off/unable to work for far too long. Such people would make the best employees IMO.

They think you are driving your brand new car to your mani-pedi appointment and eating peeled shrimp whilst talking on your IPhone. That's what they think.

They also think your medicare/medicaid is paying for your facelift. You can't convince them otherwise.

Sam, can you not request a different counsellor/substitute?

Does the state lady know the reason you don't have the paperwork? Can you ask her advice on how to get it given the circumstances. When you say she is mad at how, how was this manifested? Did she yell at you? or send you a snippy email?

Awww, Monster, I appreciate your concern. Since the state of Colorado has decided to cut frills like services to help people get back to work, my town has been left with a single state voc-rehab person who drives 50 miles over from the adjoining county to see clients here once or twice a week. This person is very burned out and over-worked, needless to say.

When I called the main office today, I asked the man I spoke with if I just couldn't be assigned to someone in Durango and that I was willing to make the 100 mile round trip drive if I could just get some help. The guy said he'd bring up my concerns to my voc rehab person if she ever shows up. Great!

So, I will just call again tomorrow and the day after that and the day after... Eventually they may get so tired of being pestered by me that they'll give me an appointment. "Some day my prince will come..." Yeah, right. :right:

When it comes to the Federal government, it's just as bad. The Fed worker there is just one woman who represents the entire Rocky Mountain region. She single-handedly is taking on Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and a bunch of other states. I have to fill out this 60 page - literally - plan with the help and feedback I supposedly have gotten from state voc rehab and the results of my most recent med evaluation.

In theory, there is a woman who works as an outside advisor to the Queen of the Western Feds, and this advisor could also give me help coming up with a voc rehab plan. Unfortunately, the advisor's sister died last week, and she has had to take off time for the funeral and family matters and probably crying her eyes out. I have tried to cut her some slack, but I've got to get help from SOMEONE. I am incapable of wading through all the paperwork and jumping through all the hoops on my own.

The Queen of the Western Feds sends me warnings on official government stationary that I have run past the time normally allocated to get into the Federal job program I'm trying for. If I don't meet the deadline, I can't apply again for 6 months and the Feds will probably come up with a few other penalties, as well.

Finally, given the upcoming shoot out between the Gang of Twelve in Congress this fall, I honestly wonder if its even worth trying to apply for assistance. Medicaid alone is going to take a serious hit - everyone I know in the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition is pretty certain of this, and those folks know more about the politics of disability issues then just about anyone else - around these parts, anyhow.

Aren't you glad you asked? Sorry for the rant, but I am beyond frustrated these days. :(

When I was filling in my form (ie whole book) for Disability Allowance, I got help from a local charity. I'm not saying this is an option for you, just that they don't exactly make it easy over here either.

And when I had my assessment after a year it was decided I would be able to return to some sort of work with assistance.
A fact I was informed of three months later - a few days before a payment was due. Which lead to stress and borrowing and having to sign on as unemployed immediately, and only elegible for unemployment allowance if I proved I was actively seeking work and agreed to take any reasonable offer of employment. The Job Centre was "currently recruiting" a Disability Advisor at the time.

My situation was nowhere near as grim as yours. But my experience of the benefits system is if you're crazy enough to want to stay in it, you're probably too unstable to work anyway.

Good luck with your hoop-jumping to find work, while still being treated like a scrounger.

Sounds like the system in the UK is nearly as bad as the one in the US. Sorry you're having to deal with all that BS, too.

I can't imagine anyone voluntarily going through all the stuff that the Federal disability system imposes on an individual in the US - especially if your disability "award" puts you at or below the poverty line. I'd give anything to get my old job back, but that's not going to happen. Heck, I'd give anything to get ANY job.

It is typical of the government to "save" money by down-sizing vocational and back to work programs. For every $30,000 - $50,000 they save by laying off a counselor, they lose out on a hundred people like me who are desperate to go back to work. Say, that each person on disability costs the government $30,000/year (just guessing). That means the State can cut $50,000 from the budget in order to go $300,000 in the red for benefits for people who want to earn their own way if they possibly can.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! :mad:

So when she did this, did you tell her why and request help?

I just got off her voice mail. It doesn't give you much time to explain stuff, but I did the best I could. I'm sort of scared of the Queen of the Western Feds. I made my call to her just barely in the nick of time. I kind of imagine her swooping down on me on a broomstick and me having to dissolve her with the water from my garden hose.

On the plus side, the Adviser to the Queen of the Western Feds finally contacted me today to set up a time when we can drown ourselves in government paperwork. She didn't reject my ideas as of what to do out of hand. I told her I wanted to be a Campground Host, and she says that may be possible. I guess I can get special funding through my Social Security Account that would help me buy a travel trailer as long as its work related. Which it would be, of course.

One of the things that struck me when I was a literacy tutor on a government funded programme, was just how at the mercy of their advisor/case worker's social attitudes the clients were. The level and kind of assistance offered and the tone of that offer can vary greatly.

If you claim benefits and try to use the systems and provisions in place for jobseekers, and your home address is in some notorious shithole there's a strong possibility you'll be met with a degree of suspicion and prejudgement. If you don't have the right wardrobe and mannerisms to overturn that preconception very quickly, you might get short shrift, or patronised, or you may face outright nastiness.

If you have been doing rather well in life, have worked for years in a well-paid managerial post, or have been lecturing in a university and you find yourself between jobs during an economic downturn, and you're seeking assistance whilst trying to find a way back in, or retraining/reskilling, you may face a different set of prejudices. I've known case workers who've had real chips on their shoulders about education. One, I swear, took grim delight in 'bringing them down a peg' and rentroducing them to 'the real world', by which they meant they'd got to the point in their claim where they have to take any job, even if its shovelling shit naked on the high street for public amusement*. Or they'd passed the milestone that means they have to go on some ludicrous fucking 'Job Seeker' course, where they'll be taught the arcane mysteries of writing a resume using MS Word, and how to write a frakking application letter, by a well-meaning 24 year old volunteer and her hard as nails, eagle-eyed supervisor. Whilst there, they'll be cajoled, patronised, bullied and discarded all in the span of 6 weeks.


Right...that turned into slightly more of a rant than I'd intended...

*not really

Yeah, that kind of stuff goes on more often than one would like to think. I am fairly certain that I have my own gremlin in the wood pile. But it seems that I have finally shamed the Coloradi vo-tech lady into giving me an appointment. I get to see her excellancy at 1:00 today. Yay!