Texas Health and Human Services Commission Are Illegally Denying Eligible Food Stamp, Snap recipients Benefits By Circumventing Federal Guidelines forcing people to kill themselves and their children in the food stamp office. People who are eligible via FEDERAL GUIDELINES for SNAP BENEFITS are DENIED in TEXAS on IDEOLOGICAL GROUNDS!!!!! SHAME ON TEXAS REPUBLICANS! Austin Texas

 I have a part time job and have paid taxes for years from it. I had no need to look for a full time job because thankfully my husband was able to provide for us all. This goes to those who think people who get SNAP benefits don't pay their own taxes or don't work. For over 13 years my husband had a good job and paid taxes from his job along with our property taxes. Suddenly he was laid off and we were left surviving off of my check which wasn't enough to cover the bills and food plus other things that are not taken into consideration like car repairs and school supplies for the kids. So I applied for emergency food stamps and I can't say I was not grateful that they helped us, but going into the next month we were both struggling to find work in a small town where, besides the job market being small, for the few jobs that are available everyone here knows you have to know someone to get hired. In short, I applied for work with the DHS themselves and the Texas Workforce, the same companies that ask you to look for work, and was called in for an interview and wasn't hired. I hhve an excellent resume and over 10 years of experience to back me up and that did nothing. I don't know why they didn't hire me, but I suspect based on the profile of their employees that I was not young enough for them. In one of the jobs I applied for, the person doing the hiring hired himself instead. While this was going on, I missed a letter to go to the training. No one told me to expect one so I didn't know this was something they were doing now. They could at least send it certified to make sure we receive it and with my luck, I found out the day after the class was scheduled, but they did not allow me to reschedule and denied my benefits. I had to reapply again and this time I kept an eye out for it. I went to the class and was told I'd have to go everyday for four weeks to look for work. On the first day they had 3 jobs for me to apply to. I applies to them knowing I wouldn't get them. Why? Because 2 of the jobs they gave me were the same ones I had already applied to: DHS and the workforce. The other was a restaurant. You'd think it is easy getting a job at a restaurant, but when you have a bachelors degree they tell you that you are over qualified. Like I knew would happen, I didn't get hired. Not even interviewed this time. On day two, they just had us there all day for nothing. There were no more jobs to apply for. That was it...3 jobs and nothing, so they had us doing crossword puzzles and playing games on the computer. This was something I predicted I'd have to be doing for the next 4 weeks. It was torture in its own way because I could be out doing other things to survive like going door to door offering help to earn a buck. On the third day I was told not to go back because they canceled my foodstamps, again, due to the fact that I didn't update my application, which was weird because I had just applied again and didn't know I needed to update also. I thought the new application WAS the update. I was told that I had to wait until my new application was confirmed and to wait for the letter again. Now it is summer and the kids are out of school. I have an 8 yr old and a 13 yr old and no one to watch them. My husband could not find work here so he had to find work out of town and is gone from Monday thru Thursday and I'm left having to take care of the kids. Today I have the classes again and I read they will probably not exempt me because my children are not under 6 yrs old. I am being forced to leave my kids home alone because I cannot reschedule and I cannot ask for an exemption. It has got to the point where I have decided to try and start my own business, because no one will hire me. The problem is that these classes take up all of your day and I can't go out and look for clients. I don't know yet if I'll be exempt if I'm self employed, and to be honest I'm just barely chugging along with this self employed thing that I wouldn't mind finding a better paying job, but they should make it where they call us in when a job is available instead of forcing us to be there all day playing games on the computer and doing nothing. I honestly feel this is a cruel way to deny people who need this help. Maybe in bigger towns this might work, but where I live, there just are no jobs for over qualified people like me, and for the ones that happen to become available, everyone around here knows that those end up going to the relatives or friends of the people doing the hiring, so if you don't know someone who knows someone, good luck trying to find work here. The only other option we have is to move, but we barely have enough to survive right now that we don't pay rent, much less moving somewhere where we'll have to pay rent. This also had me thinking about those here who do not have a car. We don't have public transportation, so how do they expect people who don't have a car to show up to these classes everyday for 4 weeks? They said they provide transportation, but only IF funds are available. They were not available when I went, but thankfully I had a way to get there. Others might not be so lucky. And the letter thing, they need to send that out certified because it is so easy to miss it and that just is unfair to have your benefits terminated over a missed letter. We should also be able to reschedule. We shouldn't be forced to actually be present for all of these classes either unless they actually have jobs we can apply to so we don't have to be there all day wasting our time playing computer games. I do hope this is an efdective way to get this program reevaluated and reformed because this is horrible the way it is working out right now. I do think it is meant to discriminate and not give services to those who need it. People who have no intention of working would have no problem sitting through these classes playing games all day. I'd rather be out there hustling trying to find a dime than waste my time like this.

Our society has been led to believe those that have OWE those that don't a free ride.  It has to be stopped somewhere.

Thamks, again, Texas.

 Okay first off..here is a thought.  Perhaps your friend isn't quite telling you the entire story, and unless you are acting on her behalf..getting all of your information 2nd hand and quite honestly through biased party.  You are taking her word for it that she never got this letter?  How do you know?  Do you check her mail every day?  You say that the manger was rude. Again unless you were on the phone how do you know?   After all she was asked questions but got her benefits originally. Where were the complaints then..oh there were none because she got what she wanted.

There are Billions of dollar in Fraud in just about every Goverment Program(yes people seem to find ways to get something for nothing).  So the more a State can do to combat this..I(and I think you will find people of all political leanings) are very much for.

Next, if she has kids and the husband "took everything" why hasn't she gone and got CPS(Or what ever division handles it in Texas) after him for Child Support.  If he truly took everything..they will find him, order to have him pay support, and if he fails..jail him.  This does happen because you will see just as many reports from parents who say that they are being unfairly targeted by CPS and forced to pay.  Oh and this is no cost to her.

Oh and as for the woman who shot herself.  While yes it is a tragic case, honestly for someone to be that unstable in order to do that the people that failed her was everyone around her who didn't see the signs, and the medical(mental specifically) community who did not assist her.  Not that they always can see the signs.  As if she didn't do it there...something else at some point would have triggered the same response.

So as a "real friend" you can just take her side and play the "poor me" card where the government is evil because they won't give her what she thinks she is "entitled" to.  OR you can be a real friend and help her out in other ways such as supporting her in her attempt to go after the ex.