Welfare Fraud in My Name?

[Deleted]

I just got around to opening today's mail and I have an "important notice about *my* case" from our state's Department of Human Services saying I need to supply a drug screening form and shot records for my children by a certain date. The rest of the notice is about my right to appeal their decisions and how if i don't appeal within a certain amount of time my Family First benefits will stop.

WTF?! I don't have any minor children and haven't applied for any benefits. My income would disqualify for any kind of government benefits anyway. The letter is addressed to my correct name and was mailed to my correct address.

Of course I won't be able to talk to anyone until Monday and I'll be wondering all weekend why I got this notice. I don't want shit to do with any welfare fraud. But why else would I have gotten this notice? This is not making sense to me. UGH!

[milee]

Is it possible this is meant for your daughter who used to live with you (and has minor children)?

[Deleted]

Feb 19, 2016 19:57:41 GMT -5 milee said:

Is it possible this is meant for your daughter who used to live with you (and has minor children)?

No, my name is the only name on it.

[Deleted]

It could be someone with the same name or a name very close to yours. Contact them to clear this up.

[NastyWoman]

Or maybe DD used your name?

[Deleted]

This reminds me of a really horrible day in my life.  My first ex and I were separated but I hadn't filed for divorce or child support yet.  One day a knock comes at the door and it's the sheriff serving papers for paternity/child support from some other woman.  It was pretty stressful for my ex too after I called him because he had never heard of this woman.   I don't remember how it all got straightened out, but it ended up just being a mistake.  Same name guy but they didn't know where he was, so just took a shot in the dark on last known addresses of men by the same name in MN. 

[Deleted]

Feb 19, 2016 22:37:00 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

It could be someone with the same name or a name very close to yours. Contact them to clear this up.

If someone else has my same first name, I'd like to meet them lol. It's very unlikely.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Did you ever use state aid at one time?

Reason I ask is we used medicaid for the kids in the summer. I took them off when I got the job at bt.

I still kept getting letters and phone calls. When I called back I kept being told its a computer glitch. Apparently the system is not all connected you have to tell every freaking computer involved individually that benefits have stopped otherwise letters and robo calls go out.

My head exploded like the jet.com commercials.

Definitely call and don't stop till you talk to an actual human.

[Wisconsin Beth]

I'm told that if you start swearing at the assorted prompts, you get routed to a real person faster but I don't know for certain that it works.

[Spellbound454]

Just ring them on Monday and explain they have the wrong name and address.

I once had the police round because a car registered to my address had been involved in criminal activity.
Had to calmly explain, more than once, that I didn't own a car of that description ....and there had been a mistake.
Finally left when an officer piped up with, "Its an Asian male name... and you don't appear to be either"

[Deleted]

Feb 20, 2016 9:30:44 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Did you ever use state aid at one time?

Reason I ask is we used medicaid for the kids in the summer. I took them off when I got the job at bt.

I still kept getting letters and phone calls. When I called back I kept being told its a computer glitch. Apparently the system is not all connected you have to tell every freaking computer involved individually that benefits have stopped otherwise letters and robo calls go out.

My head exploded like the jet.com commercials.

Definitely call and don't stop till you talk to an actual human.

No, there's no way I should be in their system, period. I definitely will be on the phone with them Monday.

[Apple]

That's really weird...  I may be paranoid, but if I thought they'd end up wanting personal info, I'd look up the number independently from the letter and call the listed one first (and if they aren't the right person to talk to, see if you can get the phone number you were sent verified).  

Good luck, and hope it's an easy fix with a short phone call!

[TheOtherMe]

Feb 20, 2016 18:26:47 GMT -5 Apple said:

That's really weird...  I may be paranoid, but if I thought they'd end up wanting personal info, I'd look up the number independently from the letter and call the listed one first (and if they aren't the right person to talk to, see if you can get the phone number you were sent verified).  

Good luck, and hope it's an easy fix with a short phone call!

This.  Be careful who you are actually calling.

[Deleted]

Feb 20, 2016 18:26:47 GMT -5 Apple said:

That's really weird...  I may be paranoid, but if I thought they'd end up wanting personal info, I'd look up the number independently from the letter and call the listed one first (and if they aren't the right person to talk to, see if you can get the phone number you were sent verified).  

Good luck, and hope it's an easy fix with a short phone call!

The telephone number on the notice is the same as the local number on the state's website. I'm paranoid sometimes too.

[TheOtherMe]

Feb 19, 2016 19:56:13 GMT -5 @pinkcshmere said:

I just got around to opening today's mail and I have an "important notice about *my* case" from our state's Department of Human Services saying I need to supply a drug screening form and shot records for my children by a certain date. The rest of the notice is about my right to appeal their decisions and how if i don't appeal within a certain amount of time my Family First benefits will stop.

WTF?! I don't have any minor children and haven't applied for any benefits. My income would disqualify for any kind of government benefits anyway. The letter is addressed to my correct name and was mailed to my correct address.

Of course I won't be able to talk to anyone until Monday and I'll be wondering all weekend why I got this notice. I don't want shit to do with any welfare fraud. But why else would I have gotten this notice? This is not making sense to me. UGH!

Inquiring minds want to know if you have committed welfare fraud!  

[beergut]

@pinkcshmere is a welfare queen!!!     She's the reason our taxes are too damn high!! 

[teen persuasion]

So, what did you learn?

At work today I got a call from a library with sort of the same name as our library formerly used, but in a different state.  Apparently they'd been getting calls from one of our patrons asking for his books to be renewed.  He got quite irate when they told him they couldn't renew his things, since he wasn't in their system.  The poor employee googled the library name to find us and let us know so we could renew his stuff (and get him off their back).  When he wandered in later we made sure to point out our new name (as of 2012), and give him a magnet with OUR phone number.

Later I got a call from the newspaper delivery person, following up on a call that we didn't receive the paper.  No, we received it (today, at least ) and no one called them.  This has happened before - they have confused us with the school, since our new name is nearly the same (two towns).

[Deleted]

She's probably in jail. 

[bookkeeper]

Feb 24, 2016 21:46:02 GMT -5 beergut said:

@pinkcshmere is a welfare queen!!!     She's the reason our taxes are too damn high!! 

What time should I be over for crab legs?

[Chocolate Lover]

Feb 25, 2016 8:29:46 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

She's probably in jail. 

She's probably still waiting on them to call back or still trying to get through to leave a message in the first place. I learned how irritating our local system is back when we did CS for youngest DS. They take calls 2 hours a day maybe 2 days a week. The rest of the time you leave a message and rot while you wait on them to call you back. Never once did I get a call back on a message left. Or get through on the designated call days. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I swear that the Iowa DHHS office is really just two modems in an empty room like the Experian commerical.

I went to our local office in person and they were the rudest dumbest people I have ever met!  I kept thinking that at any moment Ashton Kutcher was going to pop out of their plant and tell me I was being punked.  

They treated me like I was an idiot who couldn't speak English even though I had a list of dates/times/names of people I talked to and the original letters that were sent.   I've gotten better service from the DMV people.

It boggles my brain that these people are in charge of helping others.  I know YM tends to view being on welfare as a pretty sweet gig, but personally I'd rather shoot myself than ever have to deal with those people again.  My situation was temporary, I can't imagine how soul sucking it is to be dependent on those bitches for your survival.

[Chocolate Lover]

A zillion years ago when my youngest was little I did spend some time on food stamps. Visiting that office was great motivation to get off of them. (different state than the 2 hours of call time one) You spent every waking minute off work there (the paperwork was insane). However, that state knew how to answer the phone. You might spend 10 minutes dealing with the phone tree but you could get a real human if you needed to. 

[Deleted]

Feb 25, 2016 11:24:12 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Feb 25, 2016 8:29:46 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

She's probably in jail. 

She's probably still waiting on them to call back or still trying to get through to leave a message in the first place. I learned how irritating our local system is back when we did CS for youngest DS. They take calls 2 hours a day maybe 2 days a week. The rest of the time you leave a message and rot while you wait on them to call you back. Never once did I get a call back on a message left. Or get through on the designated call days. 

Chocolate Lover gets the prize. I've left voicemails for the case worker who's on the notice, she hasn't returned my calls. I guess I'm going to have to figure out who I should try to contact next. I don't have time for this!

If I really was applying for or getting benefits and needed to talk to a case worker asap, I would not be happy with the lack of response.  

[NastyWoman]

Feb 25, 2016 11:26:12 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

It boggles my brain that these people are in charge of helping others.  I know YM tends to view being on welfare as a pretty sweet gig, but personally I'd rather shoot myself than ever have to deal with those people again.  My situation was temporary, I can't imagine how soul sucking it is to be dependent on those bitches for your survival.

It is, just not for the people YM likes to look down on: realizing there are definitely good hard workers who truly like to do their work → welfare is a good deal for the workers who receive taxpayer money for basically sitting on their butt with a chance of being rude without repercussions.  And all that without being looked down upon as welfare queen/king. Score!

[JustLurkin]

Feb 25, 2016 11:26:12 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

I swear that the Iowa DHHS office is really just two modems in an empty room like the Experian commerical.

I went to our local office in person and they were the rudest dumbest people I have ever met!  I kept thinking that at any moment Ashton Kutcher was going to pop out of their plant and tell me I was being punked.  

They treated me like I was an idiot who couldn't speak English even though I had a list of dates/times/names of people I talked to and the original letters that were sent.   I've gotten better service from the DMV people.

It boggles my brain that these people are in charge of helping others.  I know YM tends to view being on welfare as a pretty sweet gig, but personally I'd rather shoot myself than ever have to deal with those people again.  My situation was temporary, I can't imagine how soul sucking it is to be dependent on those bitches for your survival.

I recently had to go to social services regarding my son's Medicaid application...all of the above x1000.  One of the employees treated someone else so poorly I lodged a formal complaint against her.  When I received a response, I was directed to the main phone line regarding my original problem--as chocolatelover said, it was a night and day experience.  I was on the phone with the operator 6 minutes and received a letter a week later stating everything had been handled....vs. more than 2 hours at the office that ended in me snatching up all my papers and storming out.

As much as I hate to say it, as I also work in government, when someone in my office stood up and said "there's been a mass shooting at a social services office" and most people turned on the news...I thought "surprised it doesn't happen more often" and went back to what I was doing.

[TheOtherMe]

I have dealt with the Iowa DHS system as a volunteer rep payee.  A total nightmare by phone and mail.  They cut off the Title 19 benefits for one of my clients.  Thankfully, I had a friend who had worked there and we did a conference call and that got it straightened out.

My friend said their budget has been cut so much that every caseworker is overworked.  They moved her office to Council Bluffs, which is who I was dealing with.  She lived in Des Moines, so found work elsewhere doing something else.