I HATE THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES.

*ahem*

Probably not ALL DSS offices. I'm sure that somewhere, in a magical land, they're efficient and empathic and helpful, and they actually pay attention to the circumstances and needs of their clients. And people get around on unicorns and magic carpets, and there's universal health care that works...

Still, I'm not talking about magical fairy land, I'm talking about right here in Plattsburgh and/or the good ol' USA. Let me share a few stories I've heard over the past couple weeks, with the names omitted to protect the horribly violated.

1) Due to the privatization of prescription plans instituted under Dubya, a woman with serious health problems is unable to receive aid for a secondary condition caused by treating her first problem. Either one could potentially kill her-- if she stops the first treatment, she'll get really sick. But she's really sick because of it as well, and although the secondary condition is treatable, the private company now insuring her doesn't think it's worth $5000 every two weeks to basically save her life. If Medicaid was still covering her, this wouldn't even be an issue. But nope, gotta fuck around with the health care system.

2) Food stamp bitch 1: To receive food stamps, you have to either have a very low-paying job, or go sit in a room for 8 hours a day doing literally nothing. If you get a job, you get a pitiful sum after jumping through ridiculous hoops. But who has time to get a job when you're fulfilling a completely absurd condition of getting help in the first place?

3) Food stamp bitch 2: A family of five (two adults, three young children) were getting food stamps. The mother found a job, but wasn't able to actually start working for two weeks. DSS completely cut off their food stamps as soon as they found out she was employed, regardless of the fact that she couldn't get a paycheck for a full month after that. When she tried to explain this, the response? "Too bad, you have a job, you should be able to provide for your family now." This woman literally broke into sobs sitting across from me while she filled out the application for aid. (I ended up loading her down with eight very full bags from the food pantry, and them my mom went in and added two more. We're both complete suckers for tears, but even if she hadn't cried we would have done the same thing.)

I see cases like these all the time, not just working in the Salvation Army but because my friends are also getting fucked by the system when they need help the most. What the hell is this department for if they aren't actually helping people? It's the most inefficient and soulless fuckup of an excuse for a social service organization I've ever had the dubious fortune of actually helping people in the wake of.

I'm sure that it helps people. I'm sure of it. But all I see, and this is probably why I bitch, all I see are the people who don't get any help. The ones whose kids are hungry because they make too much for food stamps but not enough for food and rent and utilities. The ones who literally come in with the clothes on their backs and not too much else. And even here, we have our restrictions, but I do what I can to bend the loopholes in their favor, because that's what you should do when your purpose is to help people.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.