So here's the short version. We are EXTREMELY low-income. We live in an efficiency. We have a lot of debt. We used to be middle-class, but things went all wrong when DH lost his job and we lost our home.
We didn't have any way to pay the debt that we had and we were homeless for a while. I spent years learning how to live with nothing at all. Now we've moved up in the world to this efficiency. My husband has found another job, but things got bad again.
As soon as he got the job, someone who we did NOT have any debt with lied to the government and said we did. Please don't make me tell the story, it's long and makes me angry. Anyway, we went to court and got legal help and the whole shebang. No dice. The court ruled that the debt WAS ours
and now 50% of my husband's wages are being garnished for the next six years in order to pay it. They take everything, even our tax returns and our stimulus checks.
We were getting by. Things were just barely working out. I got on WIC and Medicaid - the only services we qualified for.
AAAaaanyway, my husband got a very small raise a few months ago. It was only $11 extra a month, but it put us over the limit for getting any social services, so they put us on a transitional program for one year.
Last week, my husband begged his boss for a bigger raise because we were just not getting by. His boss gave him a $100 a month raise which was awesome and I was so happy. Then, we found out that his insurance raised their prices at the same time and now he's going to be making $14 LESS a month, even with the raise, AND they are taking away my WIC and my Medicaid. This is still the cheapest insurance he can get and he has to have it because he has to provide insurance for my stepdaughter who lives with her mother.
I'm not sure what to do. He got a raise, but all it did was disqualify us for any social help. I talked to them, even begged them, but they told me they only go by gross income, not net income, so they don't care that we are really only getting 50% of what they say we are. I'm so mad! We also found out that my husband can't refuse the raise or he will get into serious trouble with social services.
Currently, he's trying to get a government job so we can at least have medical, but other than that, we don't know what to do.
Who can we petition for help?
And I know everyone is going to want to give me advice on how to live cheaply, but believe that I am serious when I say "I wrote the book."
There is no advice you can give me that I don't already know. I just need to know what to do about getting outside help.
Thank you SO MUCH if you know anything that might assist us.
We didn't have any way to pay the debt that we had and we were homeless for a while. I spent years learning how to live with nothing at all. Now we've moved up in the world to this efficiency. My husband has found another job, but things got bad again.
As soon as he got the job, someone who we did NOT have any debt with lied to the government and said we did. Please don't make me tell the story, it's long and makes me angry. Anyway, we went to court and got legal help and the whole shebang. No dice. The court ruled that the debt WAS ours
We were getting by. Things were just barely working out. I got on WIC and Medicaid - the only services we qualified for.
AAAaaanyway, my husband got a very small raise a few months ago. It was only $11 extra a month, but it put us over the limit for getting any social services, so they put us on a transitional program for one year.
Last week, my husband begged his boss for a bigger raise because we were just not getting by. His boss gave him a $100 a month raise which was awesome and I was so happy. Then, we found out that his insurance raised their prices at the same time and now he's going to be making $14 LESS a month, even with the raise, AND they are taking away my WIC and my Medicaid. This is still the cheapest insurance he can get and he has to have it because he has to provide insurance for my stepdaughter who lives with her mother.
I'm not sure what to do. He got a raise, but all it did was disqualify us for any social help. I talked to them, even begged them, but they told me they only go by gross income, not net income, so they don't care that we are really only getting 50% of what they say we are. I'm so mad! We also found out that my husband can't refuse the raise or he will get into serious trouble with social services.
Currently, he's trying to get a government job so we can at least have medical, but other than that, we don't know what to do.
Who can we petition for help?
And I know everyone is going to want to give me advice on how to live cheaply, but believe that I am serious when I say "I wrote the book."
Thank you SO MUCH if you know anything that might assist us.