Being Investigated By Program Integrity Division
I couple of weeks ago I attempted to bring up a rather paranoia-inducing problem during Oakland's "Moving Toward Change and Crafting Solutions" Town Hall. I wanted to use that unique opportunity to address two rows of State and local political representatives to let them in know - in front of public "interested party" witnesses - that Social Services has been frightening everyone on General Assistance welfare by telling them that they were being surveilled by investigators, and this would involve interviewing their neighbors, etc.
If you think that was just an idle threat to keep people on welfare "scared straight", I've already received my letter. Perhaps it has something to do with me publicly pointing out that $336/month that goes directly to your landlord with no direct cash for basic necessities raises the question of A) where are you going to get a place that cheap and, B) how are you going to get basic necessities? (click my sig for details) This is especially a dire problem for people caught in the eternal application for SSI process.
How much do you suppose these Investigators make? Around $60k/year? And their job is to intimidate and terrorize people who literally aren't allowed to have money for basic necessities.
The Social Services supplicants were not even allowed to interact with their caseworker directly to ask questions or make personal appeals. They could only turn in their documents - and some vague threats were issued regarding documents that were imperfect or incomplete. The only phone number for the caseworker that people receive goes to an automated phone tree. When I received my acknowledgment letters, they indicated the exact same problems as last year: Social Services had no medical paperwork on file for me (how did they lose this two years in a row?) so they were threatening some rollback to 2012 unless I scramble to obtain whatever they need. It's always something, and the stress and time-consuming legwork is always shifted to the poor person.
Well I've been dealing with this crap for years, I'll deal with this. I just have to wonder if the social contradiction of this policy, attempting to "save" money by paying Investigators to drive people who are on the edge over the edge, isn't a basic ingredient in the current social unrest in Oakland.
Two rows of local and State politicians could have heard this at the Oakland Town Hall, and Keith Carson, the county Supervisor in charge of Social Services, saw me and cut my voice off.
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