I am a 30 year old homeowner in Western Maryland. I am the single, primary parent of a beautiful three year old boy with Down’s Syndrome - currently his father has him two nights a week and I’m not yet receiving child support. I work a full time retail job.
Between us, we are allotted twenty three dollars a month in food stamps. This is the minimum amount of benefits. We are only "categorically eligible” for benefits because my son has a disability - technically, we have too much earned and unearned income to qualify.
$23 a month is not enough for any family to survive on, so I requested an administrative hearing to appeal the decision.
A few weeks after submitting the paper at my local DHS office, I received a call from my representative to verify, again, that the information I submitted was correct. She also asked me if I was sure I wanted to appeal the decision, because all the judge is going to do is make sure the policy calculation was correctly applied to my information.
For reference, my son receives, on average, $508/month in disability. I bring home around $2,200/month from my job. I pay a mortgage, gas bill, electric bill, water bill, phone and internet bill, homeowner’s insurance, and car insurance. We travel out of state for my son’s specialty care because the local hospital is not good enough for him (it’s UPMC).
A virtual hearing date was assigned to me, and a letter was sent in the mail to inform me. It was luckily one of my days off work.
A couple other members from United Workers joined the hearing on the platform WebEx. Everyone was let into the room at the same time, then the judge removed everyone who wasn’t involved in whatever first case he was hearing. In this case it was mine.
Pictured: Elliott's virtual benefits hearing
The process operates just like any other court hearing, which we were not ready for. All I had prepared was a testimony, but there were opening and closing statements, responses to the representatives’ statements, and a chance to cross-examine the representative. Most importantly, the appellant (me) got to have the last word. It was me versus the Department of Social Services.
The representative for the Department of Social Services said she had worked in the department in Cumberland for a long time. She has heard our struggles, and she agreed that they are real.
The testimony I laid out included our personal journey, examples and statistics of others in my position, and an explanation of how exactly the amount of SNAP benefits is calculated and how it’s outdated and unrealistic. In the judge’s summary, he laid out everything I said about the Federal Poverty Line and something called a “weekly market basket” that’s used to calculate how much food a person supposedly eats in a week (it’s very wrong). Not once did he disagree.
The judge decided to affirm the decision of the Department of Social Services. Interestingly though, in the summary he stated “neither I nor the local department has any discretion to alter the formula or stray from its calculation” and “while I sympathize with the appellant's statement that this is not enough money for her to purchase food for a month, I am required to apply the eligibility rules set out in this decision.”
So I will be appealing his decision at the circuit court level. I’m hoping this court date will be in person so we can make an appearance to demand our right to food and health
This is not acceptable and I’m glad we’re not accepting it. Everybody has a right to food. No one should have to choose between food and shelter because they can’t afford both. I could not do this on my own - I would not have the strength, intelligence, or courage but collectively we are a powerful force. Thank you for reading and thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn more about this process and help the organization learn along with me.
Written By: Elliott Slater, Co-Coordinator and Media Lead of Western Regional Committee