Social Services is being very unhelpful

[wallgod]

I'm in the cash aid & food stamps program through Santa Clara County Social Services (San Jose, California). On April 1st, 2006, which was the Saturday before the 04/03/2006 due date (Monday), I received a notice in the mail saying that they would remove me from the financial and food assistance program if I didn't turn in my eligibility form completed, yet they didn't mention any specifics about what part of the form was not complete. So I had to go in on Monday and wait for several hours to meet with a supervisor, who told me the reason was that my previous case worker (Areli) didn't put into the computer system on my file that I stopped working at Starbucks, so because of her mistake, they needed proof that I no longer worked there. This seemed very much out of the blue. Anyway, the lady said that she would work on the problem, and pull some strings so that I could get my cash aid and food stamps, and that if there was any problem, she would call me before the workday was over. I never received a call, much to my relief... but then my cash aid never arrived at all, which left me with only a few dollars in the bank after paying my bills (I had to use all the money I had saved up from my tax return for this unexpected hardship. This was money that I wanted to use toward new clothes for the family, and to get my car repaired - it's leaking a lot of oil). At least they gave me food stamps that month. What happened next is that a few weeks ago, I received notice in the mail saying that they overpaid me in the amount of $243. Included with that notice was a paper to fill out and return to them, to state how I wanted to take care of it. One of my options for repayment was to have my cash or food benefits reduced until the debt is taken care of (I thought that maybe they can take it out of the cash aid they neglected to provide in April). Then I noticed that the period of overpayment was claimed to be from March 28th to April 27th. This throws me off because not only have I never received any odd amounts (It's always the exact same amount), but they didn't even give me the cash assistance in April (and March's total was the same as all previous months). Please note that they always deposit the cash aid on the 4th of each month, and the food stamps on the 8th. It is now the 10th of May, and I haven't received any food or cash assistance at all this month. They haven't made any attempt to return my calls, and when I do get through to a human being, they're unable to tell me what is going on with my benefits problems. They couldn't even tell me whether or not I was still in the program. I'm significantly more worried about not receiving food stamps than not receiving cash aid. At least for the cash aid, it's not an immediate problem, because the bills for electricity and rent are not due until later on. But not having any money for food or baby formula, is humiliating and difficult. I don't know what I'm going to do. I have five children, two of them are only infants. The older three can survive on cereal and ramen, but a baby cannot. So to get back on topic, I've sent in the form for repayment by benefits reduction, but they keep sending me the same notice again and again, and the last one I received was in a pink envelope (demanding immediate repayment in full). I've tried calling on several occasions, and no one can help me. They just keep saying that they will have a supervisor call me back... for almost two weeks now, they've been saying that same thing, and no "supervisor" seems to find the time to make that call to me. They tell me that perhaps I should direct my questions and problems through my assigned case worker (Yolanda) who much to no surprise at all considering the current inconveniences, is no longer a social worker (at least at that office). On Friday, May 5th, when I was finally able to get through to her after trying every hour since opening only to get a machine (yes I left messages), she told me it was her last day and that there were only ten minutes left on her shift. She said that the reason I'm not receiving cash aid was because I made too much money (This is ridiculous - I make the same or less now than I did when I was first approved for cash aid). Come to think of it, I also have not received my travel check for gas assistance ($61.25 per month) for the past three months (They're supposed to send it to people who have to pay for transportation to their places of employment). I would like this matter to be straightened out as soon as possible, and I don't know what steps to take other than to get a lawyer. Please help!