January 5th 2023 archive

Of course it’s Texas. Why does it always have to be?

So that thing that I wrote about where our SNAP benefit renewal continues not to have been looked at? Still.

I had to file another complaint, and in this one I referenced the fact that it has nearly actually been thirty days since I put my family’s SNAP renewal in and… nothing. No action has been taken on it, and this is now our last benefit month. After doing a bit of research I found out from a state congressman that this is a statewide issue, that this has been a statewide issue for going on a year, and that the department of Health and Human Services has been plagued with people quitting for… wait for it, the entire year. Nothing has been said about this, though, and I would never have learned about this myself had it not been for research that I took it upon myself to do on the Internet wondering why HHSC was exceptionally slow refusing to touch my family’s benefit renewal. To make matters worse, people on Facebook were begging HHSC to work their cases, pleading with them to restore their benefits in cases where their benefits had actually lapsed because they had refused to get to them in time. In my most recent complaint, I made it clear to HHSC that I knew what state laws were on the determination of benefit cases and that I would contact Legal Aid if our benefits continued to be ignored or if they actually lapsed due to agency inaction. This surprisingly resulted in someone from the HHSC’s Office of the Ombudsman contacting them themselves rather than passively aggressively sending me the same copied and pasted drivel that they had grown accustomed to firing off, telling me that “someone would be looking into my family’s benefit renewal” and that it could take up to five days. Needless to say, I’m going to be watching the calendar. But why does it always have to be Texas?