- Welfare warriors
“The Department of Human Services (DHS) called these recipients en masse into the DHS offices and summarily terminated their FIP benefits.”–Michigan Legal Services Advocate
By Diane Bukowski
December 1, 2011
DETROIT – Judges hearing the cases of hundreds of Detroiters who appealed the cut-off of their cash benefits in “rocket docket” hearings Nov. 28 and 29 evidently were too afraid or ashamed even to look the appellants in the face.
VOD interviewed a mother of eight who said she and her advocate from Michigan Legal Services (MLS) were put in a room where they talked to a speaker on the wall.
“I couldn’t hardly hear the judge,” said the mother. ““Most of the time he wasn’t even listening to what we said anyway.”
"Cathy Smith" told VOD she has emphasized the importance of education to all her children.
She asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, since she and her family still have food stamps and Medicaid benefits. VOD will call her Cathy Smith. Smith said they were at the hearings office for seven hours, even though she came early and was the only recipient with a professional advocate present.
The MLS advocate said the level of rage among the 27 mothers who showed up that day at that location, out of 41 scheduled, was high.
“They were saying ‘you’re going to have to deal with us one day if you don’t deal with us today,’” he recalled. “But these sisters are also resilient and determined to survive.”
He said the administrative law judge summarily ruled against all 27 appellants, terminating their benefits for life.
Judge ruled summarily against 27 mothers and children
“No matter what issues were raised by the customers to have their FIP [Family Independence Program] benefits restored, the judge was adamant that the hearings would focus solely on months the recipients received federal TANF [Temporary Aid to Needy Families] benefits. Basically, the process wound up being a ‘hearing’ only in name, something to placate the courts. The Department of Human Services (DHS) called these recipients en masse into the DHS offices and summarily terminated their FIP benefits.”
He said Ms. Smith has applied for State Disability Assistance and has numerous health problems, which they explained to the judge, to no avail. DHS Director Maura Corrigan said earlier that disabled individuals would be exempt from the cut-offs.
The cut-offs were temporarily suspended on Oct. 4 by U.S. District Judge Paul Borman, who said notices mailed to the recipients violated the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.
However, he did not take jurisdiction over the second count of the lawsuit, filed by the Center for Civil Justice as a class action. (For previous VOD story, go to http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/10/08/benefit-cut-offs-suspended-protesters-call-them-%e2%80%9cmass-murder%e2%80%9d/ .)
Borman later dismissed the entire case and it has not yet been appealed. (Click on Benefits lawsuit case dismissal by Judge Borman 10 14 11.)
Bill Clinton's "welfare reform" began the cut-off of millions of poor from public assistance in 1996.
In the second count, the CCJ contended that the state had no authority to cut-off families based on federal limits. In 1996, President Bill Clinton’s “welfare reform” program established a 60-month lifetime limit on federal assistance. Some states including Michigan continued benefits past that limit by using a combination of federal and state aid.
The current cut-offs resulted from state legislation mandating a 48-month lifetime benefit limit on FIP benefits. The legislation was originally signed in Dec. 2006 by former Governor Jennifer Granholm, then viciously amended by the current state legislature and signed by Governor Rick Snyder.
Ms. Smith said DHS determined that she had received only 19 months of state aid, which according to the CCJ lawsuit should have left her with 29 more months. However, the Nov. 28 and 29 decisions were based on the 60-month limit on federal aid, according to the MLS advocate. Ms. Smith had received 101 months of federal aid.
DHS head Maura Corrigan with Ric-tator Snyder
State-wide, 12,000 families were slashed from the rolls in October based on the federal limit. The Department of Human Services (DHS) said 929 families appealed the cut-offs and were subjected to the “rocket docket” hearings.
The story Ms. Smith, who is 38, told VOD took much longer than a 30 minute hearing and spanned the length of her life.
“The state has known who I am almost since I was born,” Ms. Smith said. “I was taken from my mother when I was two and became a ward of the state. First they put me and my sisters and brothers in the D.J. Healy Home. Then I lived with my grandmother and then went from one foster home to another. I was touched on and beaten for years until my sister turned 18 and got custody of the rest of us.”
She said one of the foster parents owned properties and forced the nine children in her custody to work on the homes without pay and in violation of child labor laws. She said a babysitter also burned her back, and it remains injured from both experiences.
She is also a borderline diabetic, has kidney problems, asthma for which she must use a breathing machine, and carpal tunnel syndrome.
But Ms. Smith said she has worked throughout her life when she could.
“I worked from 2003 to 2010 as a waitress, bartender and supervisor in a bar,” she said. “But my health was getting worse and worse. It was hard for me to pick up the heavy trays, and I finally had to leave.”
Ms. Smith said she has not been able to have healthy relationships with men because of the abuse she experienced, but the state has never provided her with the counseling she so desperately needs. Instead, in 2002, they took her children for three years.
Ms. Smith said that trauma in addition to her own experiences in the foster care system made her determined that her children would never again face the same ordeal.
She said she has five sons and three daughters, ranging in age from 8 to 20.
“Two of my sons have graduated from high school and are working, so they can help us out,” she said. “I have two other children in high school, one in middle school, and two in elementary school. They have zero absences. They go to school every day, because I want to make sure that they have it better than I did.”
She said she was only receiving $908 a month in cash benefits for herself and the six children still at home. She has found another house for less rent, at $500, but it needs work which she said her oldest sons will provide.
Ms. Smith said she is fearful that if she is still not able to work after the three months of “State Emergency Relief” rental assistance provided after the cut-offs runs out, her children may be forced out of her care and into the nightmare that was her childhood.
“The state will say I can’t afford to put a roof over their heads and take them,” she said.
Snyder and Corrigan earlier this year held a special swearing-in ceremony for 300 new Child Protective Services workers.
