The End Of My Time On General Assistance

On Thursday, I went to the township for my monthly appointment for General Assistance. Unfortunately, they had computer problems, so they couldn't do anything while I was there. They told me that they would call me and tell me when I could pick up my order. I received a call from them later that night but I was asleep at the time. I listened to the voice mail message and it said that because I made too much money last month, my case will be stopped.

On Friday, my removal from General Assistance was confirmed. I called the township to follow up on the voice mail message. I will be receiving one more order and that will be it. I will not be eligible for assistance again unless I lose my job. That same day, I received a letter in the mail that told me what I found out on Thursday.

I am happy this happened. For one thing, working at the food pantry started to conflict with my actual job. I was originally scheduled to work at the pantry on Thursday but I had to reschedule because my job scheduled me at a time that conflicted with it. The same thing happened last week except that my job ended up cutting my hours and I was able to make my food pantry appointment. I always told myself that if it came to working at the pantry versus working at my job, the pantry would lose.

The loss of the little money from assistance will be felt a bit. However, part of me is very glad to be able to be one step closer to being on my own financially. I still receive food stamps from the state but that will be re-evaluated when I schedule an appointment with Public Aid within the next week or so. In the meantime, it looks like I will have to contribute more financially to the household. This isn't too bad especially since I don't have to pay rent. I will just try to help out whenever I can as I continue to work.

All in all, I'm glad that the General Assistance program was able to help me (and my family) out in whatever little way it could. I was reluctant to sign up for the program, but I now realize that it certainly is beneficial to people who are temporarily out of work as I was. I hope it's still around if and when I am without a job for a period of time again.