You know I am happy to know there are programs out there to help people in need. However I am equally upset at the way the system works and how it benefits some people who do not need help, but yet disqualifies or works against people who do need help.
I worked in the auto industry when it took the huge downturn. People were getting laid off and being offered buyouts. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a buyout. I will first state that I was not forced to take the buyout. However, not knowing how the market would end up and if the company did not get enough volunteers, the next possible move could have been a layoff with no money to the low seniority people.
I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. My wife had filed for divorce and pulled what i think is a bankruptcy fraud and filed all her divorce decree ordered debts on bankruptcy. Considering my name could not be taken off the notes, I was left responsible for all the debt. While I was working, I could not file bankruptcy because under the new laws I made too much to file a chapter 7. Due to not wanting to file bankruptcy and not knowing the future actions the company might take, I took the buyout money to pay off those debts and to try and go to school to find a more stable career.
The company has paid for my and my daughters healthcare for a year after my release from the company, however it is about to run out. I have been going to college to try and get a better job, however I have also put in several applications for jobs to try and get back into the workforce, but with no success.
My divorce decree requires me to pay child support and it requires me to keep insurance on my child. I am not working and due to having to cover marital debts with the money I received, I have just enough left to get me by for a while. My child support is not very high and I have managed to only get a little behind. However affordable insurance is not available to me. My ex wife is an RN and makes around 25 an hour. When I got a little behind on my child support, she went to DHR for free and got a court hearing about my child support. They told me to keep my payments up or i would be put in jail. I asked that day to have my support obligations modified because i was not working. The DA told me that the judge could not modify the order that was already in place because it was ordered from a judge when we lived in TN but we now live in Alabama. He said the court could only uphold the order. I said you mean to tell me that someone who makes 25 an hour can come get help through DHR for free and someone who is not working has to go pay a lawyer 200 an hour or better to represent you and go back to court. So then DHR sent me a modification application in the mail to set up a new court date for modification, which I do not know why they did not do that day. However it wants to know how much your last taxes and all that was. I am afraid with the buyout money I received, they will base it off that, which would not be fair considering I have not worked in a year and because I had to pay off her marital debts she filed on bankruptcy. I know it is important to pay child support, but it is also important to allow a man the means to pay it, and her filing bankruptcy put me in a bad situation and took away my means of paying. The system should know the economy is bad and that I just cant go out and find any job to get by on.
My support obligation is not much and I do not mind paying it, but the insurance I am ordered to keep is what my real beef is. Once again, I tried to get help with this. I called the Alabama Medicaid program and asked if I could get medicaid for my child since I have not worked in a year and was ordered by the court to keep it on her. They said no, that the child had to be living with me. So I said you mean to tell me if her mom needed the help just because she was living with her that she could get it, but I cannot get it. She said thats the way it is. Well with her mom making good money she cannot get it on her, and her mom will not pay for it because she is not ordered too. This leaves me once again being screwed by an unfair system.
Like I said, I know there are a lot of people who get help that need it, but there are jsut as many who do not need help that get it over others that do need it. Sorry this was so long, just had to vent