Penalizing the Poor - A Day in the Life

It is expensive to be poor. I am learning this every month as I try to pay bills with not enough money. There is an economic war going on, there is no doubt in my mind. I have no ammo to fight with. I am being overrun by the enemy and there is nothing I can do about it.

Here is what I am talking about. I am on a fixed income, with an occasional grant coming in now and then. I am also on auto pay for my mortgage, part of a federal program to help folks who are on unemployment. The beauty of the program is my payment is cut in half for a year (the other half is tacked on to my mortgage loan). The catch is they take the payment out of my account on the 5th of the month, no matter what. So if my unemployment check is directly deposited on the 6th, too bad. They will not hold off on collecting the mortgage. I say, "There will be no money in my account until the next day!" They say, "Sorry, there is nothing we can do about it. It is automatic." Automatic. The world is run by computers now?

So they let the auto pay take the non-existent money out. This is a compounded issue. Let's take a look. Maybe I have $100 in my account, to cover the gas and groceries I bought on the 4th. Those purchases haven't gone through yet because I used my debit/credit card. On the 5th they take out the mortgage payment. The credit union pays it and charges me $35 overdraft fee. Then the gas and the food charges come through. The credit union charges me another $70 overdraft. On the 6th my unemployment check is directly deposited, and immediately the amount is reduced by $105 due to NSF charges. Which mean that I cannot pay all the bills that I promised to pay.

So those creditors that I cannot pay now due to having $105 taken out from NSF fees charge me interest and late fees, increasing the debt I have to them, making it even more difficult to pay them back. Oh, but wait, I am now 31 days late on my credit card payment with the credit union, so they freeze my accounts. All of them. I cannot access any money nor deposit any money until I pay the bill. No warning. What if I had been on the road late at night, and needed gas to get home? All of a sudden I cannot access my bank account. What if I needed medicine (thank goodness I don't)? What then? Since when can a bank keep you from accessing your money because you are only one day and one month late on a payment?

Then the dog gets sick, I get a flat tire, and the serpentine belt breaks on my Jeep. Oh the things that can devastate a person who lives life on the edge of economic disaster.

I had a past due bill on my home phone. I contacted ATT and made payment arrangements, telling them I would pay the bill the following Wednesday. "That would be fine," they said. The very next day they cut off my long-distance service. "No your phone line is not down, that is standard practice to cut long distance," I was told when I called to report the problem. "What about my payment agreement?" I asked, getting angrier by the minute. "That is standard practice," the person on the other end of the line responded. I cancelled my home phone service on the spot. I tried to get another home phone provider, but because I am unemployed and am behind on bills, I would have to pay $275 up front as a fee just to have the privilege of having a home phone.

Even the utility companies are involved in this war. Your check comes on the 5th. You have to pay on the 5th or get your utility shutoff. Pay online or over the phone by debit/credit card and get charged an additional $6.75 service fee. Service fee for paying a bill? So you can cough up the $6.75 service fee to pay your bill on the due date or pay $10 late fee (plus the $6.75 service fee) later.

I have always lived my life as honest as I possibly can. I have contacted my creditors and told them, "I have no income right now due to losing unemployment, I have been trying to find a job and have had no success. I want to pay my debt to you, but I truly have no money to do that right now. I will send money as soon as I can." Some work with me. Some ignore my calls and correspondence and send me threatening letters. They all will go through the process of collecting from me. They cannot stop the machine that chews up the poor. Computers, you know. As they say, "You can't squeeze blood from turnip."  Hate to say it, but I don't even have a turnip. They don't want $5 a month. They don't care. You are not a person with a life and a difficult situation. You are an account number and source of money.

Going through the unemployment process is in and of itself a nightmare. Rules change weekly. Even the staff can't keep up, so you are given incorrect or outdated information frequently. I was told incorrect information on reporting wages last year. Now they have been taking over half my unemployment for the past two checks in restitution. I appealed and lost. "Yes, they gave you incorrect information, but they did pay you more than you should have gotten, so by no fault of your own, you must pay restitution," the judge said. I applied for financial hardship, given I had no income. I lost. They said that I made too much money in the past six months. You have to make $900 or less a month to be considered to have financial hardship.The past six months? What do the six past months have to do with today? I paid bills with the last six months of income, today I have no money. Hello?

I share this with you so that you can have a glimpse of what life is like for someone who has been without a job for a long time. Those on the conservative right will say people love to live on government hand outs. They have no clue. It isn't bread and roses. It is depressing. It is defeating. It is humiliating. It is not what I choose.

I have no money to fight this, so the battles go on every day of the week. Negotiating, pleading, arguing. I am tired. I need reinforcements. I need a job.