While food assistance systems, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), have many benefits for those who participate in them, utilizing those benefits can be a complicated process.
For example, one web user documented how complicated it was to renew SNAP benefits, even though they were still eligible. Another revealed that he was denied a sandwich with SNAP benefits because someone at the store reheated it — SNAP recipients can’t use the benefits to buy hot meals. Another user said someone retrieved the EBT card containing her benefits, which charges her about $900; He claimed that solving the challenge was nearly impossible.
Now, another TikTok user is turning to the SNAP program for a separate facet of its implementation: overpayment.
According to TikTok user Sami (@samikatherinee), she spent years in the food stamp program. However, he was recently assigned a task that provided him with enough of a source of income to avoid receiving SNAP benefits, so he ended his participation.
Soon after, he won a letter from the father informing him that he owed him $2,095.
“What?” he asks in a video posted on his account. ” They don’t offer features for similar paid plans here either. . . They didn’t tell me why, they just said, “Oh, just pay off that balance or it’ll be Your taxes deducted and you’ll be back next year. “
Later in the video, he says he didn’t get any communication from the government beyond this letter, and that he didn’t falsify any of the data on his food stamp application. In addition, he states that he reported all sources of income he earned from the program.
“Most people who have food stamps aren’t rich enough to pay $2,000,” he said. “For example, most of them don’t have $2,000 in their bank account; I know I don’t, in fact, have them. “
“For example, since when are food stamps a loan service?” asks Sami. Since when do I have to return this?”
As Sami adds the hashtag #calfresh in its title, it was most likely founded in the state of California. Although it doesn’t provide any main points about the contents of the bill you received, the state probably believes that it overpaid you and is therefore seeking some of the benefits you received.
In the event that Sami does not return the money, the State is entitled to receive these benefits by various means.
“If the family no longer receives CalFresh benefits and does not accept one of those voluntary arrangements, or if the family fails to make a payment they agreed to make, the claim may be considered ‘due,'” Northern California Legal Services explains. “In this case, the CalFresh workplace would possibly take steps to obtain CalFresh benefits by intercepting state or federal tax refunds, suing the individual, or through other means such as unemployment benefits or Social Security payments. “
That said, the site also states that there are several legal recourse strategies that Sami can use to dispute this claim. This includes arguing that she met the needs to obtain those benefits in the first place or, on the occasion that she did not meet the requirements. needs, locating a payment plan that would allow you to pay benefits.
In any case, Sami points out in the caption that this formula is unfair to him.
“I don’t know, it’s a bit predatory,” he writes. Why do we bail out billionaires and then it’s not easy for the poor to pay back the government bailout?”
Most commenters agreed.
“This would cause me to fall loosely,” one user said. “So I hope you’ll use tactics to de-stress. “
While Sami states in the comments section that she will do everything she can to fight the bill, she states that she is unsure of her chances.
“I’m going to call today, but after talking to other people who have been through this, I’m pretty sure the solution will be a payment plan,” she wrote in a comment.
Sami has already sparked arguments after revealing how he said goodbye to his task because he was autistic and after bringing his own cheese to Olive Garden.
The Daily Dot reached out to Sami’s email and CalFresh.
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