Tales from the Welfare Jungle in the Good Ol' USA

I was left for about 10 minutes alone in the room and then the attending physician and a social worker came back along with Dr Smith. They said David’s illnesses did not relate to his autism. I explained that it didn’t matter what his sickness related to, we just needed to substantiate that Ms Washington needed to be available to take care of him when he got sick. Dr Smith argued that could apply to any number of parents and she couldn’t excuse them all from work for welfare (god forbid). After much toing and froing the attending physician agreed to write a letter saying David had regular and unpredictable illnesses and that Ms Washington needed to be at home to care for him. I waited for a further 10 minutes or so. The social worker then approached me and asked in a conspiratorial fashion if Ms Washington had retained me to help her get out of welfare requirements. I stated that I was with the law school clinic, that Ms Washington was a long-standing client and that we helped her with various legal issues from time to time. She seemed disappointed there was nothing more sinister. When the letter arrived it was hand written and consisted of only a few lines saying that David often was sick and unable to go to school. No reference was made to his medical history. By the time we took David and Ms Washington home it was after 4:00. David missed the next day at school and his absence on those two days was later used as evidence in a petition that Ms Washington had " educationally neglected" her children.

This was obviously unjust but the school had a point. The entire exercise was a waste of the child’s time. And a waste of my time, a waste of Ms Washington’s time, a waste of the hospital’s time and waste of time for the bureaucrats that had to process the eventually successful application. I am beginning to understand the notion of "welfare wastage" but it is not on the part of the recipients but due to the callous and restrictive rules implemented to make sure poor people don’t get a cent more than they might be entitled to.

Since that day I have had many other disturbing experiences with the US system involving my client. I have had a teacher dramatically whisper to me that: "she lives with a man you know", a nurse practitioner tell me: "between you and me I think she is on crack"; a senior pediatrician make derisive remarks about David while he and Denise were in the room and in ear shot and in some ways worst of all a young female judge say laughingly: "I assume her children all have different fathers, ha, ha, ha". The response of my supervisor eased some of my anger "not the twins, no". The really scary thing is that Ms Washington’s life is not unusual by US standards, in fact she is extremely lucky to have free legal representation. Her struggle to get by is mirrored by countless others that daily do battle with a system that seems to have declared war on their desire to live and raise their children in peace.

I read this morning in the Sydney Morning Herald (god bless the internet, the salvation of the homesick) that debate is occurring in Australia about the level of coercion that should be implemented in trying to get welfare mothers off the rolls and into the workforce. While Australia is ahead of the US in its provision of living wages and humane labor standards I think the US experience offers a cautionary tale about the desirability of imposing coercive measures on those with an already demanding life. But I can’t write more, my pizza has arrived and Buffy the Vampire Slayer has just started… best wishes from America.