Double Dipping: It Made Cents

By Rote Writer

You know that feeling. That feeling you’ve been caught. Caught doing something maybe you shouldn’t have been doing. Well the other day Friendo receives a letter from Social Assistance letting him know just that. He’s been caught double dipping; double dipping into Social Assistance and Employment Insurance at the same time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rote Writer Publishing
• Release date: Oct 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781123133592

Rote Writer

Author: Tim Zeigdel, born Timmy McGuire February 14, 1963 was adopted at the age of eight when his name changed. Tim now adopts the penname Rote Writer. He started writing decades ago after a light inspired him to write his life story. Tim, since then, has amassed many memoirs written in story form & journals collected in: The Rote Writer Series.

Book preview

Chapter 1 Double Dipping

You know that feeling. That feeling you’ve been caught. Caught doing something maybe you shouldn’t have been doing. Well the other day Friendo receives a letter from Social Assistance letting him know just that. He’s been caught double dipping; double dipping into Social Assistance and Employment Insurance at the same time.

Issue Date

January 25, 2011

Dear Sir,

Pursuant to the Act you are obliged to declare any change in your situation.

We have obtained certain information that contradicts the information provided in your statements, and which may affect your benefits.

According to our information, you have received Employment Insurance benefits.

Before we make a decision, you have ten days following receipt of this notice to provide us with an explanation.

If you fail to follow up this notice or your explanation does not lead us to change the information in your file, your benefits will be cancelled.

Yours truly,

Genevieve

Officer Assigned To File

Friendo’s first reaction comes with the clear message sent. They, the powers that be know he has and may still be collecting from two different forms of assistance. They don’t like that for some reason. It’s forbidden.

In Friendo’s defence he doesn’t know he’s eligible for Employment Insurance before he applies for Social Assistance. He thinks he doesn’t have enough weeks.

Many years ago, in a similar situation, he’s short one week. He needs seventeen; he has sixteen or something like that. He has exactly the amount of weeks needed at the time until just in the new year, the government changes the amount of weeks required to be eligible for benefits from Employment Insurance.

Back then Friendo ends up homeless after appealing and losing the board ruling for continuing benefits. A lot happens up to that and after.

This time prior to applying for any benefits; he leaves work so bothered he writes a book titled I’ve had it (...and then some) having really lost his mind working there. And when he leaves in all earnest he’s had it. And not knowing where to turn, like a stray dog, remembers all the places he’s been fed. He resorts to his instinctive response when faced with homelessness; head to Social Assistance. Before he does, he checks into a medical clinic. He thinks he’s going to lose his mind.

He’s lost it many times in the past.

At the medical clinic they ask him to fill in forms, some of which leave Friendo sensing he’ll be filling in a lot more forms soon enough.

With Social Assistance situated just next door, he’ll head over once he’s seen someone here. He doesn’t think he’ll be eligible for assistance either but will give it a try; thinking no harm can come of it. Boy is he ever wrong.

While in the clinic he’s told to sit and wait for someone to start the intake process. Eventually a nice woman comes out and then leads him through the hallway into her office. She steers him to local food banks; though not before trying to discern his inward crying and outward lying.

He really doesn’t need the vouchers for the food bank at this point. But because of the language barrier the two are unable to understand each other completely. It’s a language Friendo used to be quite familiar with many years ago. He gradually loses the lingo when he moves to the west coast and then up north, north of sixty.

She thinks he’s already destitute. He’s been there before but has yet to arrive this time around. He does his best to let her know he’s losing his mind, much like he does ten years earlier leaving the same kind of work.

And like then, it doesn’t take long for Friendo to shed his skin. A few days before he’s employed eating well, and the next not looking well at all. So visibly shaken he relates a forlorn fate.

Chapter 2 Follow Up

Many months later, Friendo’s assigned caseworker from Social Assistance sends a letter that arrives on January 28, 2011 dated January 21. It must have been drafted and sent before the registered letter comes the other day. He has to sign that one to receive it; like a summons or something like that. He knows S. A. now have a confirmation he’s received the writ even if his signature is a shorthand version of his real one.

It’s a combination of his legal name and his pen name in two letters making one letter. Sort of like an anagram, an acrostic ichthys. He knows what it means. It’s his shorthand signature when signing books. It’s quick and easy to sign and so the design.

As a child he spends many nights mastering his legal signature. It’s a modification of his father’s signature. He really likes his new father’s signature whose family adopt Friendo when he’s eight. He spends the first years of his life in and out of foster homes, hospitals, hallways and halfway stays.

Meanwhile, the letter lets him know S.A. will not be depositing his monthly check into his bank. Instead they’ll send his check to the office where he applies for benefits. He’ll have to come in for a meeting to get it. He’ll need to bring I.D. as well, and proof of income from the Employment Insurance office.

That’s not going to happen. They want him to prove his guilt to get his next check. The less they know about Friendo and his ways the better.

Chapter 3 How it starts

It’s an ordeal to get any money out of Social Assistance. He’s been through several times in the past and different parts of the country. The process can take a few months while taking everything out of a person. And for what, scrapings. The dregs left over from entitlements every employee and politician in the government think they deserve.

Friendo’s struggles with welfare are well on record. His books represent different periods, stages in his life—a life of strife. Just like anything in his life, he does his best to record it. In hopes not to repeat it. And having experienced Electroconvulsive Therapy or Shock Treatment some twenty five years ago; he writes to retain whatever remains of his brain. His book Enantiodromia shows how much his experience with ECT on so many levels affects his life.

For Friendo, his books are a constant reminder of where he’s been and where he doesn’t want to return. Unfortunately he still manages to forget things; like being on Social Assistance and Employment Insurance ten years ago, supposedly double dipping like now.

Now he’s caught. It irks him when he thinks about the millions if not billions of dollars wasted in the government with excess spending and largesse egress. And Friendo who tries to make ends meet with fucking pennies falling out of their stuffed pockets.

In the office Friendo gathers the necessary documents to fill out. He knows from past experience what’s required of him to be even considered. A rental agreement, rent receipts, bank statements and at least two pieces of picture I.D. to be presented. All his I.D. comes from the far north.

He tries to change his driver’s licence upon his return to his hometown but they seem unable to help him at the local department of motor vehicles. His license is good for another few years. It’s his boss and best friend who’s with him at the time who says why bother.

Friendo will eventually get a health card while keeping the one from the far north. The new one issued to him expires on his birthday. He’s since received a letter letting him know it’s time to renew it. He’ll have to present a valid driver’s licence. The problem is when he applies for his new health card, he tells them he hasn’t left the area to save some extra costs, and he knows if he hadn’t, the time and hassle it takes to start from scratch increases tenfold. The driver’s license he has will wise them up to the fact that indeed he has been away for the allotted time allowed. What’s he to do.

He knows what to do with S.A., just play their way. Friendo knows he still has money in his account, not much but still enough to thwart his way into their bosom. He empties out his account. He puts the bulk of his savings into an envelope to have ready to pay his next month’s rent. The rest he loads up on groceries. He spends what he has wisely, leaving an empty bank account that would’ve been emptied soon enough with no income coming in.

He gets the bank to print out a statement of his balance and a history of past transactions. Along with a direct deposit form for Social Assistance to have should he be eligible to receive assistance.

His first visit to S.A. comes not long after he returns from seeing his father, who recently suffers a stroke. It’s the week of July 5th. He hasn’t even officially left work, though knows he won’t be returning. He’s yet to ponder the possibility he may be eligible for benefits from Employment Insurance.

Like a suss, Social Assistance is always his first place of refuge though they’re getting less helpful and more harassing each year.

Chapter 4 Begging for what

He brings his rental agreement though not before changing his landlord’s cell and home phone #’s to the fax and phone number belonging to Social Assistance. He just wants to keep them out of it, if at all possible.

It’s a long way to S.A. by bike even longer by foot, but with no other way Friendo has to cycle there. It’s a terrible road to bike on. Forget that it’s almost a highway, where speeds exceed highway speed limits. The road is old, narrow and so poorly paved, potholes pock mock the pavement. The shoulders are worse. With no sidewalks, there’s no room to swerve or get out of the way. It’s a nightmare to ride on.

The first time Friendo bikes on his hybrid mountain/road cycle to S.A. he can feel a truck coming up fast behind him. An eighteen wheeler comes so close to him he thinks he’ll be pulled underneath the rig and its wheels.

The city’s promised to pave a bike path along the old highway as his former boss and Friendo’s best friend says they will. It hasn’t happened yet.

Once in the welfare office, he hands his paper paraphernalia. They photocopy each piece. That’s that for now. Social Assistance will let him know of their decision, if he’s eligible and when his information is processed; whenever that’ll be.

It takes a month for a response. It leaves Friendo feeling others in worse shape than him must freak out in similar situations. He imagines them waiting for their very wellbeing to be decided by people who get paid because of people like him.

After several weeks of waiting, Friendo receives his first letter from Social Assistance dated July 14, 2010. It lets him know to enable them to complete their study of his file; he must send by Thursday, July 22, 2010 his lease, account booklets or statements from his bank, including capital stocks as if. Also he must perform a transaction, deposit or withdrawal before submitting these documents.

His second letter is dated July 29, 2010. It asks him, after Friendo lets them know he’s on assistance before returning back to his hometown, to contact his welfare office from where he moves from. And have them forward a letter confirming his file is closed with them; along with the amount and date of his last check from them. Also to explain the source of the amount in his account before it’s emptied.

He also gets a follow up letter asking him to provide proof of income other than from Social Assistance; along with aforesaid proof his file is closed with them. They also ask for any account booklets and or statements from Friendo’s bank including a deposit or withdrawal slip of the transaction. They also let him know that if he fails to provide the requested documents, it may result in the refusal of his application; a review of his file, or a decrease in or the cancellation of his benefits.

In the first week of August, Friendo receives two letters from Social Assistance dated August 2, 2010 and August 3, 2010 letting him know; to enable them to complete their study of his file he must send before Friday, August 6, 2010; proof of income from other than them, and proof his S.A. file is closed from where he moves from. And again the usual threats line the letter.

Friendo emails his former Social Assistance office to alert them to his need. On August 3, 2010 they let him know their office is unable to respond due to confidentiality/privacy considerations.

Left with no choice, Friendo emails