Tennessee Department of Human Services

What is the point of having a place that's supposed to help low income families, when all they ever do is completely screw up my cases and my life 10 times harder instead of easier? Let's start with the interviews over the phone.

We make plans to answer the phone on a certain day at a certain time (give or take a few hours on their end) but the call never comes. You spend hours waiting to speak to someone so they can tell you "well someone put in the system that they called you twice, but your phone was out of service." That wasn't true at all, but in their mind we are nothing but liars and they believe everything the other caseworkers do. I was put on a waiting list for months over that. I've had to re- apply over and over again just trying to get the mess sorted out.

Even when you wait the two hours on the phone, they will do the bare minimum after answering. They have never once helped me with any of my problems. They basically tell me "I don't know why your family cash amount went down, there must be a reason, so I guess you'll just have to appeal it." Ok, so I put in an appeal to see why someone felt the need to raise my income amount based off of NOTHING. They decreased the amount by A LOT.

For absolutely no reason than I can find and no one else can figure out either. That appeal?? They haven't even looked at it and it's been 3 months. The only help I've gotten is when I put in an inquiry over this mess.

Someone else finally called me back and actually apologized for what all had been done to me and how badly they had screwed up my case. She said it took her two hours just to sort the mess that was my case out. Unfortunately, she still had the wrong amount and I asked her why it was still less then it was supposed to be. She said they had me down as making over $1600 a month and that I was getting child support.

Neither one is true. She looked it up and found out that I wasn't getting that child support and told me to put in a change report form with included check stubs to show I was only making $800-$1000 a month. I asked if there was a better way to send it to her directly, but she insisted she'd look at it if I send it through the DHS portal on the website. I sent in the form and check stubs...nothing.

I sent in the form and stubs again, still...nothing. Then I found out that even the work she had done to straighten my case was wasted because some caseworker got back into the system and changed it to where I was making $1600 a month and getting child support as well.. AGAIN. At this point it seems this is being purposely done by a caseworker who hates me, or just have absolutely no Idea what they are doing.

There are far too many caseworkers working on one case, that's why things are so screwed up. This whole process has put me so far into the hole of depth, that I can't get back out and even after apologizing over how badly I had been treated and everything they had done wrong and put me through, they did it all over again and screwed it all back up.

Does anyone know who we can contact that's above them? We need to all get together to make some changes.

So I renewed my case yesterday morning and have been on the phone with 3 different people who cannot figure out what happened to it. I figured out it tried to renew a case I had accidentally applied to and was supposedly denied for which was Child care payment assistance.

So why is it not renewing the right case for which I am supposed to actually be renewing which is my SNAP food stamps?!?!?! Why is a case being renewed which I am not or wasn't ever receiving?!?!?! By the way I did give 2 stars instead of one, because I noticed they are trying a bit more with wait time on calls are a ton better only an hour wait time if you call later in the day, but this morning I only waited around 20 mins.

Only problem is they couldn't reschedule my appointment because my renewal application was for a different case and I can't fix that on my end. And I really do not want to go to their offices just for 1 piece of paper to be printed because 95% of the reviews are bad, they either have the doors locked or you wait forever so they give you an attitude, are no help and send you on the run around, DON'T EVER MOVE TO MEMPHIS.

I have been trying to renew my benefits since at least January '24. I filed an appeal to get some of my benefits back which I felt were unnecessarily taken away from me. I never heard anything back from this. Then I just figured I'd try to just submit a completely new application. I was supposed to have an interview in January after that, but I never received that appointment call.

I felt completely defeated: so time passed by where I just didn't really want to think about it. Also, every time I call my offices here in Shelby County, I am on hold for at least an hour, just to talk to some operator (not even at my offices with whom I intended to contact) for maybe a minute, so that they can just tell them to give me a call back at a later time. Who knows if they will even call me back, as seen earlier.

So now I decided months later to try again after doing my best to try not to rely on Government assistance since it seems impossible to get actual help. I tried to apply for many jobs with no avail. Even if I did receive a job, it would be near impossible to provide for my son and me. Currently, I am a technically homeless almost 33 years old. Luckily I live with my mother but I do not have means to have my own life at all.

So hopefully you can see how stuck I am, and how I am in dire need of these services unfortunately. I also have been diagnosed with severe depression which I chose not to really disclose seeing as It's not like I receive benefits or anything for it, as this is a whole other daunting process to go through. As apparently it doesn't really seem to make a difference anyway.

I am trying to receive at least SNAP and TANF. My child's father is not regular with child support so I NEED these things to even try to make some kind of impact in my life especially with this recession we are going through. I was receiving these things easily until I decided to apply for childcare services. I fell behind on submitting the documents needed for that specific service unfortunately.

And frankly, I didn't even receive half of the services I expected to receive during as well. Like job help, resources, and housing assistance like I was told I would get on our first call. All I got was someone making sure I turned in paperwork and that's it. I expected the childcare services to go away but not my previously held benefits of SNAP and TANF.

So that's when I appealed those benefits to come back to absolutely no avail. I hate to call because like I said I am always put on hold for at least 1 hour; other times up to 3 hours! I thought this new computer system y'all were implementing was supposed to make things easier.

It definitely seems as though it's only made the workers be more lazy. Y'all now close an hour earlier and like I said I can literally get no customer service if I call, just an operator for 1-2 minutes max. I don't know about y'all but I don't think anyone likes to be put on hold for hours during the day to speak with an operator for 2 minutes max. I have been on hold for 2 hours and 13 minutes!

I spoke to a lady and requested to be transferred to the complaints phone number and since then have been on hold for almost an hour. I even asked if she was able to transfer me or if she knew the number. I'm guessing now she's either bitter or is not able. Now I am not even able to submit a survey because she won't let me go or tell me what's really going on. (Still on hold for 2 hours and 35 minutes as I am editing this.)

I just want to be able to somewhat affordably provide for my family so I am not always in emergency survival mode. I thought y'all were supposed to help those in desperate poverty. Y'all used to be a lot more helpful, now I get no help. If I missed my interview, they used to leave me a voicemail asking to call them back because the interview is not long at all, 10-15 minutes max! Just to verify the documents I sent!

Granted I do admit I did miss my appointment. But granted I also asked for an afternoon appointment, and that was not respected either, and many other things I did weren't respected either. And yet here I am, 5 months later, trying to receive the minimum benefits I should definitely be eligible to receive and had no reason to cancel them in the first place.

PLEASE PLEASE HELP.

Genuinely,

Katherine Sandouk

They did call me back that day after all my complaints. But since then we are still not exactly on the same page.
To reiterate I haven't had my assistance for almost 6 months now so my situation is pretty urgent, but they still don't seem to get it.

When I was on the phone with them that day, I guess she understood that I could easily just get up and work the 30/hr minimum but it's actually not viable at all and very difficult because of this supposed requisition because I have no childcare and because of my current state financially and mentally.
I have to be able to afford gas to work and I haven't received the support I bare minimum deserve for months and months so who could or should really bring themselves to work that much needing all the things I need just to make a measly 100-200 bucks a week... I mean seriously, it's redundant and not worth it at all.
The program I received at one point which is the same one I am trying to receive again under pretty much the same exact circumstances but worse, did not require me to work at first, that Consultant understood my situation urgency needs well.
The Organization should give me my mental health exemption like they did last time so that I can actually have the means, will and motivation to get back on my feet. I even sent them my doctor's information 2 days ago for them to receive the information on my mental health problems through fax. Should be quick and Easy.

They should have been had all the information they need, and I should be able to get my benefits ASAP.
Again from what I feel and understand is that TANF and SNAP are supposed to give this kind of help with all things like food and cash assistance, job aquisition help and other job resources etc. BUT no, so far they just seem to care about me Ubering/Doordashing wasting my precious time, energy, and resources instead.

I actually need this help so that I can get out of this viscious cycle of just delivering for under minimum wage. There is no way that route is very sustainable at this moment.
Sincerely,
Katherine Sandouk

Applied for SNAP on 12-15-2023 after a sudden termination - I patiently waited until 1-17-2024 for an appointment never heard anything back, I selected email notifications and checked the dashboard. Called the 866-311-****; waited on hold for 3:40 mins; agent answered and said the appointment was pending and not set.

An appointment letter was MAILED instead and delayed by USPS - snow week and some national mail issue. So, I missed the appointment; I filed an appeal on 2-8-2024. Appeal was submitted but when I go for updates -the system says no appeal has been filed. I replied around 2-20-2024; and received an appointment notice for March 2024, agent called earlier than the appointment time they scheduled - so I called the 866 number and waited 3 hrs 1 min and watched for the SECOND call from the agency.

Chat is USELESS. FINALLY, I connected to an agent, she let me vent and told me she could ONLY reschedule my appointment and that the agent entered that she had just called me roughly 20 mins from the time we were talking (while I was HOLD with DHS). I said NO; I've been on hold for you since I saw her first call. The agent claimed she was resetting my appointment and DISCONNECTED THE LINE.

When the call was ended by the agent; I saw that the interviewer DID CALL A SECOND TIME.

NOW I'm HOLD AGAIN, 54 mins+ TO CONFIRM MY RESCHEDULING. FILE COMPLAINT W/ DHS INSPECTOR GENERAL!!!

JESUS OF NAZARETH HELP THOSE CALLING ON YOU ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH CHILDREN, ARE SICK OR DISABLED, THE CHALLENGED AND THE BROKEN HEARTED & MIND - BE CHRIST.