I do the interviews for SNAP (Food Stamps) benefits and I had a lady that on paper seemed like an easy case comparatively to some. Married couple, newborn, four year old. Cool, cool, not a problem. Called her this morning and she tells me,

"I'm in the hospital right now with my newborn but I can still do the interview."

Me: ...ok...

I did offer to reschedule so that she could focus on her daughter but she said it was fine. We go through the interview, stopping halfway so she can talk to her doctor about her daughter's health. I tried to tone it out since it had nothing to do with me.

We get to the end and she asks me how she is supposed to turn the verifications in since she's still in the hospital. I was quiet for a second and checked my notes again.

"...what about your husband?" I ask, having a bad feeling of where this was going.

"Oh no, he can't handle this." I check my notes again. She didn’t report him as disabled, he was laid off (like a lot of people right now obviously), and they had their 4 year old daughter but I didn't see why he couldn't do it. Like yes, some of what I was asking for can be a pain, but I make sure my notices are clear and understandable so he should be able to suss out what needs to be done.

"Oh, um..."

"We aren't going to be able to get this since I won't be able to get the verifications in on time. He might be able to drop them off but he is going to miss something." These notices are usually in a kind of list format. Anyone who can read should be able to handle it.

I just told her about the time frames she has and felt so bad for her once we ended the call. How do you get married to someone, have their child, and not be able to trust them to turn in stuff for services you desperately need since you are trying to take care of your sick newborn?!? It boggles my mind and unfortunately, I know this isn't a new thing.