Real Change News | Yanking the lifeline

August 25, 2010
Vol: 17 No: 34

Feature

Yanking the lifeline

by: Cydney Gillis , Staff Reporter

State starts cutting disability benefits

It was a “kick in the teeth,” says Chris Steward, to get a notice last week that the state is cutting off his Disability Lifeline benefits on Sept. 1. The program provides Steward his only income – $339 a month.

Photo by: Cydney Gillis , Staff Reporter

Printer-Friendly Version

Like it? Share it!

Chris Steward did everything the state asked him to do. In return, the state is about to take away everything he has.

Steward is a disabled former grocery worker who was receiving $339 a month and medical benefits under the state’s Disability Lifeline program, formerly General Assistance-Unemployable, or GAU. But on Aug. 19, he got a letter from the state Department of Social and Health Services telling him that in less than two weeks, on Sept. 1, his money and medical benefits will end because he’s reached a new, 24-month time limit set in March by state legislation that changed the program and its name.

The legislation, House Bill 2782, set the time limit to help balance the state’s budget, but it also rescued the bulk of the program for roughly 17,000 people who are temporarily disabled and cannot work (“Bill to save state disability program goes to governor,” March 24-30, 2010). That’s cold comfort to Steward, who is one of 1,505 people across the state who got one of the short-notice termination letters, including an estimated 600 people in King County – with more to come as others hit the limit in the coming months. “This has been a kick in the teeth,” Steward says. With no way to pay his rent on Sept. 1, “I’m going to lose my apartment.”

Robin Zukoski, a Disability Lifeline advocate and attorney with Columbia Legal Services, says Steward won’t be alone. “We don’t know how fast people will be evicted from their housing situations, but we have to expect they will be,” she says. “What’s going to happen is there will be more homeless people. There will be a bigger strain on food banks and emergency rooms, and more people in jail.”

Steward, 47, got on GAU two years ago in the wake of a hernia operation that he says left him incapacitated and depressed. But he also displays fingers swollen by arthritis and gout that he says make it impossible for him to work. One caveat of House Bill 2782 is that it requires DSHS to determine whether those approaching the two-year cutoff are eligible to apply for federal Supplemental Security Income benefits for the poor and disabled.

Steward says that DSHS referred him to an SSI facilitator in May, but he was told he’d have to complete alcohol treatment and wait six months before he could apply for SSI. He completed a month of inpatient treatment on July 5, then got a letter from DSHS on Aug. 14 telling him he did not meet SSI requirements. The letter, however, said his Disability Lifeline benefits weren’t changing.

“Five days later, I open my mailbox and I’m terminated – whoa,” Steward says. “I was crushed, especially after I got the first letter saying there was no change in benefits.”

For those who have received a termination letter, Zukoski says, it’s important to file an appeal with DSHS before Sept. 1 in order to keep benefits coming. After that, she says, they’ll need legal help for their case. Recipients who don’t win their appeal, cautions DSHS spokesperson Rebecca Henrie, have to pay back any extra benefits they receive.

Hearing request forms are available from DSHS or at washingtonlawhelp.org.

----