NBC 4i – by Denise YostCOLUMBUS, Ohio –A local woman says she was kicked off of welfare for not reporting that she was in a coma.
Kimberly Thompson was laid off earlier this year from her job at a warehouse in Central Ohio. She applied and was approved for food assistance and cash assistance. But then her life was turned upside down by a medical emergency.
Thompson spent two and a half months in the hospital last summer after an infection ravaged her body. During nearly half of her hospital stay, she was in a coma.
“My organs started failing so they had to put me in a medically-induced coma,” Thompson said.
She has lasting damage to her kidneys and liver, and her spleen was removed. Most all of her toes were amputated, too.
Adding insult to injury, while she was comatose, the county kicked her off government assistance.
“Well, I was in a coma, and I didn’t report in. I was supposed to report in once a week, and since I didn’t report in, they just cut it all off and sanctioned me,” said Thompson.
While hospitalized, Thompson’s 15-year-old daughter had to move in with her father. When Thompson was released, she had no money and no home.
“She’s been living on her ex-husband’s couch, and staying from place to place and currently her daughter is not able to live with her because she lacks stable house,” said Jamie Shier, Thompson’s attorney at Legal Aid Society.
County agencies buckled down a few years ago when the federal government said it would impose fines for law work participation rates.
The rate in Ohio increased from 22 percent in 2010 to more than 58 percent in 2014. Some of that is increasing the number of recipients with work assignments. Some, though, is cutting the number of participants, reducing the caseloads.
Thompson said she wants to work, and understands the rules, but she said that when they cut her off, it made her situation much worse.
“Well, I understand welfare not giving me money because I don’t have [my daughter], but there should be something to help for people that are sick, and there isn’t anything. It doesn’t help people get better,” Thompson said.
Thanks to the Legal Aid Society, Thompson was able to have her food assistance reinstated, but without some additional help, she’s struggling with housing.
Sure , she’s white
“A local woman says she was kicked off of welfare for not reporting that she was in a coma.”
Rules are rules. Common sense has left the building (hell, it’s left the freakin’ planet, for that matter!).
At least we still live in a free country, though.
Right?