HomeMy WebLinkAboutLetter Regarding DESS and DCSS BUTTE COUNTY
ADMINISTRATION
January 26, 2017
JAN 302017
OROVI LLE.CALIFORNIA
To The Board of Directors:
The Department of Employment and Social Services needs to address three different issues:
1). Case workers for child support need to streamline the information CORRECTLY when it comes to
figuring out a start date for when the non-custodial parent should start paying child support to the state
of California.
Today, January 26, 2017,I called child support at the Butte County Employment and Social Services
agency to inquire about a new stipulation start date for when my ex is supposed to start paying child
support. I told my case worker that I request July 3,2015, a very specific date with a good explanation
behind it.
The case worker, a woman named Summer, said that"No court is going to go back that far for child
support."
"Oh really?Then why are you asking me my opinion for the start date??T'
And mind you,what Summer just saidt is what a lawyer would have said----that is legal advice
which is prohibited by law. YET,I was called over a month ago by a child support case worker named
Holliday for what my opinion was as to a child support start date?
"Ah,I don't know. Would going back to the date of her birth be OK?"
"Oh no,can't tell you that. That would be legal advice," she said. "If you want to go back that far,
then why didn't you apply for cash aid back then?That's YOUR fault."
"I was afraid to apply for cash aid back in October 2015 because he threatened me. So if you're
telling me that it's my fault I didn't apply for welfare,then why do you want a start date from me?"
She could NOT give me a definitive answer on this.
So then when I brought up this contradictory information with Summer and said that had my ex not
threatened me,then I would have applied for cash aid back in October of 2015, she says, "Well you
chose to have a baby with him!"
Absolutely unacceptable,patronizing, and rude. Summer had the audacity to demean me, a single
mother on welfare who is trying to finish her journalism degree and is going through a traumatic and
expensive custody battle. The last thing I need is are complete strangers—Summer and Holliday—
giving me contradictory information and then BLAMING me for the inconsistencies in their
information. This is the second complaint I've had to make about social workers at the Department of
Employment and Social Services being disrespectful,patronizing, and rude.
2). Clients need to be made aware of"good cause"BEFORE they apply for cash aid.
When I applied for food stamps and updated me and my daughter's Medi-Cal in October of 2015, I
refrained from applying for cash aid because my ex THREATEND MY LIFE. I was not told about
"good cause." NO WHERE in the cash aid paperwork did I see anything about"good cause." "Good
cause"was made aware to me AFTER I applied for cash aid and received paperwork to fill out for the
child support case. When the social worker said,"OK, let's get child support on board." My body
literally started shaking and I said, "No! Don't! I don't want him to have to pay." The social worker
looked at me strangely and said, "OK." In hindsight,the social worker should have asked me questions
about abuse right then and there,not during my welfare-to-work interview with Debra Johnson,way
after the fact. Now, if I am wrong about any of this information, please feel free to address it to me, but
this is what my memory of the situation is.
3). Social workers of every kind need training in domestic violence and sexual assault,which I am a
victim of by said ex. I refuse to be further ViCTEMZED by an agency who is supposed to help
people, but whom is fraught with disrespect. Perhaps there are already are sensitivity trainings or
workshops for your agency. Perhaps you need to facilitate more.
Th you for your time,
Serena Cervantes
530.756.1319