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| Cutting Through The Red Tape |
March 14, 2000 |
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A Los Lunas woman struggled for 3 years to get assistance, including Social Security Benefits, after suffering a severe bite from a brown recluse spider. Because of the bite, both of Janice J.`s feet were amputated. Her pleas for help got bogged down in bureaucratic red tape, and Janice came to my office for help last year in securing her Social SecurityDisability benefits.
After her husband died, Janice was besieged with health problems that prevented her from working and resulted in the loss of her home. At age 44, Janice, a former nurse, was forced to live out of her car. Friends of Janice`s, concerned with her situation, came to meet with me personally at one of our traveling office meetings in Los Lunas last Fall. They only wanted to see Janice get the help she needed, and shared their concerns with me. I was troubled that Janice, continued to be caught in this bureaucratic social security nightmare while her health deteriorated, and my staff got to work on Janice`s case.
My office worked with the Social Security Administration, and Janice has recently been notified that she will receive Social Security Disability benefits, dating back to October 1996 - the time of her first application. Two of my staff assistants, Camille Sinjaraju and Kristen Astor, pursued Janice`s case diligently and were also able to provide Janice with information leading to an organization that provides assistance to qualified individuals with their medications.
"The people in Heather Wilson`s office are the only ones that really listened and paid any attention," Janice says. "I didn`t know how the system worked and they helped me to find out."
There are many people like Janice, truly in need of assistance, but caught up within systems marked by excessive delays and red tape. A big part of my job as your member of Congress it to help people cut through that red tape and find common-sense solutions for people like Janice. Check my website for information about some of the commonly asked questions about federal government programs and benefits. If you can`t find the information you need on my website, fill out this privacy release and mail it to my office. We`ll always try to help. |
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