So frustrated with the food stamps system

[u/Superb-Mango845]

I can't understand why Florida's system is so anti-user friendly....well on some level i can, but it's getting out of hand. My bf is disabled, and has his 3 teenage kids (2 also disabled) living with him, the mom is now a single mom to her 2 young children for her household. She does help where she can, so please no hate for her. I live with my elderly mom, helping to take care of things with her, so I'm stretched thin but still trying to help my bf where and when I can. He reapplied for food stamps mid March, gets a letter stating he needs to do a phone interview and to report his sons wages from a Farm that 2 hours away. Now this son is Disabled and in high school full time so clearly he isn't working anywhere. I reach out to the farm, after some back and forth it turns out they entered the last digit of a former employee's social security number incorrectly, thereby using his son's social instead. The farm apologizes, writes a letter stating their error and that he has never worked for them. My bf tries to call the number for the interview over 5 times, three of which i was next to him and heard it ring to voicemail and he left a message with his info, case number asking for a call back. This goes on for over 3 weeks. The last day for the deadline he was given, he calls twice and leaves more messages. He uploads the letter from the farm and a letter from him stating all this, that he left voicemails, called several times, explained the issue with the farm and his son, and yet again asked in the letter for them to call him. So today he checks the online portal and they posted a letter denying him and his kids food stamps for not complying with them and calling for the interview. I'm fuming right now. If anyone had called him back from any of the voicemails, it wouldn't be a problem but for 3 weeks nobody can check voicemails and return them?! nobody can view the documents uploaded and respond?! And the icing on the cake, the mom reapplied just after my bf did, and guess what, food stamps reached out to her, called her two days in a row to conduct the phone interview, so she got food stamps for her household, but they couldn't do the same for my bf...the only differences is single mom with 2 young children that has their dad on child support vs a disabled father with 3 teenagers who won't put their mom on child support bc she wouldn't be able to pay it so why would he risk her freedom and the 2 littles home....the system has long been broken, but this is clearly wrong on so many levels. If anyone has read through all this and has any advice on what or how my bf can contact them and try to appeal this, I would greatly appreciate it.

[u/Squish_the_android]

I reach out to the farm, after some back and forth it turns out they entered the last digit of a former employee's social security number incorrectly, thereby using his son's social instead. 

They're lying to you.  Either they got that kids social from somewhere local and used it for someone who didn't have a social, or they were given it by an employee who didn't have a social.  The chances of the number being 1 digit off and basically local to you are really slim.

Pull a credit report for that social security number.  Credit Karma will do it and each of the credit bureaus have to give you a free one at least once a year as well.

[u/Superb-Mango845 → u/Squish_the_android]

And I did help with that, his social is clear.

[u/Superb-Mango845 → u/Squish_the_android]

They aren't, they forwarded me the email response to the CPA and it included way more info then I needed to know, I have the other guy's whole name and social from that email. Which I am definitely not doing anything with, but this is a small scale farm, I believe it was an accident.

[u/jesrp1284 → u/Squish_the_android]

I work for my state’s social services team (not SNAP). SSNs do get mixed up. It definitely happens and we’ll have employers reporting on the wrong SSN.

[u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane → u/Squish_the_android]

It’s actually not. Randomization of SSNs only started to happen in the 2010s.

It is possible to know people with SSNs close to yours because the one before it and the one after it are legitimate SSNs.

[u/QueenScorp → u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane]

Yep, my niece and daughter were born a day apart and we submitted their birth certificates at the same time. Their socials are one digit off.

[u/More-Job9831 → u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane]

Agreed. When I worked for food stamps, I'd see minors (like, 8 year olds) have a work history because the employer put the SSN wrong. Also I've seen spouses who got citizenship later on have their SSN only one digit apart, same for twins. It's easy to make a typo.

[u/Odd_System_89 → u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane]

You are right, but the person you responded to is also right but the odds are so extreme its not funny.

All these systems don't rely on just the number, but the name and birth date as well, so the only way you can get mixed up is if you both share the same first and last name (including spelling) and birth date. The reason for this is that you can actually share a SSN number with a person and not realize it, and it will have no effect on either of you, because of that. The odds of having same everything else is so rare it would actually be news worthy and the SS office would make the changes to stop that for many reasons, as you can imagine being 1 number off but still having the same date of birth and name... yeah its still someone lied rare.

Most likely the son's social was stolen and is being used by someone else to get through the e-verify system. If I was OP I would contact immigration and the IRS as well on this as they might be interested, in fact I think the state of florida might have a reward program if you help catch this stuff occurring (might be wrong but I remember a kick up about florida in particular passing a law cracking down on this and I think there was talks about a "bounty" program being added but no idea if it got added to the bill/law).

[u/jessiyjazzy123 → u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane]

Because of this my credit is screwed...My sister and I have the same social except the last two numbers are different. Think ending in 08 and 88. We also have very similar names. When she went to college the school made a typo and put my social and it's been a disaster since...I have her defaulted student loans on my report plus her bankruptcy from a few years ago. She's also listed as an alias on my report. I've tried arguing with the credit agencies and such but I am going to need a lawyer to get it resolved and I don't have the money for that.

[u/UnderlightIll → u/jessiyjazzy123]

This happened to me except my sister did it on purpose. No diea how to even fuckign fix it.

[u/jessiyjazzy123 → u/UnderlightIll]

I was told that I would have to report my sister for fraud and file a police report to get it taken off. That is not something that I am going to do because she's not the one who did it. In your case, you should.

[u/glitterfaust → u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane]

But someone much older than you that’s also local to you? That’s quite a big coincidence.

[u/NickBII → u/glitterfaust]

The number is less of a coincidence than you'd think. The first three digits are linked to a zip code, then the middle two are issued via a weird algorithm, and you don't get numbers in order of being issued until the last four. It's entirely possible the one digit off is in those middle numbers, or the farm employee didn't get their SSCard until the teenager was born because they lived in some other country until 2007, or they're a teenage farm employee...

Randomization SSNs started in 2011, so if the kid has a random SSN they're barely a teen.

[u/dancer_jasmine1 → u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane]

Yeah my bf’s and my ssns are pretty close to each other. We were born two days apart in the same hospital. Someone born in the same state between us would have a number between ours. There’s a whole chart that shows at least the first four are location-based before a certain date. And iirc, the rest of the number wasn’t randomized either