Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

I am in need of legal assistance as to what I can do tic anything at all, about a debt the at the california treasurer department / collections are saying that is owed on an overpayment of Calfresh benefits I received close to 10 years ago. At the time I filed to get benefits , I had just given birth to my daughter , and the father and I had gotten married just prior to her birth. We (we had just started dating and i got pregnant. We thought at the time we were doing the right thing by doing right by our daughter and trying to do the family things)However, we were both unemployed at the time so we were in need of the financial support , so i filed for the Calfresh and cash aid benefits. My husband was also attached to that account as we were married .A few months later, my husband and I started having trouble and

He started drinking. His drinking made him quite abusive and he got physical with me in front of our daughter. I was forced to file a domestic abuse restraining order against my husband. I told my worker at that time what had happened and that I wanted him removed from

My case immediately. I have her a copy of my restraining order which granted me full custody of our daughter. Father was granted ONLY monitored visits at a court appointed location in Pasadena. Mean while I attempted to file for child support under the advise of my social case worker . Unfortunately I was told by the Schimke support agency that they could not verify employment for him. I explained to them that I knew for a fact that he was working for a plumbing company and gave them their info. I even gave them a copy of a news article about an incident that had happened that he was involved with and the report made the front page of the la times. The reported quoted him saying in his own words , “ that he worked for a plumbing company “ and it stated the name of the company. Even with this as evidence of his employment , they still denied opening a child support case because they said they couldn’t verify employment.(since he was working under the table

And not paying taxes on it )

Once my daughter was old enough to go to preschool I found part time employment. It was not a pay by the hour type job , I was paid a percentage of each job I completed. (Mobile pet groomer. For each client who I groomed their pets for, I was paid 25% of whatever the total

Cost for that client was . Some weeks would be extremely busy and the next week I might literally only have 1 or 2 clients for the denture week . Because of this type of pay , my monthly income was never consistent month to month. For one month I might make $200-$300 total all month , then the following month I could make $1,000 dollars for the entire month) I explained this to my worker and made her aware that I was working but could not give them an exact monthly income total

As it was never the same always different. I still remember to this day her making a comment about It being too difficult to do the paperwork on a income that was not consistent. I continued to try and keep her updated on my monthly income totals , but she was extremely difficult to get ahold of most times . I had to take off work several times to go into the office to see about speaking to her, a few times I was lucky enough to catch her walking thru the office, but most times I was told to make an appointment. I eventually stoped receiving benefits a few months later.

Fast forward to almost 10 years later, I just received a letter from the treasurer department /collections stating that I owe over $4,000 to them for overpayment of calfresh benefits. I would like to know how this can be legal . How am I suppose to pay a debt that big when I am hbarely struggling to make ends meet. Is there anything I can do to fight this ? If there is I a would like to hire legal representation and I feel like I sis nothing wrong on my part. I reported my employment , and income , it is not my fault that my case worker found it too difficult to do the paper work on my inconsistent income month to month . I would appreciate any and all advise you can give and look forward to hopefully finding counsel. Also would like to see if we can get the ball rolling on getting a child support order on my child father, as he has never ever contributed a single cent towards our daughter .

To assist me with this issue. Thanks in advance

1 Answer from Attorneys

Related Questions & Answers

More Credit, Debt and Collections Law questions and answers in California

Looking for something else?