of course *announcing* it detracts from the good thing considerably, but what the heck, it was a good thing to do, and I feel good about it and I want to brag er cough cough, I mean share it...
call me human, ok? :lol:
each year I apply for fuel assistance and each year I get a letter around this time telling me what my allowance will be, that will be credited to my heating company
for the past few years, nothing has changed income-wise for me, so the amount of the credit has stayed the same
Til this year, I got a notice that shows a $380 increase in my allowance!
I was scared at first, they base the allowance on projected fuel costs, and I'm thinking oh no, gas is gonna be a LOT more expensive this year! but I realized that an increase that huge would be on the news and I haven't heard anything about it
so
I figured someone made a math mistake or possibly confused me with another applicant
and I better call and let them know!
First off, they were so shocked that someone called to tell them that they got TOO MUCH that they had no idea what to do.
They checked all the numbers, account number, case number, my income etc and came back and said that it all appeared to be in order, but would I mind speaking to their supervisor?
The supervisor calls me back and she starts off saying this is the first time they've ever had anyone call to say the thought there was a mistake in their favor- and she thanked me for that. Well hey, I know there's a mistake and if they hold this money for ME, that means someone else who is applying may not get any thing at all! so to me this was like duh, of course I'm gonna call, but anyway....
Turns out that it is not a mistake; because I have two kinds of heat, gas and electric, my allowance is actually supposed to be $380 more per year- and is to be split between the gas and the electric.
well, I keep my apt at 58 degrees F during the day and 60 at night and close off the room with the electric heat and I don't even use the lower amount that they've been allowing me each year. In fact this past year there was nearly a hundred dollars left in April that went back into the program.
The supervisor said I could have the money split 75/25 with the gas/electric company, which believe me, did sound very attractive, don't get me wrong, I did consider it, BUT!!
I told her to take it off my account to free the money up for someone else.
She thanked me many times, said this had never happened before, but hey, seriously, there are people who get put on a waiting list for fuel assistance because when they "grant" someone a certain amount, they are making a commitment to have that money credited to their heating bills. That means that they have to tell other people, sorry we've run out of money, because of the commitments they've made- they don't know til the end of the heating season if any money might be left over from people not using their full credits.
I've never used my full credit, I am just very frugal and conservative with the utility bills, for many reasons (good for the planet, the future, etc)
This really does help someone else get fuel assistance if they need it, and with the economy the way it is here, this was truly the right thing to do
I didn't need this $$ the past couple of years, I don't need it now. The fact that it will help someone else gives me that warm fuzzy feeling, ya know?
my good deed for today :giggle:
call me human, ok? :lol:
each year I apply for fuel assistance and each year I get a letter around this time telling me what my allowance will be, that will be credited to my heating company
for the past few years, nothing has changed income-wise for me, so the amount of the credit has stayed the same
Til this year, I got a notice that shows a $380 increase in my allowance!
I was scared at first, they base the allowance on projected fuel costs, and I'm thinking oh no, gas is gonna be a LOT more expensive this year! but I realized that an increase that huge would be on the news and I haven't heard anything about it
so
I figured someone made a math mistake or possibly confused me with another applicant
and I better call and let them know!
First off, they were so shocked that someone called to tell them that they got TOO MUCH that they had no idea what to do.
They checked all the numbers, account number, case number, my income etc and came back and said that it all appeared to be in order, but would I mind speaking to their supervisor?
The supervisor calls me back and she starts off saying this is the first time they've ever had anyone call to say the thought there was a mistake in their favor- and she thanked me for that. Well hey, I know there's a mistake and if they hold this money for ME, that means someone else who is applying may not get any thing at all! so to me this was like duh, of course I'm gonna call, but anyway....
Turns out that it is not a mistake; because I have two kinds of heat, gas and electric, my allowance is actually supposed to be $380 more per year- and is to be split between the gas and the electric.
well, I keep my apt at 58 degrees F during the day and 60 at night and close off the room with the electric heat and I don't even use the lower amount that they've been allowing me each year. In fact this past year there was nearly a hundred dollars left in April that went back into the program.
The supervisor said I could have the money split 75/25 with the gas/electric company, which believe me, did sound very attractive, don't get me wrong, I did consider it, BUT!!
I told her to take it off my account to free the money up for someone else.
She thanked me many times, said this had never happened before, but hey, seriously, there are people who get put on a waiting list for fuel assistance because when they "grant" someone a certain amount, they are making a commitment to have that money credited to their heating bills. That means that they have to tell other people, sorry we've run out of money, because of the commitments they've made- they don't know til the end of the heating season if any money might be left over from people not using their full credits.
I've never used my full credit, I am just very frugal and conservative with the utility bills, for many reasons (good for the planet, the future, etc)
This really does help someone else get fuel assistance if they need it, and with the economy the way it is here, this was truly the right thing to do
I didn't need this $$ the past couple of years, I don't need it now. The fact that it will help someone else gives me that warm fuzzy feeling, ya know?
my good deed for today :giggle:
