Your experience and mine are the same. As I apply and apply and apply, I have slowly lost everything - almost. I am tremendously well qualified: advanced degree, tons of experience, technical expertise. My husband, who is equally well qualified, has the only job he can find: it pays $15/hr., no benefits, and he is docked for every minute he is away - going to the bathroom, eating lunch, etc. This has been going on since 2008. We have no health insurance, we have no money (example: nothing to eat for dinner tonight). We've applied for every social program available: they are in the business, it seems, of losing documents and saying "no." My family is well off but has abandoned me. Oh, in the last 8 years, I've also fought (successfully) metastatic breast cancer, endless harassment by the IRS (3 audits - all of which showed we had overpaid our taxes), having been bullied on my last job, and endless harassment by creditors. If I can't get paid work, I can't pay my bills. We are totally on the edge. We could lose the house we have lived in since 1995 at any minute. We just got audited again (why? we have nothing to collect? they even asked to see our mortgage statements, which are automatically sent to the IRS anyway). I wake up in the morning feeling so hopeless I wish I were never born. It's not so much about me: it's about my children. I don't want their lives to be catastrophic. I want them to be safe, secure, and happy....like I have so rarely been. I don't need advice. I need two things: help, and realistic hope -- hope that turns into something tangible. I have worked so hard to hang on to both but I am exhausted. I pray. I go to meeting (am a Quaker). I do reach out. I wonder - is anyone there?