I don't know how they expect people to survive while waiting for this stuff. One thing that has always helped me when dealing with all the red tape is contacting my Congressperson. They have people in their local offices whose job is only to help their constituents. I have gotten help from Senators from two states in dealing with Social Security and the Federal Government HR Department for my employee disability retirement. They have phone numbers and contacts that we don't and when Senators start putting pressure on these people, they have to respond. Congress controls appropriations, which in turn can control these people's paychecks.

Hellion, here are some links to your Senate offices:

Michael Bennet - United States Senator for Colorado : Services - Help with a Federal Agency

Request Assistance with a Federal Agency | Mark Udall | U.S. Senator for Colorado

Now, as a more immediate cost-saving measure, and I don't want to seem trite here, but for people who are buying their own food, I seriously want to put in a plug for couponing. Not just clipping a few coupons from the newspaper, but serious couponing at the "crazy coupon lady" level. It can take a bit of time to get started and does take some effort to plan your shopping trips, but the benefits can be truly amazing. There are days when the store owes ME money. It may not be a lot - maybe even a few cents - but nothing comes out of my pocket on those trips. Sometimes it involves stocking up, which means you've got to have some storage space, but most people have more space than they may even realize when they get creative. And I'm not talking about some of the BS you see on Extreme Couponing. You don't have to live on Ramen noodles to do this! Nor am I talking about buying 20 bottles of mustard. I'm buying real food at much less than retail.

For example...yesterday I scored big on pasta and sauce. I got 16 jars of Classico sauce and 8 boxes of pasta for $3. Seriously. Here's how I did it:

The sauce was on sale for 2 jars for $3.
With every two jars of sauce, the store had a deal where they gave you one box of pasta for free.
I had printed manufacturer's coupons worth $4 off the sauce.
I found out about a "Catalina coupon" for the sauce (those coupons that print out at the register in many stores) - I got $3 back for every four jars of sauce I bought.
I am also a member of Savingstar (free online signup) - Savingstar is a website that gives you cash back when you buy certain items and scan your store's loyalty card (make sure you get one of those cards!). I got a deal where if I bought $15 worth of sauce, they gave me $5 back. You can use paper coupons with the online savings. They credit you for the purchase price, not what you actually spent.

So here's how it worked out:

16 jars of sauce at 2/$3 + 8 boxes of pasta at $1 each = $32
minus $8 in free pasta (store deal) = $24
minus $4 in paper coupons = $20
minus $3 for every four jars = $8
minus $5 in Savingstar savings = $3!

Now, you have to split your orders sometimes, which can make people behind you a tad grumpy, but that's too bad. I do try to let people with just a few items go before me, but that's also what Express lines are for. The Catalina coupons are used on your NEXT order, so you will have $3 left from the last sauce transaction that you need to spend on something else (meat or veggies to go with your pasta maybe!), and the Savingstar savings are in the form of a cash deposit into an online account that they then deposit into a PayPal account or your bank account, so your out of pocket cost will be a little more, but you get it back. My out of pocket cost was $11, then I got the last $3 Catalina and I'll get the $5 Savingstar sometime next week.

There are lots of websites and blogs that can help you get started. Here are two of the ones I use the most:

Coupons | Grocery Coupons | Printable Coupons | Coupon Codes | Free Coupons
Printable coupon deals and extreme couponing tips by The Krazy Coupon Lady

Seriously. Try it. Make a game out of it to see just how little you can spend on an item. If we're waiting for disability, we typically have the time to do this. And I understand that there are days/weeks where we simply don't have the energy or brain power to do this. Those are the weeks that you can use what you have stocked up on. You do what you can, when you can do it. You can do this even on food stamps to make your monthly benefit go further. It doesn't matter how you pay. I feel like I'm doing something active to help contribute to my family's finances. It helps keep my mind active. And it gives me the security of knowing that if something happens to my husband's income, at least we have food. With the pasta and only half of the sauce I bought, I can feed my family of four one good meal a day for more than a week on 24 cents a day. (Of course I'll feed them more than one meal a day, but if I can get deals like this on other things, my daily cost can be just a few dollars a day.)

Try it out. Even if you can save $10 a week to start, that's $40 a month, which is a tank of gas these days. I'm saving at least $100 a month by doing this. It works.