Stuck in red tape. Please help!
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Carmen. I am an artist, musician and photographer who has spent the last few years as a personal care aid. Due to a huge bureaucratic mix-up with government agencies and the like, I find myself in a situation where I need any help I can get right now. I am also looking into other legal avenues but I don't know how or if they will pan out, and I am on a time limit, so I decided to take emergency steps by opening this fund-me and hoping for the best.
Let me start at the end: I got an email from my landlord 2 days ago informing me that I owe him 5 months rent and that I have until the end of this month to pay all arrears otherwise I will be evicted. I can pay 2 months, but that leaves 3 unaccounted for. Why has this happened?
Since January 2017, I have been on sick leave due to hip dysplasia in both hips, which nobody noticed until 2 years ago despite having had numerous x-rays done around my hip area. It was so bad that I couldn’t walk or stand up for more than 10 minutes without excruciating pain. My last job as a home-care assistant for the disabled almost put me in hospital. I was then put on sick leave to undergo major surgery and I am still recovering. Although things are looking good on that front, I just found out this week that I still need to do more physiotherapy due to minor complications.
As a result of a domino effect, I have fallen into a financial hole that I simply cannot manage on my own. I am currently in a back-to-work training program funded by my insurance, the German Federal Pension Fund. I was told at the time that they would pay a certain amount and I agreed to partake in the program on this basis. However, after months of being made to wait, it turns out they are paying me only a fraction of what they originally offered. What with my normal bills, I cannot even afford to strike up a deal with my landlord. There is no leeway there. And to top it off, according to state regulations, I am not quite on the poverty line to get extra help with my rent. They don't take into account that I have other bills and contracts that I cannot get out of but still need to pay on a monthly basis, not to mention the debts I have accumulated because of this domino effect. And to top it off, I am also still not getting all of the money due to me from the insurance, and the red tape to deal with all of this is overwhelming.
X-ray of my new hip.
I am battling from all angles. Even transit money that I paid out in March getting to and from rehab still hasn’t been reimbursed. The German system tends to work on a “ping-pong” basis, hoping to wear people down from all the running around. One office sends me back to another which sends me back to the first and it's a never-ending circle. I am rapidly running out of energy, often just crashing for 12 hours at a time after getting home from training. I also have been dealing with severe migraines recently, no doubt from all the stress and from how all of this is impacting me.
I have left out many details here in my attempt to keep this as simple as possible, yet giving you enough to let you know what you are donating to. As I said, I am soldiering on and will do my utmost to see where the mix-up happened and how it can be rectified. Asking for help is not an easy thing for me to do, and I find it most humbling but i have no other option than to reach out. Thank you so much for reading this and if you can help in any way either by contributing or sharing, I would be most grateful.
Let me start at the end: I got an email from my landlord 2 days ago informing me that I owe him 5 months rent and that I have until the end of this month to pay all arrears otherwise I will be evicted. I can pay 2 months, but that leaves 3 unaccounted for. Why has this happened?
Since January 2017, I have been on sick leave due to hip dysplasia in both hips, which nobody noticed until 2 years ago despite having had numerous x-rays done around my hip area. It was so bad that I couldn’t walk or stand up for more than 10 minutes without excruciating pain. My last job as a home-care assistant for the disabled almost put me in hospital. I was then put on sick leave to undergo major surgery and I am still recovering. Although things are looking good on that front, I just found out this week that I still need to do more physiotherapy due to minor complications.
As a result of a domino effect, I have fallen into a financial hole that I simply cannot manage on my own. I am currently in a back-to-work training program funded by my insurance, the German Federal Pension Fund. I was told at the time that they would pay a certain amount and I agreed to partake in the program on this basis. However, after months of being made to wait, it turns out they are paying me only a fraction of what they originally offered. What with my normal bills, I cannot even afford to strike up a deal with my landlord. There is no leeway there. And to top it off, according to state regulations, I am not quite on the poverty line to get extra help with my rent. They don't take into account that I have other bills and contracts that I cannot get out of but still need to pay on a monthly basis, not to mention the debts I have accumulated because of this domino effect. And to top it off, I am also still not getting all of the money due to me from the insurance, and the red tape to deal with all of this is overwhelming.
X-ray of my new hip.I am battling from all angles. Even transit money that I paid out in March getting to and from rehab still hasn’t been reimbursed. The German system tends to work on a “ping-pong” basis, hoping to wear people down from all the running around. One office sends me back to another which sends me back to the first and it's a never-ending circle. I am rapidly running out of energy, often just crashing for 12 hours at a time after getting home from training. I also have been dealing with severe migraines recently, no doubt from all the stress and from how all of this is impacting me.
I have left out many details here in my attempt to keep this as simple as possible, yet giving you enough to let you know what you are donating to. As I said, I am soldiering on and will do my utmost to see where the mix-up happened and how it can be rectified. Asking for help is not an easy thing for me to do, and I find it most humbling but i have no other option than to reach out. Thank you so much for reading this and if you can help in any way either by contributing or sharing, I would be most grateful.
Organizer
Carmen Wolters
Organizer
Augsburg
