It feels like this happens every other month. Here we are again, asking for help just to make ends meet when we shouldn't need to, but circumstances outside our control have forced us to roll the dice on the kindness of strangers.

Bottom line: We need $3000 to pay our rent and bills this month, because we don't know when (or if) we're going to get short-term disability payments made.

At the beginning of this month, I (Siobhan) had facial feminization surgery and was placed on medical leave from work. As part of that, I was told to claim State Disability Insurance (SDI), which requires the claim to be made with the Employment Development Department (EDD) no sooner than 9 days after the event placing me on disability.

So, nine days after my surgery, on January 12th, I tried to place my claim, expecting it to be simple. Spend 30 minutes, wait a couple weeks, easy stuff. That didn't happen. Their system was down for maintenance until the next day.

Fine. I tried on Monday...and found their ID verification service still had my deadname on file. No problem, we'll fix that, then file the claim.

That took another four days, but once it was done, I went to file the claim - and got an error message stating the information I provided didn't match what they had on file. I tried repeatedly, providing as many variations of the information as I could, with no luck. I called the customer service line and they couldn't help me because their records still had my deadname. They told me to file by paper - a form I could either wait ten days for them to send, or go pick up at the local office.

The next business day, the 21st, I went into the office and tried to get help updating my record, so I could sign in online and file the claim. This...did not work. In fact, it didn't work so much that all they could do was send the issue to their internal IT teams and tell me to wait 3-10 business days. Oh, and I should file by paper in the meantime. So I did.

Unfortunately, filing by paper means they take 14 business days from receiving both my claim and the medical provider's certification of the disability to even tell me how much I'll get, if at all.

I followed up multiple times last week and my medical provider hasn't certified the disability claim yet. I still can't log in to set up the payment method for them to use for the claim, or provide any more information they might want.

Today, I'm still waiting. Rent is due. Bills are due. I don't know when I'm going to be told how much money I'll get, if any at all.