There is a federal program called the Bill Payer Program or Money Management. This is a one on one program where a volunteer will come to your home or meet with you somewhere. This volunteer will help you to budget and pay your bills, either by balancing your check book, writing the check and you sign it, marking the bill paid and addressing the envelope if needed. They also might suggest paying a portion of the bill if there is not enough in the budget. The purpose is to see that bills are paid and services or utilities do not get terminated.
I find this to be a great program and helpful to persons with disabilities or seniors. The volunteers either are associated with AARP [American Association of Retired Persons] or RSVP [Retired & Senior Volunteer Program] and are insured by the organization. In New Jersey there is a State Employee named Mr. Ricci who helps to set up the program. He also explains it to County Representatives. It should be in each county, but is not. It is in maybe one third of the N.J. counties. It could also be in all fifty states.
In the County of Sussex, it was monitored by the County of Social Services with a social worker and AARP volunteers and has been running well.
Before moving to the County of Middlesex, I tried to find a similar program. The only one who ever heard of it was the County Office of the Aging Executive Director who informed me that it was not in Middlesex County. I tried to contact the Freeholder Director and was only able to contact his secretary. I left a message and was told someone would call me back. I was called back by the Associate Director of the Office of the Aging who told me that it was not in Middlesex County because the volunteers would have to be insured and they were not ready to do that. I have no idea why the powers that be would or could not use AARP or RSVP volunteers
I tried other agencies in Middlesex County, no one was familiar with it, but they were all interested. No one had the funding to do it.
Another vital program Middlesex County could have
Alan C. Weinrib. I am a disability advocate. I fight for accessibility and handicapped parking issues. I have been trying to reason with strip malls, also WalMart, ShopRite, PathMark, HomeDepot ...
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