I just posted a rant about similar but not. The government rewards the wrong people. Good ol US of A. You should get the divorce. Suck all you can out of the government-eveyone else does. Atleast you try to provide for your family.

I feel for you on the whole nosey neighbor issue. A couple of years back, we were accused of neglect and abuse by our very own nosey neighbor. Our son has autism and has a tendency to scream from time to time for no apparent reason. This isn't unusual in terms of autistic kids. She was certain we were abusing him, even after she had witnessed the screaming meltdowns with her own eyes. That was the abuse part. The neglect part came in because I allowed our daughter, who was 7 at the time, and our son, who was 9 at the time, to walk home from the bus by themselves. It was a 1/4 mile walk, which I watched from our front porch. It was a walk that took place on a private gravel drive, that was walked with several other kids ranging in age from 5-17 years old. Since our son has autism, she believed he shouldn't have been allowed to walk with them by himself. He's a high functioning kid, who will one day be on his own. His walking the 1/4 mile was a way for him to gain independance, while I could keep an eye on him the entire time. After an in person interview with DCS, the complaint was taken off the record because it was deemed unfounded. As for the welfare system part, I can only give you some info from my own state. After my student teaching didn't go so well, I worked at our local DFS office, as a caseworker, for nearly a year. Here's how your net income is figured for food stamp benefits and such in Indiana. First there is an income limit, unless someone in the home is disabled. Gross income allowed in Indiana is $2,238 for family of 4. Anything over that and you are automatically disqualified from food stamps, unless someone in the home is disabled. Medicaid benefits have a higher income limit. Family of 4 is $2,650 for premium free medicaid and $3,534 low cost premium coverage. This is only to qualify children though. For adults to get medicaid, without being disabled, I believe the current monthly gross income limit is $764 or so for family of 4. Figuring medical benefits is a little more in depth, so I won't go into that here. Food stamps gross income $2,238 4 people. Lets say you have a gross income of $2,137. Nobody is disabled, so you can't count any insurance premiums. Let's say you have no childcare costs and we'll say your mortgage payment is $1198.32 a month. You can take a standard household utility deduction of $429 or you can count your actual utilities. Utilities only include water and electric or gas, whichever you use to heat and cool. In this example I'm going to use the $429. gross income $2137 minus a earned income deduction of $312.91 minus a standard deduction of $143. This makes your adjusted income $1681.92 House payment is $1198.22 plus standard utility of $429. This makes your total household cost $1627.32 minus 50% of adjusted income $840.96 = 786.36 this is how much of your household cost you can count. Now you take the adjusted income $1681.92 minus household cost $786.38 = the net adjusted income. In this case it is $895.56. Maximum monthly net using the formula detailed above is $1721 4 people. Next step is to get 30% of the adjusted net income. For $895.56 this is going to be $268.80. Now you take the states maximum food stamp allotment. In Indiana it is $542 a month for family of 4 minus the 30% net adjustment. $542 minus $268.80 = $273. This is the monthly food stamp benefits for family of four, gross income of $2137.83, mortgage of $1198.32 a month and utilities of $429 a month. I hope I explained that formula coherantly!

High fences make good neighbours...or something like that. My brother in-law is my neighbour and he drives me batty sometimes, but nothing like what you are going through. I hope you get your issues resolved. $Xombitize your Income$ http://www.xomba.com/referral/7778f814

to hear what you are going through. That's terrible. Some people have no life. And are so mean. Hang in there!