Case Vignette

Mary is a 23 year old single mother of two children, a daughter aged 2 years and a
son aged 7 years. They live in Monroe County, NY. Mary was a high school student
living with her parents when she first became pregnant. Her parents were strict
and not supportive of Mary’s pregnancy or relationship with her boyfriend Frank;
they kicked her out and she has not spoken with them since. Mary moved in with
Frank and worked various part-time minimum wage jobs until her son was born.
After the birth of her son, Mary dropped out of high school and continued to work
part time. When she became pregnant with her daughter, Mary had to stop
working because her doctor put her on bed rest. This really affected the family as
the children’s father Frank, who also never finished high school, was working at a
car wash for minimum wage. To help make ends meet, Frank would help his
cousin sell counterfeit merchandise. Unfortunately Frank was arrested, tried, and
convicted and now is serving a multiple year sentence for his offenses. Mary has
tried to return to work full-time, however, she has had difficulty keeping a job
because she cannot find an employer willing to schedule her around her son’s
school schedule. Mary also struggles to find a reliable and affordable child care
provider; she was fired from her last job because she frequently missed work
because she couldn’t find a babysitter or her daughter was sick and could not go
to the local child care center. Mary is worried about her daughter’s frequent
upper respiratory infections, but she doesn’t have health insurance and cannot
afford to take her to the doctor. Today, Mary is unemployed. The landlord has
been more than generous by allowing late and partial rent payments. But Mary is
now three months behind in rent and the landlord is threatening eviction; he
certainly isn’t going to renew the lease when it is up in four months. Mary is also

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behind in utility payments; the gas has been shut-off. There is a second warning
for the electricity. Clearly, Mary and her children are in a rough spot.

Using the following link as a guide, prepare a household budget for this family:
https://www.consumer.gov/content/make-budget-worksheet You can use the
program at the link provided, or you may use other software or programs for
building budgets. You can even build your budget using Excel or Word.

1. This requires you to identify the payment standards for any federal, state or
local program your think this family is eligible for. There are at least 6 social
insurance, public assistance, or social service programs this family is eligible
for. Identify each one and incorporate it into the monthly budget. Consider the
household size, the cost of living including fair market rent (go to hud.gov for
more information on fair market rent), utility usage average, child care costs,
transportation costs, etc. Cite your sources!!

2. In an essay, discuss the economic and lifestyle choices Mary would have to
make. How creative did you need to be in formulating your budget and looking
for resources? Reflect on what you have learned in this experience, especially
as it applies to generalist social work practice and social welfare policy.

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