And a major electric company in our area was having such a problem with late payments that they started a program that allowed people who received social security to submit documentation and their bill could be deducted from their account automatically on their social security pay date with zero late fees. The only catch was that the account had to have a zero balance in order to sign up.

The easy solution is on social security pay day, pay your current bill with the late fee and sign up thus eliminating all future late fees from this electric corporation. Out of the more than 34,000 eligible accounts less than 1,600 signed up. That is probably partially because the program was not well known and the misconception that a party would have to pay 2 months electric bill at one time to subscribe. I helped a number of people sign up but some people just are too nervous to give the electric company the right to auto draft on their social security pay date. Whoever failed to sign up will pay an extra $8-12 a month I would guess.

I have worked with people with disabilities the majority of my career. I wish this was an extreme example. I could probably name upwards of 2,000 people just in my area of the state that have this very problem monthly. And that is just one region of our state. And that does not count the number of elderly who receive their retirement on a rolling basis monthly who also experience this issue. I would venture to guess that more than half a million people experience this issue. So in my opinion, not so extreme.

The point is these aren't extreme cases. This is kind of a typical poverty stricken life.