Paperwork Anxiety

✍🏼 Don’t Share: Free write or draw (or even turn on voice memos): Is there a form that you hate to fill out? How does it make you feel?

(also feel free to share below if you'd like - it always helps for folks to not feel like they're alone! We just want to make sure you don't feel like you're doing this for an audience)

 📄 The (racist, classist) history of paperwork

Paperwork used to be internal documents businesses filled out for you 🤯 They’d use it to build a relationship with a client (can you imagine??) while streamlining internal processes

“Earlier public administrations also used forms and questionnaires, but these were filled by officers instead of by citizens, and thus by members of the same organization.” - [Harms], summarizing [Becker] The Unofficial History of Forms

Somewhere along the way, it became the customer’s responsibility to fill out these forms, but they stayed just as complicated and confusing.

“In contrast, 20th century governments delegated the increasing administrative workload that resulted from large social welfare programs to citizens – who then had to fill out forms on their own.” - [Harms], summarizing [Becker] The Unofficial History of Forms

Then somewhere further along the way, paperwork became a barrier to access, especially for communities of color

"In consequence, forms took over the role of officers as mediating interfaces between citizens and public administration.”- [Harms], summarizing [Becker] The Unofficial History of Forms

Some Stats:

People of color are the majority of welfare recipients (23% Black, 26% Hispanic, 8% Asian/Pacific Islander) and there is more likely to be a language barrier so completing paperwork to get these benefits is a larger obstacle

Black homebuyers are more likely to get denied for a mortgage than white borrowers (1 in 4 Black borrowers vs. 1 in 10 white borrowers)

📄 So what do you do about all this paperwork?

• Remind yourself it’s not you, it’s the paperwork

• Go slow. Plan for it to take 2-3x longer than you think it will

• Be prepared to not complete it in one sitting. Check if there is a way to preview the questions ahead of time

• Try calling the company or agency. Many of them will have people on staff who can sit with you to complete the form

• Find a money buddy who’s good at this and do it together!

• Forgive yourself if you don’t get it right the first time. It’s designed for you to fail