Public policies and institutions are incredibly important to everyday survival and have the potential to encourage socioeconomic mobility, facilitate gender equality, and break down racial hierarchies if organized and leveraged properly. My work explores what I call “catch-all bureaucracies,” government agencies called upon to be the societal arms of “help,” broadly defined. In light of ongoing debates about the remedies for high unemployment, these institutions remain central to our understanding of how those who are economically struggling navigate both macro-level economic and political transformations and micro-level conditions and struggles that shape their financial outlooks.