This is huge: it means there really is no nest egg of unspent tugboat
It's been explained that these collectors would have no qualms about "accidentally" seizing Social Security. Especially if he had over $25,000 saved up, which might even be enough to pay his debts. It follows, then, that the tugboat really was paused soon after arrest, whether or not it technically should have been. According to Praetor, Chris had lofty ambitions for what he was going to do with his small fortune. Now, we know he has none. This also means Praetor hasn't paid Chris shit, as that money should've been considerable and definitely could've been garnished. Praetor said Chris wasn't touching it, so it wasn't being sent to his commissary account either.
Do you think Chris has seen his bank balance of $0.00 and gone apeshit yet? Or do you think he still hasn't been allowed to touch a computer? Imagine Chris finding out he really has nothing and there really was no reward for all the time he spent in jail, it was just pure punishment. I'm just glad we'll never see a video of Chris stuffing his face with steak and lobster in his Ritz Hotel room filled with transformers, bragging about how this is his reward for the "sacrifice" he made for Barb.
Would the Gateway House help Chris seek his back payments? I don't think they'd see that as an acceptable form of "striving for independence" nor is it what they're paid to do. The Gateway House will probably just throw up their hands and say, "Oh well, that wouldn't have given you permanent housing anyway, now get a job or get out!" Even if Chris pursues the back payments on his own without getting tased by the Jerkops, the person at the window might take one look at the case and say "Your payments were paused while incarcerated, so you get nothing!" without even looking into the semantics. After that, Chris's only recourse is to lawyer up and sue Social Security, which he has no money to do.
ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS
-Barb stole it all
-The courts found out how much money Chris had, so instead of the state paying for Heilberg, Chris was required to foot the bill for his services for the past 18 months (This could be the truth behind Chris' understanding that he was saving his money to retain Heilberg in future, when in reality it was to retain him for the present case).
-Chris did have savings in excess of $25,000 when he got out of jail, and somehow already blew it all