FOOD STAMPS. Feel free to ask Eligibility Worker any questio

Boni

Fri, Oct 26 2012, 1:52 pm

amother wrote:

Thanks so much for taking your precious time to help us out.
My husbands income varies greatly. He gets paid by commission & he could have $0 income for 2 months & then the next month 10k. Am I still eligible? My household size is 4.
TIA!

It really depends on the situation. I would not recomment applying the month he receives 10k. Bring bank statements for 3 months - the income will be averaged. If you are applying on the month with $0 income and previous month was $0 and you are not sure if there will be income next month - most likely your case will be approved with $0 income. Also, if that is self-employed income, only 60% of the average will be counted if you pick standurd deduction of 40% for your business expenses.

Boni

Fri, Oct 26 2012, 6:33 pm

amother wrote:

Boni, thanks so much for your help on this thread. I've been reading the questions and answers and have a couple of questions of my own. First, are the income limits you listed a few posts back for a specific state, or are they federal guidelines? Second, do the income guidelines vary for different types of income? For example, if a family's entire income is unearned income, such as unemployment income, do the maxiumum income threshholds change?

1. I checked NY limits -same
2. Same for all types of income. Just different budgeting. No 20% deduction allowed for unearned income, so you get less benefits with unearned income than if you would have the same earned income

amother

Mon, Nov 05 2012, 4:20 pm

I have a (possibly urgent) question:
We are in Lakewood & are supposed to submit our re-snap documentation by today. The Lakewood office is closed (no power from Sandy) and when we called Toms River (the main county office) my husband got transfered to someone's voicemail where he left a message asking what we should do. They are notorious for not returning calls, ever. Should we be nervous or can we assume that if the local office (where our caseworker works & where he had the re-snap meeting/interview) is closed that they will give us an extention to submit documentation until they reopen?

I realize that you are not local but maybe you have some info about what the policy would be in such a situation.

Thanks so much!

amother

Mon, Nov 12 2012, 9:47 pm

I have a question
I applied for food stamps in nj in june....only got an appointment to talk to a case worker the first week of october. Because the office was so swamped we "got stuck" with a processor to handle our paperwork NOT an actual case worker...
We were missing 1 part of the paperwork (because my husband had just got a new job and needed a letter from his boss to verify) and our "case worker" gave us a deadline of october 9th to bring in the documentation...We politely explained to her that its a jewish holiday and we'd have no issue bringing it in by friday the latest....she said it was fine....we brought in the letter that friday and to make a long story short she declined us for being late....We came in and spoke to her and she said "oh im sorry ill fix it" and then again, we got another letter in the mail saying we needed to appeal and if the appeal would be in our favor we would only get food stamps from october and on NOT retroactively..
What can we do? Can I demand a new case worker? Or speak to someone who can help sort this out? We can REALLY use the $$ things are tight as is...

amother

Wed, Dec 05 2012, 6:41 pm

Another amother here with a different question: I know I'm supposed to let them know if my income goes above the limit right away. However, I don't get paid on a consistent basis. There are seasons when I earn more and seasons when I earn almost nothing, I calculate my income by distributing that over the year. So, for example, let's say the maximum income to be on SNAP for my family size is 3000 and in December I earn $4000. But I didn't earn anything in November, that $4000 needs to cover two months' worth of expenses, making my income realistically more like $2000 a month which is well under the limit. But if anyone wanted to audit my food stamp case they'd see $4000 coming in in one month. Do I have to report that? I don't want to get in trouble for fraud but if I report too much income in December, I won't get any food stamps in January either when I'll really need it because the money will be gone without more coming (probably). By the time I'd get back on food stamps, it would be time for another good month and I'd have to report myself disqualified again.

How does this work? Basically we really need the food stamps, our income is definitely low enough, however it comes in large enough chunks to disqualify us. There's pretty much no way to get paid less per month, it's self employment, I can't choose when the business will be busy.

wtvr

Wed, Dec 05 2012, 9:00 pm

amother wrote:

Can I ask you a question about WIC? I don't know if you know about that too. If not perhaps you can direct me to someone or somewhere that does. I'm on WIC and have a 6 month old baby. I'm supposed to bring her vaccination form to my next appointment. Problem is we are doing an alternate schedule for vaccines so she didnt get them yet. Will that disqualify me? If not, how do I go about this? Thanks so much.

It's not a problem. You can just say you don't have it, or show them what you do have (if she has any). They are supposed to have it on record, but they can't enforce your vaccinations.

Boni

Sat, Dec 15 2012, 11:50 pm

amother wrote:

Well, it depends on the reporting responsibilities implemented in your county. In my county clients, if NOT homeless, elderly or disabled, required to complete quarterly reports, and they are reporting about income received only in the middle month of the quarter, Even though if they get income in the middle month of the quarter that is higher than the limit, but there is no income in the first or last month of the quarter and client provides self declaration about nature of his income and his income is unknown for the next quarter - it is being entered in the system as one time only and it will not affect next quarter benefits. Homeless, disabled or people over 60 have different reporting responsibilities, they have to report any changes within 10 days. So read careful your rights and responsibilities, I know that in some places people required to report semi-annually. But any way even if you have to report your earnings right away, submit a good explanation with your bank statements as a proof that there were no deposits last month. Also clarify that you are self-employed and have business expenses, so only 60% of that money will be counted as your income

amother

Sun, Dec 16 2012, 12:38 pm

OH &%$#!!!!! I got a letter last month for a "periodic report." This thing came near the beginning of November saying it could not be signed before the END of November and needs to be returned by 12/10. That is not a long window of time but anyway it was in several weeks so I stuck it up on my fridge to ripen. And of course I got so used to walking past it that I completely forgot it came due. Plus, it needed proof of November's income, and since I don't have a salary my only proof is my bank statement which didn't come until Friday anyway. It says it needs to be returned by five days ago in order to continue receiving benefits... is there anything I can do now?

Sad

And here I was finally starting to feel a little more organized. Think I could beg for more time because we got displaced by Sandy? We've been home all month but frankly that really threw a wrench in the works...

amother

Sun, Dec 16 2012, 1:16 pm

wtvr wrote:

amother wrote:

It's not a problem. You can just say you don't have it, or show them what you do have (if she has any). They are supposed to have it on record, but they can't enforce your vaccinations.

I am the amother who asked this question about WIC. I'm sorry I didn't respond before but thank you so much for your response. I hope what you say will work, but I feel like surely they will say something in response to that. Like:

-why don't you have it?
-did she get her shots?
-when will you have it?
-we can't give you the checks until you bring it in.
-didn't you know you're supposed to bring it in this time?

etc. What then? She didn't get any shots, and right now we don't have a specific time when she will get them, although she most likely will at some point. But that might not be for a while. So what to do if they're insistent?

amother

Sun, Dec 16 2012, 1:35 pm

amother wrote:

Oh btw same amother here, the form said if I have any questions about the report I should call (000) 000-0000. THANKS A LOT.

WIC amother, why not just get an immunization record from the pediatrician showing that you haven't immunized. WIC doesn't make you immunize or not, but they probably need to get the paper from you for their records. So have the doc print out his immunization history form with your kid's name on it, with no dates written next to the list because they haven't done them. I do vaccinate but on a different schedule so they never have everything they're supposed to for the age, I never had any problem at WIC, they just take whatever doctor form I give them.

amother

Sun, Dec 16 2012, 5:46 pm

amother wrote:

I'm the WIC amother, thanks for the response. I guess that's a good idea. They won't say hey, this is not filled in? They look over doctor forms very carefully and had me have my doctor re-fill out forms more than once because it wasn't filled out to their satisfaction. Also my appointment is tomorrow so I don't know if I'll be able to do it in time, but it is a good idea, thank you!

Boni

Sun, Jan 13 2013, 4:19 pm

amother wrote:

Boni,

Could you explain reporting income within 10 days - does this mean 10 days after first day or work or first paycheck?

What if it takes a little while to get on payroll so your first paycheck is late?

Thanks.

When you are reporting your income you have to submit verification, so if you don't have verification when and how much you are going to get then wait until you get your first check

Last edited by Boni on Sun, Jan 13 2013, 4:34 pm; edited 1 time in total