Leveraging Government Assistance Programs

Unemployment Benefits

Unemployment benefits are offered to those who have experienced job losses in which they were not at fault. It provides financial assistance to ensure that they can live a luxurious life.

In order to be eligible for these financial benefits, you need to be unemployed or have extremely low salaries/wages during your base period with hardly any labor hours. However, this should occur due to something that isn’t directly your fault. In addition, you need to be available and legally allowed to work and get employed. 

To file a claim towards the unemployment insurance program in the state that you work in, you need to first reach out to them and clearly explain why you lost your job or reduced wages as well as provide personal information such as social security number and past employment history. Once you do that, your claim will carefully be reviewed and you’ll be contacted if you get accepted for unemployment benefits.

The standard duration for receiving benefits is 26 weeks for majority states, but it may slightly vary based on the state and its regulations. However, when unemployment reaches its peak, states may provide benefits that exceed the time frame of the standard duration.

Unemployment benefits are generally subject to federal and state taxes such as the State Income Tax, Federal Income Tax, or taxed by the Internal Revenue Service. Withholding federal income taxes from unemployment payments to the insurance company is always possible. 

Source: Project New Yorker

Food Assistance Programs

Food assistance programs offer food benefits and resources to those in need. Examples of those programs include SNAP (EBT), WIC, and local food banks. 

SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) - this food assistance program is a federal program held at the state level. In order to qualify for this, you must have a household income level that’s significantly lower than the poverty line. It helps low-income families that often struggle to afford nutritious food. In addition, it offers an Electronics Benefit Transfer card (EBT), which is used for purchasing items at local retail food shops.

Another food assistance program is the WIC. Eligibility for this program is primarily based on household income levels, pregnancy status, and the child’s age as it is mostly targeted towards children under the age of 5. Its goal is to offer supplemental food and nutrition information to pregnant women and little children.

Finally, local food banks and pantries are there to offer free food items and resources to those in need and experiencing famine. An example is the North Texas Food Bank. This food bank is sponsored by several public schools and is partnered with food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters to provide nutritious meals. Individuals typically engage in food donations, where they donate boxes and cans of free food to give to the economically underprivileged. Another example is the American Grace Food Pantry, which is a non-profit organization dedicated towards procuring and distributing many tons of food to families across the area each month. It consists of lots of community members who volunteer and provide service.

Source: Dear NICU Mama

Housing Support

Housing support essentially offers housing and rental assistance to low-income individuals who’re granted eligibility based on family size, citizenship status, household income, and many other factors. 

One way of offering assistance is through rent relief. A federally-funded rent relief program, namely the Texas Rent Relief Program, offers aid for paying rent and utility bills and was established during Covid-19 as many residents of Texas began facing financial difficulties during that time period. 

Source: NCSHA

Another way of doing so is through an eviction moratorium, which aids in preventing the growth of eviction cases. During Covid-19, lots of families were evicted from their homes for not paying house rent, so the CDC issued a national moratorium that could offer assistance and halt the spread of the virus. Even after the US Supreme Court had formally ended this moratorium, many states continued to establish their own ones as the Delta Variant’s ubiquity made it highly critical to do so.

The Section 8 Housing offers vouchers to poor and economically underprivileged families that have been evicted in the past. The local Public Housing Authority pays a rent subsidy, which gets subtracted from the total rent and that is what the tenant pays. 

Source: Arrived

Healthcare Programs

Healthcare programs are meant to assist low-income individuals with paying for health insurance and make it more affordable. Health insurance is critical, especially for the elderly, as people experience health issues regularly and it is quite common worldwide. Some examples of programs include Medicaid, Cobra Subsidies, and ACA marketplace credits. 

Medicaid pays for medical aid for low-income individuals and families. It also provides prevailing benefits to poor families from the military with disabled members. Both the federal and state governments fund this. It involves prescription drugs and doctor visits as well.

Source: Home Care Delivered

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) assists people who’ve recently lost employment or experienced a life-threatening event by permitting them to continue utilizing the health insurance coverage sponsored by their past employer. The coverage provided, however, is temporary and doesn’t last for a long duration after the job is lost.

The ACA Marketplace Credits are premium tax credits offered to income-qualifying individuals in order to make health insurance paid through the marketplace more convenient and affordable. People can advance their payments by choosing to issue the credits directly to the insurance coverage company every month when they pay their bills. 

Source: Cover Texas Now

Utility and Energy Bill Assistance

Local utility aid programs and organizations are meant to financially assist people with covering the costs of electricity and energy bills. These bills are necessary for generating electricity in homes in order to cool, heat, refrigerate, and power personal devices for usage. Some well-known organizations included LIHEAP, which is federally funded, and CEAP.

LIHEAP ((Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program) is a program that assists low-income families with electricity bills and covers the costs of heating and cooling homes. The qualifications to be eligible for these benefits vary from state to state.

CEAP (Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program) is an organization that like LIHEAP, aids low-income and poor households with covering the costs of propane and electricity. Qualification is based upon household income level and federal poverty. 

Source: Gateway Community Action

Small Business and Self-employed Aid

The Small Business Administration offers loans such as microloans, which are relatively smaller loans provided to small businesses and childcare centers for developing and expanding. In addition, they offer 7(a) loans to help lenders access equipment and working capital when running a small business.

  In addition, tax credits are credits meant to directly reduce the amount of tax you owe. They must be claimed on tax returns by the taxpayer for evidence purposes and can be refundable or non-refundable based whether the credit amount exceeds that of the tax liability. An example of a refundable program is the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is for low-income individuals, while an example of a non-refundable one is the Child Tax Credit, which is for children meeting specific requirements.

Source: CDC Small Business Finance