Food Stamps in California.

[dealingsdone]

Hello, I'm considering filing for food stamps soon. I've been slowly draining my 401K, my bank accounts, what little stock I held, etc etc...

What I want to know is what is the food stamp office going to ask me to provide?

Currently I have 2 children and a 3rd one coming in a month. My income varies but it is rarely over 1,000 in a month. My bank accts have under 1200 in them at this point.

What type of documentation are they going to ask for? Are they going to ask me to provide bank statements from several months back, or just the most recent months?

Thanks,

[WhatMoney]

Hello, I'm considering filing for food stamps soon.
What I want to know is what is the food stamp office going to ask me to provide?
Thanks,

Well, here's the application. Not much to it. They tell you what else to bring for your in-person interview.

http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/foodstamp...h/DFA285A1.PDF

And here's their pre-screening tool: http://www.snap-step1.usda.gov/fns/

How much if any you qualify for depends on your income and expenses. If you have only $10 a month left for food after you pay your basic shelter costs, and you don't have much left in your bank accounts you will qualify. Most people cannot qualify because they have too many assets. They usually only look at your most recent bank statements, etc. Only way to find out is to apply.

[dealingsdone]

Hello, I'm considering filing for food stamps soon. I've been slowly draining my 401K, my bank accounts, what little stock I held, etc etc...

What I want to know is what is the food stamp office going to ask me to provide?

Currently I have 2 children and a 3rd one coming in a month. My income varies but it is rarely over 1,000 in a month. My bank accts have under 1200 in them at this point.

What type of documentation are they going to ask for? Are they going to ask me to provide bank statements from several months back, or just the most recent months?

Thanks,

Hello,
Thank you for your attempt to be helpful. I've already seen the links you provided. I am hoping to get a post from a person who already had been interviewed and see what he was asked for precisely. The reason is, that my bank accts. had some big activity 45 days ago as I called in a debt or two. I don't want to have to try to explain to an interviewer how it is I came into that money. That money was subsequently used to pay off everything I could, so it is gone, but still I wonder if it will flag me in some way.

Thanks,

[chrisdfw]

They have changed the rules for assets, retirement accounts and home equity no longer count. I am not sure how I feel about this.

On one hand, people need money for retirement, but should someone with a paid for house and million dollar IRA be able to get the
taxpayers to pay for their food.

In general I'm against food stamps anyway, I prefer charity, but that is a political questions, from a practical aspect if you qualify take it, because if
you make some money you're going to have to pay the taxes to provide it to others. Please don't make it a lifestyle, we have enough leeches in this country.

Don't spend your 401k IRA, you don't have to. They changed these rules recently, now you can be a millionaire as long as your income is low.

Go get it.

[Stilltheone]

When my husband lost his job in April, we applied and received food stamps. We received $786/month. (in the state of WI) We weren't asked to provide any type of documentation whatsoever. We recently filled out a 6 month report form and included his new job on the form. All we were asked to provide was pay stubs and our amount got adjusted. We NEVER had to provide bank statements. These food stamps have been a blessing and a HUGE help to us and our family.

Don't forget to also apply for WIC in your state. This helps with basics, such as bread and milk and FORMULA for the new baby. We've also been doing that and it's a HUGE help!!

[WhatMoney]

What I want to know is what is the food stamp office going to ask me to provide?

Since you have already seen the application form, you already know the answer. There is nothing more than they describe in the instructions.

Currently I have 2 children and a 3rd one coming in a month. My income varies but it is rarely over 1,000 in a month. My bank accts have under 1200 in them at this point.

What type of documentation are they going to ask for? Are they going to ask me to provide bank statements from several months back, or just the most recent months?

Again, you will have to list all your accounts (checking, savings, brokerage, trust, etc.) for non-exempt assets including the account number, the name of the financial institution, and the present balance. You will be asked to supply a copy of the latest statement for each account, at least in CA and OR.

Just go through the sample calculator, fill out all questions, and be prepared to show paper evidence for each answer. Nothing more to it than that. You are not preparing a bankruptcy petition here - the SNAP (the new name for food stamps) application process is about 100 times easier.

I am very familiar with the application and interview process btw - I have gone through it with many clients over the years... What I told you was all you need to know.

If you must know all the details of the SNAP you can go to the horse's mouth and get all the gory details about counted resources, net income requirements etc. Since SNAP is a federal program, the requirements are consistent in all states, although there are local differences in cost of living allowances only your local office can provide.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/applica...ligibility.htm

There isn't 1 in 10,000 SNAP recipients that know or care about the details, since a case worker just plugs your numbers into the computer, and the decision and amount is printed out. Once you are in the system, you will need to provide new income information every six months or once a year.

[dealingsdone]

THanks everybody for these responses. I am MUCH more clear on the process and what I need to do. WHATMONEY, I have a question or two for you if you don't mind. 1) I have 2 children currently (3rd coming in 5 weeks). Although both children live with me 1/2 time, I am only claiming one on my tax return. My ex-wife claims the other. DO I claim both children for SNAP or just 1? 2) If I claim just one child, am I to assume that I don't count the other child's bank account against the $2000 dollar limit on bank accts? For the record, both children have 300 dollars in their bank accts for a total of 600.

I live with non-resident legal alien currently. I am not going to claim her at all because I can't, but I would like to add the new child we are having shortly. This appears to be viable.

I'm not going to use WIC even though I do believe we are fully qualified. Thanks for bringing up this option.

[WhatMoney]

THanks everybody for these responses. I am MUCH more clear on the process and what I need to do. WHATMONEY, I have a question or two for you if you don't mind. 1) I have 2 children currently (3rd coming in 5 weeks). Although both children live with me 1/2 time, I am only claiming one on my tax return. My ex-wife claims the other. DO I claim both children for SNAP or just 1? 2) If I claim just one child, am I to assume that I don't count the other child's bank account against the $2000 dollar limit on bank accts? For the record, both children have 300 dollars in their bank accts for a total of 600.

I live with non-resident legal alien currently. I am not going to claim her at all because I can't, but I would like to add the new child we are having shortly. This appears to be viable.

If you average one child/month, I would claim one. Depends on the time sharing arrangement you and your ex are doing. If you have both kids for a month or more at a time, you might have to claims 2 kids, and then claim none when they are not living with you. But I think if you are sharing two kids 1/2 time each at frequent intervals, that would be one kid on average and should you claim that. It's possible to update your household size and income every month, but that really just creates too much paperwork for the State office, so the case worker will want the simplest solution.

Same on child's bank account, which you have control over. Just claim $300, unless only you have access to both accounts. That's a good question to ask the case worker.

Once you have your baby you should update your file and increase your household number to three - that could result in another $200/month in CA. Also there are questions about child care expenses if any, which could lower your net income and increase your benefits. Case workers see thousands of cases every year - there is nothing they won't know how to handle.