Welfare Benefits For Single Mothers
According to Metropolitan Statistical from the US census, over 60% of the total children living with single parents, especially mothers; live below the average poverty line. Hence, this has prompted the need for them to get financial assistance. To actualize this, the country’s government have established lots of welfare programs to help single mothers and children be beneficiaries to different finance source. The 1996 Welfare reform legislation has helped shaped the work and time duration limits which has helped single mothers receive benefits. Although the welfare assistance would not shoulder every of the family’s total expenses, it would, however, serve as a supplementary to poverty alleviation.
Highlighted below are some of the welfare beneficiary programs available for single mothers in the U.S.
Medicaid
Medicaid is one of the many federal beneficiary programs available for specific low-earning individuals, including single mothers and children. Primarily, not every person qualify for the benefits and services at the Medicaid Centers for Medicare Services government agency. That is, you could qualify for other welfare forms and still not qualify for Medicaid. More so, there are different eligibility criteria for both programs. However, low-income earning families have higher likelihood of qualifying than others for the Medicaid program. Pregnant women are also liable to get Medicaid health coverage service for antenatal care and after childbirth.
To check whether you qualify for Medicaid health program, visit https://www.medicaid.gov/
TANF
The Temporary Aid for Needy Families, popularly know as TANF, is simply a block grant program developed to replace AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, reflecting the original 1996 welfare reformed guidelines. This particular program provides financial raise in form of cash grant to families monthly, for a duration of two years or less. However, the prerequisites are solely dependent on work requirements. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that every eligible single parents with children under the age of six years are mandated to spend nothing less than 20 hours a week at work, undertaking tasks, including while on job training. For those with children over the age of six years or more, they are required to spend about 30 hours per week, embarking on work-related activities before they can be eligible for the grant.
SNAP and WIC
Also referred to as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, the Food stamp scheme serves as a beneficiary programs that provide food vouchers for low-income citizens. According to reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, other program beneficiaries, like TANF are also eligible to apply for this food stamp benefit programs. More importantly, nursing mothers and pregnant women with children under five years with need to getting nutritional assistance are eligible and very welcome to access the grant. Meanwhile, the main program is practically registered under the Women, Infants and Children program often referred to as WIC. While food stamps are eligible for purchasing any kind of food, the WIC vouchers can only be used to purchase specific types of highly nutritional food, such as eggs, diary, cereals, and peanut butters.
To check your health nutrition eligibility, visit https://www.wichealth.org
Housing Assistance
The Section 8 of the U.S department for Urban Development administers assistance provision for housing and payment for the less privilege. However, to be eligible for the Section 8, it is mandatory that the household income must be below 50 percent of the average income for the region. Clearly, the median incomes varies across different regions in the country, the same goes for welfare benefits. Hence, recipients aspiring to be eligible for the loan must meet the lone requirement of spending about 30 percent of their income on housing. However, the assistance comes in form of a voucher covering the disparity between the 30 percent income and original cost of housing rentals. Meanwhile, it is important to know that not every properties can be accessed with the Section 8 vouchers, and if you live in a fast-pace city, the long list of programs can cause you to wait a long time without getting assistance.
Visit https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/programs/hcv/about/fact_sheet to check your eligibility for housing benefits programs.
Working Benefits
With the system administration that gives single mothers the autonomy to work and receive certain benefits while working, it really has given rise to more hardworking recipients. Even if the working class single mother wages is quite meagre, thee single mother recipient is eligible to receive food stamps and also eligible to enjoy health care services from Medicaid. Also, with the integration of subsidies, single mothers can now conveniently foot the bill of their wards and still concentrate on their jobs. As for State-funded job undertakings, there are available training programs and educational grants which would help single mothers get the necessary qualifications and skill to make them ready and be able to apply for better employment.
So all we have for you. Of course there are definitely other grants and welfare benefits available for single parents, we have however highlighted the important ones that are easily accessible for single moms. However, in the case that you need to learn more about the available programs within your vicinity, you can contact the state social services agency and learn more about the available programs. More importantly, you should know that different starts have different means of administering various federal programs for single mothers, hence it would be a better option if you start making your researches from the state office or from their official website office.
