Expenses questions for aid requests
When I first had to apply for assistance, which was after the girl came to live with me, I had my first taste of what people have to go through when they are on public assistance. They dig into your finances, to a certain extent, examining your income in minute detail, but doing a fly-by on your expenses, excluding many of them as not valid, for their purposes, and discounting them.
They take your mortgage expenses, your electricity and telephone and heat (but if they ask you your what your heating expense was last month in August...), Valid expenses do not include cable (in a day when there is no free television), internet, credit cards (which can be a huge expense), or, if you live in an area where there is no public transportation and there is nothing within walking distance, transportation expenses; i.e., car expenses.
I had to average out my gas bill (for the car) and it averaged to $177 per month. My car repair bills averaged to $189 per month for the year. Mind, that does not include the licence and registration fees, either. The cable/phone/internet bill averaged to $202 per month, and the credit card bills reached $317.
All of those expenses were not allowed, and pushed me over my income. Yet I was denied for heating assistance last year, because they claimed that my income was too much. I also was inelegible for food stamps when I was spending more than $500 per month for food.
Being on a fixed income - and when I say fixed income I mean a very low fixed income - I cannot raise extra money to meet extra expenses. Heating last year cost me an average of over $500 per month (annual average) and the heating assistance might have kept me from going bankrupt. As it is, I did go bankrupt.
Filling out the forms this week, trying to explain why I went bankrupt, confirmed in writing what I already knew - the expenses were more than my income. Living like that is hard, and I shudder to think how many people live like that all the time.
A person cannot afford to eat properly - they have to purchase cheaper foods and the variety of inexpensive items is not great. Not particularily healthy, either. Anything that you have to pay extra for, even if it is a doctor, you try to avoid, as that will take away from the only flexible part of your budget, the food. So, when you have a "co-payment" to go to see the doctor, you are going to try not to go to a doctor and will put it off as long as possible.
You cannot afford to replace or repair anything, so when things break or wear out they stay broken or ruined until one day you look around and everything is in ruin. Even when you are very careful, but if you happen to live with people that are not careful (or considerate) the deterioration can happen seemingly overnight.
One of the hardest hit things is your "wardrobe", because clothing really has a short shelf life, if you have to work hard, and believe me when I tell you, being poor is very, very hard work.
During the 7 years I was in Maine, I had to shovel tons of snow, which one would imagine, when my brother broke the snow blower. I had to chop acres of firewood when my brother broke 3 chainsaws, 2 table saws (cutting stove lengths when he had broken the chain saws), and haul firewood back and forth over and over when I was trying to cut the heating bill down in the wood stove, that my brother eventually broke.
He broke all my kitchen chairs, and the table, and 2 out of 3 of the pieces of my living room set. He destroyed 2 lawnmowers (trying to mow an acre and a half with a 21" mower), and believe me when I tell you, I could go on.
To top all of that off, at least 2/3 of the food budget for the 3 of us was for him. The other 1/3 was shared by me and my girl. He also showed no self control with the heat, keeping himself and his books very well heated, no matter how much it cost me (he NEVER paid for it).
If my brother had been paying his share of the expenses, we would have been okay. If he had been been paying a simple room and board payment for himself and paying his own "business" expenses, we might have been, as well. He did not. j
No one wonders why I am angry with him. I have lost everything.
They take your mortgage expenses, your electricity and telephone and heat (but if they ask you your what your heating expense was last month in August...), Valid expenses do not include cable (in a day when there is no free television), internet, credit cards (which can be a huge expense), or, if you live in an area where there is no public transportation and there is nothing within walking distance, transportation expenses; i.e., car expenses.
I had to average out my gas bill (for the car) and it averaged to $177 per month. My car repair bills averaged to $189 per month for the year. Mind, that does not include the licence and registration fees, either. The cable/phone/internet bill averaged to $202 per month, and the credit card bills reached $317.
All of those expenses were not allowed, and pushed me over my income. Yet I was denied for heating assistance last year, because they claimed that my income was too much. I also was inelegible for food stamps when I was spending more than $500 per month for food.
Being on a fixed income - and when I say fixed income I mean a very low fixed income - I cannot raise extra money to meet extra expenses. Heating last year cost me an average of over $500 per month (annual average) and the heating assistance might have kept me from going bankrupt. As it is, I did go bankrupt.
Filling out the forms this week, trying to explain why I went bankrupt, confirmed in writing what I already knew - the expenses were more than my income. Living like that is hard, and I shudder to think how many people live like that all the time.
A person cannot afford to eat properly - they have to purchase cheaper foods and the variety of inexpensive items is not great. Not particularily healthy, either. Anything that you have to pay extra for, even if it is a doctor, you try to avoid, as that will take away from the only flexible part of your budget, the food. So, when you have a "co-payment" to go to see the doctor, you are going to try not to go to a doctor and will put it off as long as possible.
You cannot afford to replace or repair anything, so when things break or wear out they stay broken or ruined until one day you look around and everything is in ruin. Even when you are very careful, but if you happen to live with people that are not careful (or considerate) the deterioration can happen seemingly overnight.
One of the hardest hit things is your "wardrobe", because clothing really has a short shelf life, if you have to work hard, and believe me when I tell you, being poor is very, very hard work.
During the 7 years I was in Maine, I had to shovel tons of snow, which one would imagine, when my brother broke the snow blower. I had to chop acres of firewood when my brother broke 3 chainsaws, 2 table saws (cutting stove lengths when he had broken the chain saws), and haul firewood back and forth over and over when I was trying to cut the heating bill down in the wood stove, that my brother eventually broke.
He broke all my kitchen chairs, and the table, and 2 out of 3 of the pieces of my living room set. He destroyed 2 lawnmowers (trying to mow an acre and a half with a 21" mower), and believe me when I tell you, I could go on.
To top all of that off, at least 2/3 of the food budget for the 3 of us was for him. The other 1/3 was shared by me and my girl. He also showed no self control with the heat, keeping himself and his books very well heated, no matter how much it cost me (he NEVER paid for it).
If my brother had been paying his share of the expenses, we would have been okay. If he had been been paying a simple room and board payment for himself and paying his own "business" expenses, we might have been, as well. He did not. j
No one wonders why I am angry with him. I have lost everything.
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