My state's website wants me to fill out a form that lists all the members of my household and disclose what the household income is. Problem is if I include my dad I most likely will not be able to qualify. And I can't like write on the form anywhere "yes I live at home with my dad and he makes well over $30k a year, but he won't help me financially unless he feels like it." I really don't know what to do. I keep running out of money and food, I need EBT and cash assistance but if I lie and don't include my dad or lie about the household income, that's fraud and I could get in a lot of trouble I can't handle.
The fuck am I supposed to do? Has any other comrades ran into anything like this before? I know every state is different but maybe someone else on here lives at home with a wealthy parent and still qualified for EBT.
Help!!
my understanding is that it's very state dependent. in FL, for example, they are dicks and will investigate and come after you to squeeze blood from a stone to reclaim benefits paid "in error". they will do this even if you answered everything truthfully and the state made a mistake entirely on their end in awarding you benefits.
other states are less worried about giving somebody $40 worth of food a week or whatever.
I've ended up having to pay back a couple hundred in food assistance benefits because I made "too much" money during consecutive reporting months, and I'm something of an obsessive rule-follower and hoop -jumper when it comes to these kinds of things.
It's all about the story you tell on the forms, and whether your supporting documents exhaustively agree with that story.
My state used to make me fill out and submit a ridiculous amount of forms and supporting documents, affidavits, and so on every few months. Now they've streamlined the process and since the pandemic started actually, they haven't really required me to submit an annual report, either.
Edit: someone like OP who's trying to enroll in food benefits for the first time still has to jump through all the hoops, though