There is good news for me on the economic front. Otherwise I wouldn't write a diary about the matter. I prefer misery in solitude, my fortune in public. More to the point, my experience may help others in a similar situation: the struggling self-employed.
A year ago I decided to apply for food stamps. In hindsight, I should have done this a while ago. Pride, you know. There's always a way to make ends meet. The ways ran out. That might be fine if I were a lone wolf. I am not. My spouse depends on me. If I suffer, so does she. Can't have that. Anyway, applying for aid isn't easy. If you're self-employed, there are a few extra hurdles. You will need to know the law, because the local aid office worker probably won't. So if you're down and out, read on below the squig.
The federal government defines the poverty level (http://aspe.hhs.gov/...) according to income. Things like food assistance and even the health insurance law are calculated based on income. For most people, income is defined by a paycheck. If self-employed, you may draw a paycheck ... unless your little business doesn't make very much, in which case you draw what you can to pay the bills. When I first applied for aid, I was told that my sales were my income. And if wishes were horses. I might show $70K in deposits, but half that went to buy the product, and another chunk for other expenses.
I let it go, because I wasn't THAT poor. Then I became that poor, so I reapplied last November. Rejected again for the same reason. This would be as if you salaried people were determined to be rich based on your company's total sales divided by its number of employees. You'd be living large. I appealed, based on the legal definition of gross income for the self-employed. This is for California, but it applies nationally: http://foodstampguide.org/...
I appealed to the county office, citing the law [7 C.F.R. § 273.11(a)(1)(ii); MPP § 63-503.411(c)(QR).] Gross income is what you have after expenses. Say I buy something for $400 and spend $50 selling it. Someone pays me $900 for the thing. My gross is $450. My net is after I also deduct other things, like internet, electricity. My appeal was upheld and sent back down to the local office.
The case worker then asked for Nov-Dec receipts and income sources. I sent the stack. The case worker, Darlene -- apparently someone I harmed in a past life -- denies the claim, based on a lot of horse manure, one of them being that I can't deduct refunds/chargebacks. That's like if I give you $20 and then take it back, you still made $20. To Darlene, chickens are counted before they hatch. I appeal a second time. The county upholds my appeal, and says they'll instruct Darlene to simply ask for my 2011 tax return, specifically Schedule C, which lists net sales minus cost of goods ("tentative profit"), then expenses, then deductions to equal taxable income. Begrudgingly, Darlene relented, but only after finding that my gross profit was below the poverty level. That's how bad last year was. She should have used profit minus expenses. And even then she got the math wrong. I should probably appeal that. Still, I have aid going back to November, though I still need to submit paperwork for the last quarter. I expect to fight Darlene over that, too.
Now then, this is important on another level. Until now I saw no personal benefit to me in the recently enacted health care law. Meaning, all I had to look forward to was being fined for the sin of being poor. For, if you cannot qualify as being poor, you will be considered wealthy enough to afford insurance. As if. So now, God forbid, if I'm as poor when the mandate kicks in, I won't be kicked to the curb for having empty pockets. I'll just be kicked for having half-empty pockets. ;-) It's an improvement.
Finally, I'd like to point out that I'm used to this nonsense, having to fight tooth-and-nail with companies and agencies. It's a phase in my life for the last few years. I couldn't transfer internet service to my new place without going thirteen rounds with Verizon. Earlier this year I picked up a contract with the postal service, only to find the USPS guy pulling some bush league stuff with my pay. So it's just possible that someone laid the voodoo down on me, and no way in hell are you going to have to fight like I did for assistance.
Oh, and don't buy into that "sponging off of others" nonsense. All my decades of paying into the system, never once did I begrudge the more unfortunate for receiving aid. Remember, the worst offenders are at the very top, but it's the idiots in between who will kill ya.
2:13 PM PT: Thanks to everyone for your comments. One aspect pointed out is the psychological aspect of being harried when applying for aid. This is a concern. I expect that most people applying for aid aren't at the top of their game. This is the main reason (besides griping) that I wrote the diary. You have to go in armed. That's where knowing the law comes to the rescue, that and having a sh*t-kicker attitude. It's unfortunate. Being down on their luck shouldn't be tasked like this. But they are. Well, you have to go in with the big guns. Be polite. Print out the law. Don't argue with the case worker. Just inform them you will appeal based on the facts.