Public Assistance

• Public assistance comes in a variety of forms and is available for pregnant women, children, elderly, disabled people and many other situations. Commonly known forms of assistance are Women Infants and Children (WIC), food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid.
  
  

Earned Income

• Money that you work to earn is earned income. The two ways you can earn this income are through an employer and job or from income you earn due to self employment. When applying for public assistance, only 80 percent of the income is used towards the earning limit to qualify, which means if you earned $1,000, $800 would be counted towards your income limit instead of the full $1,000.
  
  

Unearned Income

• Unearned income is money you receive that you do not work for. Examples of unearned income are child support, disability income, monetary gifts, rental income, lottery winnings and forms of public assistance such as TANF. One hundred percent of your unearned income goes towards your qualifying limits. While most forms of unearned income will be counted, in some cases unearned income will not be counted. The agency you are working with will make the final determination.
  
  

Expenses

• In addition to putting both your earned and unearned income on any public assistance application, you will be required to enter your expenses. All of these factors, as well as the number of people in your household and the type of assistance you are applying for will determine if you will qualify for assistance.