AAMC FAP - Food Stamp & Social Security Verification

[TwitchBeGone]

Hi guys,

I'm having a bit of trouble getting verification for a bunch of things for FAP. My family receives welfare and housing assistance and social security benefits... (the whole 9 yards with assistance! we are dirt poor) and getting proof of this assistance is a bit of an ordeal since my parents can't speak English. Or they don't provide income verification for the whole year.

The conversation usually goes like this:

Operator: We can't speak to you directly; we need to speak to your father.
Me: Well he doesn't speak English. So can I speak on his behalf?
Operator: We can't help you then. We need to speak to him.

or if they allow me to speak on his behalf:

Operator: The best we can do is give you verification of payment for the last 2 months; and this will take 2-4 weeks to process and send out.


Is anyone have experience with this and is willing to offer some guidance or words of advice? It's a lot of hoops to jump through and I'm really trying to get my ducks in a row so I don't get denied. I'm scared that all this snail mail business is going to delay things since I'm trying to apply early this cycle.

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[NonTradJp]

I had similar experiences. Did they filed taxes? I think that would be enough to show due to their income. Also if you can get documentation from your parents. Did they keep anything the services sent to them? If they did, even if it is not explicit, if it has their names on it and address. Call FAP and describe it to them. They can tell you if they approve it. My parents did not know what the papers were but they kept tons of it and I just asked them to send it to me and I sort through it. It took a long time and I could not get FAP approved till close to July of my application cycle.

 

[TwitchBeGone]

I had similar experiences. Did they filed taxes? I think that would be enough to show due to their income. Also if you can get documentation from your parents. Did they keep anything the services sent to them? If they did, even if it is not explicit, if it has their names on it and address. Call FAP and describe it to them. They can tell you if they approve it. My parents did not know what the papers were but they kept tons of it and I just asked them to send it to me and I sort through it. It took a long time and I could not get FAP approved till close to July of my application cycle.

Thank you so much for the reply! My parents do not file taxes. They get letters every time we have a change in benefits, but AAMC told me that they don't accept that. The difficult agencies to get to is Social Security... the people are so rude there!

If my documents are not sufficient, do they flat out say "NO" and reject me immediately, or will they keep asking for more docs if need be? I'm trying my best with what I have, but the AAMC comes off as very unforgiving at times.

 

[NonTradJp]

From their perspective, they have a lot of work, their job is tiresome, and they are under appreciated so you are just making them do more work plus creating a liability because they have to play by stringent guidelines or get called out. So no worries about them. Yeah they could enjoy their work more or be courteous but you just do not know what other stress you are putting on them or what their tolerance level is.

The key to that is to be polite, smile, and ask if there are other ways. One way is to request them to provide a translator to talk to your parents or to file your parents taxes for them. One of the difficulties I encountered is that my parents used terms differently then the offices does so then there is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation. But that's just part of the territory. Another thing you can do is call your parents and ask them to wait on the line call them and ask if a verbal approval for you to speak during this one phone call is possible. At some point you might need to consider getting power of attorney if they are very elderly like mine. Lastly, you need to be persistent but always be polite.

The bright side is that the SS people you are talking to speak English.

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

Can you go into your local social security office with your parents to get the documents? I have found tht they are nicer in person.

Would a tax filing transcript from the IRS help? Easy to obtain for your parents and it is proof of not filing with low income.

Good luck. I had FAP and it helped.

 

[TwitchBeGone]

From their perspective . . .

Yeah, I completely understand. I go home and have them speak on the phone with extremely broken English and that's the best I can do. I'm very patient and courteous over the phone... It's just the bureaucracy and the red tape I have to go through is frustrating. I usually do it with a smile on my face; today was just especially frustrating I guess.

Can you go into your local social security office with your parents to get the documents? I have found tht they are nicer in person.

Would a tax filing transcript from the IRS help? Easy to obtain for your parents and it is proof of not filing with low income..

Thanks for the reply. Family circumstances make it hard, if not impossible, for me to schedule something on a weekday. The tax filing transcript wasn't a requirement on the FAP Next Steps page so I'm not sure if that'll work out.



What happens if I don't provide sufficient information the first time? Will they ask for more documentation, or will I get a rejection and that's it? I plan to submit everything completely and thoroughly, of course, but I'd appreciate the peace of mind if this submission wasn't my absolute final chance to prove my neediness.

 

[hotrodsduo]

Social security and food assistance sends a yearly "award" letter. Are you sure your parents don't have them?

 

[familyaerospace]

Ok, one way to get around this is to have a letter from a clergy member explain the situation. This is what I had to do to explain why I didn't file taxes and why my parents (who I don't have proper contact information for) could not be used. I had FAP 3 years.

 

[TwitchBeGone]

Social security and food assistance sends a yearly "award" letter. Are you sure your parents don't have them?

I just received the Social Security "award" letter but the Food Stamp agency said that they can only supply a 2 month summary of purchase history and our initial award letter. Has anyone else figured out a way to get around this?

 

[member000000000]

I had trouble getting my mom's information too, but I found the SOLUTION. Turns out my state has a website that beneficiaries can log in to their food assistance account. It's kind of like the online "bank account" for food assistance so it has MONTHLY STATEMENTS. I had no idea about it at first, but I given the age of technology we live in I just kind of guessed there had to be something like this; with a quick google search I found my answer. I put all the monthly statements from last year into one PDF and it was accepted with no problem.

Just do a google search with your state name, the name of your card (and/or the word "ebt") followed by "login". I don't know if all states have it but I did it for a couple before posting this and it worked. Hope this helps.

 

[DokterMom]

Regarding the "I have to speak with your father" thing -- could you all get on the phone together? Extension or conference call?

 

[TwitchBeGone]

I had trouble getting my mom's information too, but I found the SOLUTION. Turns out my state has a website that beneficiaries can log in to their food assistance account. It's kind of like the online "bank account" for food assistance so it has MONTHLY STATEMENTS. I had no idea about it at first, but I given the age of technology we live in I just kind of guessed there had to be something like this; with a quick google search I found my answer. I put all the monthly statements from last year into one PDF and it was accepted with no problem.

Just do a google search with your state name, the name of your card (and/or the word "ebt") followed by "login". I don't know if all states have it but I did it for a couple before posting this and it worked. Hope this helps.

Thank you! My state doesn't provide monthly statements but it does have a monthly transaction history that lists when money was deposited. I'm going to print out each month and put them all in a PDF because that's the best I can do.

Regarding the "I have to speak with your father" thing -- could you all get on the phone together? Extension or conference call?

It was a bit of an ordeal; I drove back home and made the phone call with him through the speaker.

 

[ridethecliche]

Regarding the "I have to speak with your father" thing -- could you all get on the phone together? Extension or conference call?

Doesn't help if parent doesn't speak English.

Edit, seems op said no English and broken English. Guessing it's the latter even if it's barely so.

Oy, good luck op. Make sure to check the hardship box on amcas as well.

 

[DokterMom]

Doesn't help if parent doesn't speak English.

Edit, seems op said no English and broken English. Guessing it's the latter even if it's barely so.

Oy, good luck op. Make sure to check the hardship box on amcas as well.

I was assuming OP would be on the phone with his/her parent and would translate -- as apparently did happen.

 

[Pusheen]

Don't worry about being rejected, I had similar issues and they just sent my app back and asked for better documentation.

Also, they didn't seem to be too picky about what they accepted. For benefits for my family, I just went on the website that shows my parent's ebt balance. It also shows all the transactions on the card. I just copied and pasted into a word doc all the deposits from the past year, literally just copied line by line from the website. I also included the card number. Sent in the word doc and they were fine with it.

 

[ridethecliche]

Don't worry about being rejected, I had similar issues and they just sent my app back and asked for better documentation.

Also, they didn't seem to be too picky about what they accepted. For benefits for my family, I just went on the website that shows my parent's ebt balance. It also shows all the transactions on the card. I just copied and pasted into a word doc all the deposits from the past year, literally just copied line by line from the website. I also included the card number. Sent in the word doc and they were fine with it.

I think the AAMC, of all organizations of this nature, would be understanding of the difficulties low-income applicants face in providing this sort of documentation.

Glad to hear this is the case.

 

[TwitchBeGone]

Don't worry about being rejected, I had similar issues and they just sent my app back and asked for better documentation.

This really puts me at ease. I had been stressing out about this for a few months now, going back and forth with multiple government agencies and often getting nowhere. At the end of the day, it will be worth it and I am thankful for these opportunities.


EDIT: And a huge thank you to all who responded! Every response was helpful and is making this process feel less intimidating. 🙂