Is it "easy" to get WIC?

Gina418

All this talk about scamming the system got me thinking - how easy/hard is it to get WIC? I've never had to apply, but if I needed to, I would. Can I assume social security numbers are run to verify employment/income/lack of either? Do you have to "check in" periodically where you have to re-apply or have your information verified again?

Just curious.

 

Monkeybuttwhat

You don't qualify without a Land Rover with spinners.

stephm0188

And Lee press-on nails.

ToledoDeux

Coach bag and Escalade, baby!

Monkeybuttwhat

stephm0188:

And Lee press-on nails.

No no people on WIC get to pay for their nails to be done. People not on WIC wear Lee Press Ons.

carolinag

my understanding is that you just have to prove that you are under a certain income level for the number of people in your family. and a fetus counts as a person i believe. dh's coworkers wife gets WIC. she is a sahm, and he works, but once she got pg they met the criteria. now as for checking in and such i have no clue. i assumed you just had to show an old w-2 or paystub.

CelticWife

You do not have to have a SSN to recieve Medicaid, but you do for Food Stamps. I am not sure about WIC; I don't think you do.

You have to give them your last few pay stubs, copies of all of your bank accounts, etc. You have to have no more then 2k in all your accounts.

I believe that if you are pregnant, you apply once and then it lasts for 60 days after you were due. Then you have to re-verify every 6 months or so.

MrsPreK

I'm not on WIC but a few of my friends were/are....

My one friend did qualify (she had to provide tax info) BUT then the next year when she went back to resign-up they never even asked to see those things again (she would NOT have qualified that 2nd time because she knew they made too much but wanted to try anyways) but they never asked her to provide new info. Gee, lucky her.

I didn't think that was very fair but I kept my mouth shut. 

ETA - We live in MI

LukeAndAmanda

Pretty difficult! At one point we had less than half of our income left (because of child support), and were told we made too much money.

hudsaunt1

No, is not "easy" to qualify.  They have income guidelines that you have to meet and once you go over them you are done.  You have to recertify every couple of months.  (My office is right next door to the local WIC office....so I have learned alot about the program). 

LilMissLadybug

Yes it very easy to get WIC, also the income guidelines are pretty generous. I've been on it twice, the first time I was in a different county and the WIC office was more strict on checking income. The second time I had to remind the lady to look at the check stub I brought in, she was ready to hand over the checks without even looking at anything.

preg_amy

I don't know about WIC... but I do know about applying for help for health care.

You need lots of pay stubs, printouts of bank statements, you need to disclose any saving accounts or any other types of savings you might have, any car titles, any outstanding medical bills, copies of your social security card and drivers license... oh, and a vial of blood from your first born child. 

It's not easy and it's a very long process.

Like I said, I don't know about WIC or food stamps.

jenifairies

I had it when I was pregnant and for a few months after DD was born. I had to fill out an app that had all of our asset info, income, ssn's, etc. And turn in copies of bank statements, paystubs. The first application was good until she was born and then you'd have to reapply at birth and then each year after that. I cancelled ours when she was 6ish months because DH got a raise and we no longer needed it.

They don't verify income by calling employers or doing any sort of other checks. If you get caught lying you get booted, but unless someone reports you, there's not really any way to get caught. The income qualification is just above poverty level. When I got it, our gross pay was about 2,000/mo, and we saw 1,500, and we were *just* below the cutoff line.

jenerally?

something about standing in line for 4 hours to apply in person ...

 

jacbre

We are on it since I lost my job in Oct. I did not want to but finally did. We have been on it for a month or so.  You have to go to the office every 3 months to get new checks and they check your income every 6 months. It really does not cover much. We are a family of 3. We get $6 for fruits and veggies, 3 gallons of milk and 1 quart. 1 16oz cheese, up to 36 oz cereal, 2 16 oz loaf of bread or brown rice or  corn tortillas, 2 64 oz juice, 4 cans of beans and 1 dozen of eggs. Better than nothing.

LukeAndAmanda

When I applied, I did it all online. All they wanted was our income, and DH's child support information. Didn't ask us anything about bank statements. They still told us we made too much.

Monkeybuttwhat

LukeAndAmanda:

When I applied, I did it all online. All they wanted was our income, and DH's child support information. Didn't ask us anything about bank statements. They still told us we made too much.

They are not going to factor back support right? Just support on the percentage of income. It was because of back support and support unadjusted for the new pay cut of the new job if I remember right? It can be a painful transition to work that out but it is not a permanent situation.

LukeAndAmanda

Monkeybuttwhat:

LukeAndAmanda:

When I applied, I did it all online. All they wanted was our income, and DH's child support information. Didn't ask us anything about bank statements. They still told us we made too much.

They are not going to factor back support right? Just support on the percentage of income. It was because of back support and support unadjusted for the new pay cut of the new job if I remember right? It can be a painful transition to work that out but it is not a permanent situation.

Yes and no. His income had been cut in half, but the child support he was still required to pay was more than half his weekly income. So legally they took half. When I called to ask about how to fill out the forms because we weren't married, they told me that they would definitely consider his child support, which never happened. When they called me back, they told me that we made too much BEFORE child support to even consider it. Which I know was BS. I'm just glad we don't need it anymore. That was just way too much of a headache, although we needed the help at the time.