My Single Mom Life

There's a new government subsidized cell phone service called SafeLink Wireless from Tracfone, for low income people in certain states, (currently only available in Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, and Massachusetts) and only available to people who currently receive certain benefits like food stamps, SSI/SSDI, TANF, National School Lunch (free program only), Medicaid and a few others. You must already be getting at least 1 of the listed services to qualify.
As most of my readers know, I am disabled, receive SSDI, Medicare, the teens receive Medicaid, and we get food stamps and the free hot lunch program.
I do not enjoy NOT being able to work due to my scoliosis and surgeries because of it, and an upcoming surgery for it again in the new year, and my recently discovered heart and high blood pressure issues, but without these programs, I would be financially screwed.
I receive SSDI, and out of that, I am somehow supposed to pay all of my rent and bills, which is impossible because it's an incredibly low amount.
If anyone out there thinks that people who receive SSDI are riding high on the hog and living it up every month on a ton of free money, they are sorely mistaken.
SSDI before taxes and deductions, is not even half of what I used to make getting paid bi-weekly at my jobs when I was able to work, and yes, people on SSDI are taxed.
I pay taxes out of my check every month, and then the Medicare monthly premiums, the Medicare part D premiums, and a tax withholding amount so that at tax time, I can get that money back in my taxes.
SSDI allows me to do some work, just as they do with everyone who receives it, up to a certain amount every month, and the amount they allow you to earn isn't much either, but at least between SSDI and what I'm allowed to earn doing paid surveys, product reviews, and some blog ad revenue, I can pay all of my rent and bills every month, and have enough left over to allow us to have a few fun things like a Netflix subscription and our internet connection.

But anyway, every 3 months I have to be re-certified for the food stamps and Medicaid for the teens, I fill out the re-certification forms online at the state website, and then a few days later a case workers calls to verbally verify that everything in my re-certification is true, she verifies the last month's child support amounts, and my online earnings that I filled out, she tells me which things she needs me to print out (paypal records of earnings received) and mail to her, and that's usually it.
But last month when she called, after we had verified everything, she told me about the SafeLink Wireless program, and I told her that I had seen the commercials for it, but that I already owned a pre-paid cell phone through Virgin Mobile.
She told me that it was okay that I already had a cell phone, but because it's a pre-paid cell phone, there could be times that I run out of minutes and need to have access to a phone that can call anywhere in the US.
Because she's my caseworker, she knows that I have the Lifeline program on my home phone, and do not have long distance on it.
I use my cell phone to make those long distance calls, which the majority of them are in state long distance calls to my surgeon's office.
I explained that to her, she said if you can't afford to buy minutes 1 month, how are you going to make that call?
I told her I'd find a way, I always do, but she said that all of the caseworkers were being required to tell their clients, especially the people with disabilities, about SafeLink Wireless, and tell them to sign up, even if we already have a cell phone, just in case we have an emergency and need a phone, if mine dies, I drop it in water, can't afford to put minutes on it, whatever.
She insisted that I sign up for it, that people like me who have a legitimate need, are the people they are supposed to be going to, not just people who lost their home phones for non-payment, they can't get it anyway, you have to meet the requirements, and it does get verified that you do indeed receive at least 1 of the assistance programs.
Out of the 8 listed requirements, I meet 4 of them, so she insisted that I sign up and use the phone if I ever run into a need for it.

So I went to the site on Monday December 7th sometime in the morning, I filled out the app, and about an hour later, I received an email that I had been approved and my new phone would be here in 5-10 business days.
Around 4:30pm today, DHL arrived with my new phone already setup and registered, I didn't need to set any part of it up, just put the battery in and let it charge for a few hours.
They do all of the setting up, they email you your phone number and any other setup stuff you need to know, because a lot of the people who qualify for it may be disabled, or may not know how to do any of that stuff.
It's a standard Motorolla cell phone, it's not bad at all, and it's approved to work for 420 days, a little over a year, at which point they will verify that you still receive assistance, and they will then add another year of service to your account.
If after a year you no longer qualify, the phone automatically becomes a standard pre-paid account, and you are responsible for putting minutes on it yourself if you choose to continue the service.
Every month, they give you 68 minutes (Mass gets 80 minutes per month) of pre-paid time, and the minutes roll over every month in case you don't use them all, which I probably won't even come close because I already have a cell phone.
So far, the cell service is great, (just tonight checking the phone out, made 1 long distance call to see if it would actually work) it has really excellent reception, even standing in my kitchen right next to the microwave, it's very easy to use, and it came with 88 pre-paid minutes instead of the 68 that Florida residents are supposed to get according to the website.
Maybe that was a mistake on their end, or the website is wrong and Florida is supposed to get 80 minutes per month like Massachusetts does.
I don't know, but this phone came with 88 minutes and I'm certainly not complaining.

So if anyone who receives assistance in the 4 approved so far states (more states are being added soon) needs a cell phone, apply on the SafeLink Wireless site, and don't be without a way to call for help if you need to.
If you have a caseworker like mine, they will probably tell you about it anyway.

I figure I can use it with the teens, like when they go to the store for me or something.
This school year, Mark decided he didn't want to use his cell anymore because he can't have it at school, and that's kinda the whole reason he got it, to use it at school to call me if he was sick or if there was an emergency, but if they take their cells to school and get caught, it gets taken away and not returned until the end of the year.
So I guess this extra cell phone can now be used with the teens when they go to a friends house or the store for me, stuff like that, and yes, if I can't afford minutes on my Virgin Mobile account one month, I'll have a backup.