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Thread: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

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    Default Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    I am a single mom of two kids. I have an elementary school aged child and an infant. I am not recieving child support and I dont know if or when that is going to start coming in...in the meantime-I have been dancing to pay all our bills. I want to get back into school full time and was wondering if I will be able to receive food stamps/daycare vouchers/student loans/grants if I am a dancer?? I have been avoiding getting the govt assistance the past few months but at this point I would really like to be home more with my little one as opposed to leaving her with the sitter...which means less dancing...I even considered govt assisted housing but I am not sure that will be a safe living situation for us girls...if I am working one day a week as a dancer basically to make my rent and elec bill-would I be turned away since it is not a "minimum wage job".?? I do not make much day by day-every day is different and sometimes I make nothing. I work at a high mileage club. Don't judge-I am not trying to milk the system I really want to be able to spend more time with my baby and focus on full time school.

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    Veteran Member annabellz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    How long have you been working? Do you have a tax return from last year? Are you paid on a 1099?

    When you apply for benefits they look at your family size (which would be 3) and the amount of income you have coming in. If you have a child support order and hes just not paying on it- its okay. They'll just need proof that hes not paying so it wont count towards your income. There are different kinds of benefits. cash- food- daycare. If you receive cash benefits you can not receive child support at the same time. So they would give you a check and collect his back when he does pay. The cash benefit is usually called 'temp assistance for families' or something to that effect.

    Food benefits are calculated on how much income you have and your family size. Daycare expenses as well. You should really go online and look up information for your specific state. You usually need to go down in person to apply and will need birth certificates for everyone in your household. Your proof of income. Utility bills, proof of how much you pay in rent, bank account statements (a few months) ss cards for everyone, and a child support print out showing how much you were or rather were not paid recently. You'll be assigned a caseworker and they'll be able to tell you exactly what programs you do or do not qualify for.

    Youre under no obligation to join the program(s) they offer you. Dont sign up for them if you dont like what theyre telling you. In a lot of states there are 'catches' to receiving benefits. In some states they require you to go to and complete mandatory job training classes. Or to complete so many hours of community service. Sometimes those requirements dont apply to single mothers or those with jobs, but I dunno. Because youre a dancer and you work on and off I dont know what your caseworker will say.

    Like I said you have nothing to lose by going down and finding out what you qualify for and what the requirements are of you if you do sign up for them. Just dont let them pressure you into signing up until youre sure you have all the facts and and are sure its what you want.

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    Briella, nobody is judging you.

    I have dealt with a number of dancers who are receiving government assistance (particularly health insurance). I guess this is one of the nice things about working a cash job. Just refrain from disclosing that you are a dancer and I would guess that you would qualify for a lot in your home state.'

    In any event, good luck!

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    Quote Originally Posted by Briella View Post
    I am a single mom of two kids. I have an elementary school aged child and an infant. I am not recieving child support and I dont know if or when that is going to start coming in...in the meantime-I have been dancing to pay all our bills. I want to get back into school full time and was wondering if I will be able to receive food stamps/daycare vouchers/student loans/grants if I am a dancer?? I have been avoiding getting the govt assistance the past few months but at this point I would really like to be home more with my little one as opposed to leaving her with the sitter...which means less dancing...I even considered govt assisted housing but I am not sure that will be a safe living situation for us girls...if I am working one day a week as a dancer basically to make my rent and elec bill-would I be turned away since it is not a "minimum wage job".?? I do not make much day by day-every day is different and sometimes I make nothing. I work at a high mileage club. Don't judge-I am not trying to milk the system I really want to be able to spend more time with my baby and focus on full time school.
    If you don't make enough to survive then yes check into it. However, if you just don't want to work and want to stay at home while collecting instead of working then yes I have a problem with it. Sounds harsh but I am tired of paying taxes more and more to women who don't want to work and instead want to stay at home and baby daddy doesn't pay his fair share. However when it comes to assistance for college you should qualify for student loans, grants and maybe even work study. Many colleges even have cheap or free childcare where your kids can stay while you attend college. Since it's cash you could do what I did in college and claim to be a poor college student making little money. It enabled me to get more financial aid than I would have qualified for. If you have good grades you might be able to get a scholarship. I attended my first two years of college on a full ride including book voucher and a stipend and you might qualify too.

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    Quote Originally Posted by rickdugan View Post
    Briella, nobody is judging you.

    I have dealt with a number of dancers who are receiving government assistance (particularly health insurance). I guess this is one of the nice things about working a cash job. Just refrain from disclosing that you are a dancer and I would guess that you would qualify for a lot in your home state.'

    In any event, good luck!
    If its a 'cash only' job (no 1099s) then you dont have to tell them about it at all. It would put you into the category of having little or no income and you'd probably then be required to go to job training classes or show youre in school to get assistance.

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    Quote Originally Posted by Kellydancer View Post
    If you don't make enough to survive then yes check into it. However, if you just don't want to work and want to stay at home while collecting instead of working then yes I have a problem with it. Sounds harsh but I am tired of paying taxes more and more to women who don't want to work and instead want to stay at home and baby daddy doesn't pay his fair share.
    Perhaps this doesn't belong in this thread but this ^^ is a general misconception many people have so Im going to address it. Many states give cash benefits in the amount similar to what they would receive in child support to single mothers who are NOT receiving child support from dead beat dads. They lay out the money so the mother has it to provide for the child and then they recoup it from the father as back owed child support to the state. So instead of the mother getting nothing for 3 years- the state would have paid her 3 years worth of child support and the father still owes 3 years of child support benefits but when he finally does start paying (whether on his own or through garnishment) the state will garnish back 3 years of benefits they paid out to the mother. These kind of 'child support cash advance payments' for women who are not receiving support from 'baby daddys not paying their fair share does not affect the average tax payer.

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    If its a 'cash only' job (no 1099s) then you dont have to tell them about it at all. It would put you into the category of having little or no income

    I would point out that, while this may be true in most real world situations, it is nonetheless illegal.

    I can only relate a particular incident where a club I once danced at was investigated because a dancer brought an 'employee status' based lawsuit against the club seeking back payment of minimum wage paychecks. State DOL and tax dep't investigators got involved, turned up club records of dancers who would potentially have been due the same back payment of minimum wage payments if the court ruled in favor of 'employee status'. However, in the process, state computers also turned up the fact that a couple of dancers appearing in club records were also declaring zero dancing income to the state tax dep't and collecting medicaid, food stamp and other social welfare benefits as a result of their false declaration of having zero income. After discovering that these girls were in fact earning money at the club, the state charged those dancers with 'welfare fraud', and sought repayment of the fraudulently obtained benefit payments plus back taxes owed on the unreported income, as well as seeing to it that their true identities and the fact that they were 'strippers' was reported prominently in local news media ( presumably to discourage others from doing the same ). And based on that adverse publicity, one of the dancers subsequently wound up losing custody of her kid in family court because the publicity provided 'ammunition' to her ex's lawyer that she was both involved in an 'adult' business plus charged with a crime.

    I fully understand that 'a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do'. But there are laws, and potential consequences if those laws are broken.
    Last edited by Melonie; 08-28-2012 at 10:53 PM.

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    Quote Originally Posted by annabellz View Post
    Perhaps this doesn't belong in this thread but this ^^ is a general misconception many people have so Im going to address it. Many states give cash benefits in the amount similar to what they would receive in child support to single mothers who are NOT receiving child support from dead beat dads. They lay out the money so the mother has it to provide for the child and then they recoup it from the father as back owed child support to the state. So instead of the mother getting nothing for 3 years- the state would have paid her 3 years worth of child support and the father still owes 3 years of child support benefits but when he finally does start paying (whether on his own or through garnishment) the state will garnish back 3 years of benefits they paid out to the mother. These kind of 'child support cash advance payments' for women who are not receiving support from 'baby daddys not paying their fair share does not affect the average tax payer.
    In Illinois many women collect welfare and not all baby daddies are charged with child support. Taxes keep going up in Illinois to pay for the whole system (and the multiple baby daddy/baby mamas is common)because baby daddy is either nowhere to be found or refuses to pay. It's a serious problem here.

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    ^^^ essentially the same situation in New York. In fact, NY social services is very enthusiastic about signing up new welfare / food stamp / medicaid / subsidized rent / subsidized utility recipients. However, New York tax / law enforcement are fairly diligent about making sure that the recipients are actually eligible i.e. that their incomes do fall below eligibility thresholds - and since New York has its own income tax system it's very easy for state gov't computers to cross-check. As mentioned in other threads, this leads to a common situation where New York mothers collecting social welfare benefits choose to work fewer hours / quit jobs to make sure their annual incomes don't rise above the eligibility threshold, because the 'equivalent cash value' of the social welfare benefits they are currently receiving and would lose is worth far more than a few thousand extra dollars in pre-tax income. Or put another way, given NY income tax rates, NY rent costs, NY utility costs etc. a NY mother earning $12 an hour ( or whatever the maximimum eligible income level is now ) and collecting X dollars worth of food stamps + Y dollars worth of rent supplements + Z dollars worth of utility bill supplements would actually have to earn something like $20 an hour to come out 'ahead' after paying higher income taxes plus paying full price for food, rent, utilities etc. - and earning $16 an hour would actually cause her to 'lose money'.

    As to forcibly collecting back child support from baby daddies, if daddy lives in the state of New York the social services dep't will definitely set collection efforts in motion as long as the 'paperwork' is easy. By this I mean that baby daddy has a regular job in New York that will show up in a state income tax computer search. But if baby daddy is self-employed, lives or works in a different state etc. such that actual investigative WORK is required to track him down and attempt to collect money, in most cases nothing will happen unless the mother first involves the NY ( family ) court system. And in both cases, New York also makes allowances for a minimum amount of baby daddy income being requrired to meet his normal ( which in New York means high ! ) costs of living ... meaning that if baby daddy earns $12 an hour or less ( whatever the official state poverty level is now ) that NY state courts won't authorize collection. This leads to a similar situation as above, where unskilled baby daddies will choose to work fewer hours / quit jobs to make sure that their incomes don't rise to a level where every additional dollar they earn will be 'taken away' to pay for child support ( which, net of federal and state income taxes due on the entire amount of earnings would leave them with even fewer dollars in their pocket ).
    Last edited by Melonie; 08-29-2012 at 03:46 AM.

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    Well I do agree that many states are struggling with their social services programs. And there are plenty of women and men who exploit the system on both ends. Im sure theres a thread somewhere here to discuss/debate how to fix/change/offer opinions on the situation.

    But since this was Briella asking about if she could receive benefits as a dancer I think this thread should be more about that...

    I still stand by my answer that she should go down and apply and explore her options and (now) heed Melonies advice about the risks of not disclosing all cash income recieved such as tips from dancing.

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    And she needs to go after baby daddy to pay as well. If she qualifies she should check all sources but likewise should be honest as well.

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    Default Re: Food stamps/daycare money/student loans from govt while dancing??

    Yes you can. The people at the food stamp office won't judge you. Dancing is a legal job and you can tell them about it and just be honest about your pay. They will ask your employer to sign a paper sating you work there, how often you work and what if any you make there. If you rely on tips, they will say so. Then it's up to you to tell them how much you make. Be honest, or at least make what you tell them you earn the same as you will report on your taxes

    The same day, you go to your state child support office and tell them you need help establishing support. Give them any information you have on who your child's father is or could be, they will find them, send them a letter, they can contest, take a paternity test, then they will go from there. Let the state do all the work.

    Student loans and grants would also be available to you. You go to and follow the steps for signing up for grants and loans. You will be asked to input school(s) you are interested in, this is so they can send the info to these schools so that when you sign up for classes, the school can get the money from your grants. It's a very easy process. Then, you go to the school you want to attend, talk to a counselor, tell them you already filled out the fafsa, choose a program and start school.

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