Web News - March 2010

March 11, 2010

Author: Catherine M. Callery (Kate) | Louise M. Tarantino

Low Income Persons Can Qualify for Free Phones

Low income New York residents who receive Food Stamps/SNAP, SSI, TANF, Section 8 or public housing, LIHEAP, Medicaid or the Free School Lunch Program, may be eligible for free cell phones and 200 free minutes. Households with income at or below 135% of federal poverty guidelines may also qualify. One caution is that any minutes used over the free 200 offered are very expensive.

http://www.assurancewireless.com/Public/MorePrograms.aspx

Tax Preparation Assistance Available

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is a free, IRS-sponsored program to help low- and middle-income workers have their taxes prepared and filed electronically at no cost.  VITA also ensures that workers receive all the tax credits to which they are entitled.

Many workers eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or Child Tax Credit (CTC) don't feel comfortable filling out tax forms themselves.  However, commercial tax preparers charge significant fees to prepare a return and offer services that can otherwise be provided at no cost at a VITA site. People eligible for EITC and CTC have a no-cost option - they can have their returns prepared and filed at a VITA site.

Every county in New York State has at least one VITA site.  View the list of Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Sites for tax year 2009: http://www.otda.state.ny.us/main/reform/VITAsites.pdf.  For sites located in Monroe County:  http://www.empirejustice.org/cash/cash-locations-and-hour.html

Do You Recognize Common Email Mistakes?

A recent Wall Street Journal article contains important tips for anyone to consider before sending out your next e-mail.  Avoid the following mistakes, described in the article.

1.  Using vague subject lines.
2.  Burying the news
3.  Hiding Behind the “BCC” field
4.  Failing to clean up the mess of earlier replies/forwards
5.  Ignoring grammar and mechanics
6.  Avoiding necessarily long emails
7.  Mashing everything together into bulky, imposing, inaccessible paragraphs
8.  Neglecting the human beings at the other end
9.  Thinking email works best
10. Forgetting that email lasts forever

http://gbcs.tamu.edu/DotNetNuke

Will Incarceration Mean Losing Benefits?

An informative fact sheet from The Council of State Governments Justice Center offers an overview of Medicaid and SSI/SSDI programs and includes discussion of why individuals with mental illness may lose their benefits when they are incarcerated and what steps can be taken to ensure that those benefits are reinstated upon release.

http://consensusproject.org/the_report/appendix/federal-benefits