Navigating your way through the benefits maze can be a challenge. Say you find yourself suddenly unable to work because of a catastrophic health event or injury. Maybe you know you need to apply for Social Security disability benefits, but what about other benefits? You think you’ve heard of something referred to as SNAP, and then there’s Medicaid, but how do you find out about these programs and their eligibility requirements?
There is a website that can help you understand what types of benefits are available to help, and it can be found at: http://www.benefits.gov/. Benefits.gov was launched as part of an effort to provide citizens with easy, online access to government benefit and assistance programs. The site allows you to look at benefits by state and, in fact, will go to the Arkansas page when you follow the link. Need to know more about Medicaid? ARKids First? Transitional Employment Assistance? You can find valuable information about each program here. The site also allows you to look at benefits by category and by agency, and even has an “other resources” category. If you are lost in the maze of trying to find out about various assistance programs, this site is a great place to start.