{"id":4836,"date":"2021-06-25T21:51:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T21:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/money\/?p=4836"},"modified":"2021-06-25T21:51:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T21:51:43","slug":"emergency-broadband-benefit-program-free-money-covid-assistance-wifi-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/smmo-blog\/emergency-broadband-benefit-program-free-money-covid-assistance-wifi-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"EMERGENCY BROADBAND BENEFIT PROGRAM (Free money? Covid assistance? Wifi Bill?)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hey there all you Riverbats and money savers. It\u2019s Arjana back with more information on&#8230;you guessed it! Saving money. I received an email back in May from the \u201c<strong>US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION\u201d <\/strong>telling me I was eligible for free things, and as any skeptical pre-adult, (Like preteen but 21), I sent it to my trustworthy adult adult, Karen Serna, and asked if the email seemed legit. Any email saying I can qualify for free money or assistance always makes my internal scammer bot light up, and it should make yours too! But after Karen and I read it we both decided it was legit and we should do some more investigating. Now, what was <em>it<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>As a response to the financial challenges related to the pandemic, Congress set aside money to provide eligible college students with $50 a month towards your internet bill. No strings, no hours of paperwork. It is simply just $50 a month that goes directly to your internet provider, all you have to do is fill out an application and contact your provider. Now before you go \u201cArjana I don\u2019t want to go through all that trouble for $50 a month for a few months\u201d First, this is the most simple assistance application I have ever come across in my entire life. Secondly, even if this program only lasts until September that is&#8230; count with me.. July, August, September..$150. And just because it\u2019s temporary doesn\u2019t mean that it <em>will <\/em>disappear in September, it is available until the funds run out so it <em>could<\/em> go longer. But even if it is only $150, the process to get set up is SO easy and simple. It is absolutely worth it. If you want to read up more on the program click here<strong> \u2192<a href=\"https:\/\/www.getemergencybroadband.org\/\">https:\/\/www.getemergencybroadband.org\/<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Eligibility depends on your state of FAFSA, and if you pay attention to what the Student Money Management Office recommends,&nbsp; your FAFSA should be done (and if it is not, send me an email, arjana.almaneih@austincc.edu&nbsp; and I will find you some help to get it done, even if it is late!) If you participate or receive any of these programs you are automatically eligible!&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You received a federal Pell Grant in the current award year OR<\/li>\n<li>You experienced a substantial loss of income since February 29, 2020 due to job loss or furlough AND have a total household income in 2020 at or below $99,000 for single filers and $198,000 for joint filers ORYou qualifies for Lifeline benefits through participation in SNAP, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Federal Public Housing Assistance, or Veterans and Survivors Pension Benefit OR<\/li>\n<li>You received approval for benefits under the free and reduced-price school lunch program or the school breakfast program, including through the USDA Community Eligibility Provision, in the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 school year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are other ways to qualify, click here \u2192 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getemergencybroadband.org\/do-i-qualify\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Do I Qualify?<\/a> For more information on eligibility information.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now that you know what it is let me briefly tell you my experience with the EBBP.<\/p>\n<p>After receiving the email, I followed the link that said \u201cApply Now\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.checklifeline.org\/lifeline\/?id=nv_flow&amp;ebbp=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">EBB APPLICATION<\/a> and took 5 minutes filling it out. I made a profile then there were only 5 or 6 questions about birth date, full name, eligibility proof (I just sent in a screenshot of my PELL grant).\u00a0 And that was it. Within a few days I checked back and I was approved, I went to the list of \u201capproved providers\u201d and saw my internet provider, Spectrum, was not on there. So I then contacted my apartment because my apartment has their own set up with spectrum so we pay our apartment and they pay Spectrum, and they were not very helpful so I just got on the phone with Spectrum\u2019s billing department and they were already aware of the program and asked me a few questions and that was it, all set up! The entire phone call took 2 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So here are your steps:<\/p>\n<p>1. Check out eligibility,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.getemergencybroadband.org\/do-i-qualify\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">https:\/\/www.getemergencybroadband.org\/do-i-qualify\/<\/a> If you receive or qualify or have experience (1) of any of the items on the list then,<\/p>\n<p>2.Apply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.checklifeline.org\/lifeline\/?id=nv_flow&amp;ebbp=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">https:\/\/www.checklifeline.org\/lifeline\/?id=nv_flow&amp;ebbp=true<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>3. Give a few days to process&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>4. Check back and once you are approved call your provider\u2019s billing team<\/p>\n<p>5. Receive $50 month off of your internet bill until September or until funding runs out! If y\u2019all have any questions about the process I am happy to answer them to the best of my knowledge, pop your questions in here \u2193\u2193 and I will get back to you as soon as possible! <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/KU7kAFXCr4dkR2TW7\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/forms.gle\/KU7kAFXCr4dkR2TW7<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey there all you Riverbats and money savers. It\u2019s Arjana back with more information on&#8230;you guessed it! Saving money. I received an email back in May from the \u201cUS DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION\u201d telling me I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/smmo-blog\/emergency-broadband-benefit-program-free-money-covid-assistance-wifi-bill\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-4836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smmo-blog","tag-arjana-almaneih"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}