The links below will take you to a national legal services "automated documents" website. There we have created a streamlined
interview. It will ask you a few questions about your household make-up and income. When you're done, you will get
an estimate of the dollar you could receive each month, to help you buy food, if you are otherwise eligible.
Get more details on using the estimator tool
NOTE: You will need to use Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher. Our apologies to Macintosh and Firefox users.
You can still use our older .pdf interactive forms (see Option 3 below).
Option 1
Use our "short forms." The document you generate will tell you the information you entered in response to the
questions and the estimated amount of food stamps for a household your size.
For households WITH NO elderly or disabled member (updated for 10/08)
For households WITH an elderly or disabled member (updated for 10/08)
Option 2
Use our "long forms." You can use the same program to print out a 6-page form that shows
all of the calculations used.
For households WITH NO elderly or disabled member(updated for 10/08)
For households WITH an elderly or disabled member (updated for 10/08)
Option 3
Use our older self-calculating .pdf estimators if you prefer.
For households WITH NO elderly or disabled member (updated 10/08)
For households WITH an elderly or disabled member (updated 10/08)
If you fill them out online, they will do the calculations for you, or
your can print them and do the calculations by hand.
Two eligibility tests: income and assets
This calculator will help you to estimate the amount of the monthly food supplement
you can get, based on your household size and income. To qualify
you may also be subject to an "asset test."
Read
more about how DHHS counts assets for this program.
What if I'm not sure about some of my answers to the Estimator questions?
The Estimator is just that; it only estimates your food stamp amount.
If your monthly income and household size are simple to define, the Estimator
may come up with the exact amount of your food stamp grant. But in some
cases, more complicated rules apply. It may not be clear at first who belongs
to the food stamp household or how income should be counted. For example,
if your household includes boarders or unrelated roommates, or your income
is from self-employment or seasonal work, you will probably need to consult
with a DHHS worker about how the rules apply to you. Also, if you are homeless but expect
to be incurring shelter costs within the month, these estimators will not calculate that.
The full set of Maine food stamp rules are
published
online. If you run into problems or have more questions about your eligibility,
contact Pine Tree Legal Assistance.
More information about
food stamp rules (MEJP website)
Maine Food Supplement Program (DHHS page)
includes link to application form
How does the online Estimator work and how private is it?
When you get to the "Automate Documents" site, if you don't care about saving your information online,
choose the "go directly to form" option. Answer the questions. When you get to the end of the interview,
you can view a document that repeats your answers and gives you a monthly benefit estimate. You can also
print it.
Use the "register" option if you want to save your information and come back to it later. You will also
be able to view and print your document.
Either way, you are the only one who sees your information.
If you have problems, comments or ideas about how to make
these automated forms work better, please let us know.
Learn more about the national "Automatic Documents" project by going to the site's
Frequently Asked Questions
page (or link to these FAQ's from any page on the site after you go there).
