Hi everyone, this is Dr. Nitin Chhoda and in
this video i'm going to
walk you through the benefit finder on
benefits.gov.
Now this is a government website which
is designed to
walk you through step by step through a
series of questions and when you answer
those questions you'll see a list of all
the benefit programs, federal
and state level benefit programs that
are available to you.
As you complete this questionnaire the
the the extent of the benefits the
extent of the programs that are
available to you
actually change in real time. So if you
answer yes to a certain question
you may get more or less benefits and
the website will actually show you
all the benefits that are available to
you as you go through the questionnaire.
Now this is my recommendation to all my
viewers and subscribers out there. If you
or anyone that you know is struggling
right now
because you lost your job because you've
been laid off you just you know your job
is just gone because you've been furloughed.
You may be eligible for federal and
state programs.
I want my viewers and subscribers to set
aside some time. I want you to
set aside at least maybe about 10 to 15
minutes to watch this video that would
be the first step.
The second step is after you watch this
video click on the links in the description
section below and if you want to
apply go ahead and apply but set aside
time focus and apply for this so that you get
all the benefits that are available to you.
If anything's available to you, I want
you to take advantage of it.
So that's what this is all about.
So we have to start to look beyond state
unemployment benefits, beyond the $300
a week lost wages assistance program.
Don't wait for things to happen,
make things happen. See what programs are
available to you.
Also as you plan the next stage of your
professional life let me help you.
Make sure you click like,
make sure you subscribe, make sure you
enable notifications
so I can help you. Hopefully start a new
business
re-engineer your skills, get a new job
whatever the case might be. But at this
moment in time
let's focus on what programs are
available to you. So let's jump right in.
On your screen right now, you'll see the
benefits.gov website
and I will take you through the entire
questionnaire step by step
and give you a sense of how this website
works. So let's jump
right in. The very first
step is that they'll ask you for your
date of birth.
So let's just put in a date of birthday.
I'm going to put in a random date of
birth so let's just choose the year
1974. Let's just choose
the start of the year, let's say the sixth
start of the year. Let's say you know i'm
going to assume that everyone is a US
citizen who's filling out this form.
Put in the state New Jersey and for the
purposes of this video let's say there
are two individuals
in the household and annual income
before taxes is going to be $50,000.
Current employment status is unemployed.
So let's just say that you know you're
unemployed for the purposes of this demonstration.
So as soon as you enter all of that
information um you simply the next
question they ask you is
are you currently married? Let's just put
in yes. How many times have you been
married?
Hopefully once hopefully not more than
once.
And are you disabled? Let's put in no. Are
you blind or partially blind?
we're going to put in no so as you can
see it immediately gives you a sense of
all the programs that are accessible
to you and what you do here is you make
a few selections you know you can
there are available programs for family
and child services there are available
programs for food and nutrition
financial assistance employment and
career development education and
training grants
lots of options loans are available if
you remember if you if you're active
duty
you know other options are available you
can be a volunteer if you want to help
other individuals
let's just check disaster relief family
and child services employee and career
development for the purposes of this
demonstration
financial assistance food assistance
health care and medical assistance
and let's also choose housing and public
utilities and
while we're at it let's apply for a loan
as well and you know so let's make a few
selections including volunteer
opportunities
it immediately says you've got 11
options available to you
11 benefits so as you can see this
website gives you your options
your your your facilities in real time
if you will let's go to the next stage
now this is going to take you a little
time to finish so it's going to ask
choose the option
unless you know your your living
situation i chose private residence
which of the following describes your
spouse's current and or
past professional experiences so for the
purpose of this video
i'm simply going to say healthcare
professional how much do you earn
each month from working and i'm just
going to put in four thousand dollars
as i'm conducting this demonstration for
you are you a primary caregiver i'll say
yes
are you a current or former foster care
recipient i'm going to say
no none of the above not served in the
military
do you need assistance or guidance with
any of the following and by the way you
can skip questions that don't apply to
you but in this case i'm going to choose
i'm going to choose disaster relief and
now it says that you've got 12 options
available to you so you can see that
the available benefits are actually
changing then it asks about
the spouse's citizenship status i'm
simply going to say u.s citizen
what is your race or ethnicity um you
don't have to answer this question
so you know if you want to you can but
for the purposes of this demonstration
i'm simply going to skip
this particular question and it says
which of the following best describes
your current
living situation i'm going to simply say
renting
and that's what i'm going to do for this
demonstration are you a refugee i'm
going to say no
and as you can see it does take a little
time to complete all of this
are you a victim of any of any of the
following i said no
are you a victim of a crime that
occurred during a disaster i said no are
you
are you or a family member enrolled in a
federally recognized
you know american indian tribe i said no
are you the spouse of a surviving
dependent of order so there are certain
questions here that you can obviously
answer yes no as you go along and now
you can see it says i have 13
benefits i move on to the next stage and
you know as you continue answering these
questions you'll start to see
that the the site is gathering
information about you
and based on that information it makes a
determination about which programs
you're eligible for because it
automatically has all the eligibility
criteria for all the different programs
it asks you about
your children and the ages of your
children in this case i'll say
let's just say i have a two-year-old and
a six-year-old is at least one person in
your household over the age of 60. i'm
going to say yes
or either of your parents deceased and
you know you can you can answer yes or
no depending on your situation i'm going
to simply say no
and again you know it does take a little
time to complete all this but when you
get the results
um you'll see what options are available
to you so in this case it now says
you're eligible for 18 benefits
the number of benefits you're available
for is changing in real time as you
answer this question it's asking about
spouses date of birth so it essentially
wants to calculate how old you and your
spouse
are and based on that information it's
going to make recommendations about
which programs
are indeed available to you so so the
website again has all the eligibility
criteria built in
you need to take the time to sit down
and go through this and make something
happen
uh don't just wait for things to happen
to you this is asking whether you're
whether you're uh
whether you are taking advantage of any
other programs
whether you're receiving any other
benefits for the purposes of this
video i'm going to say that i'm not
receiving
any other benefits and then you can also
skip certain questions
if you if they don't apply to you do you
need financial assistance i'm going to
say i need assistance with disaster
leave food
health insurance and i'm going to say
that
you know have you ever been denied i'm
going to say no
and it asks other questions as well and
again you can answer yes or no depending
on
what is what is your particular
situation so
these these questions aren't that
difficult to answer and now it says i'm
eligible for 26 benefits as i'm
completing
uh this this online questionnaire it
took it takes about 10 to 12 minutes to
go through it if you have all your
information it may take up to 25 minutes
but it's
time well spent if you're looking for
federal assistance or state
level assistance you know it asks if
you're receiving income from other
sources including any other state or
federal aid
because you know if you're already using
state or federal aid then it's going to
affect
essentially what can be allocated to you
and your and your household and it asks
about any any property that you own or
control
in this case i'll say none of the above
let's assume you're a renter that
doesn't own or control any property
um have you paid u.s social security
taxes i would hope you have
and so in this case i'm going to say yes
how much does your current spouse each
month's
earn each month so that they can
calculate what your total household
income is and this time
i'm eligible for 42 benefits based on
all my answers so now as
answer additional questions about
education it's asking whether you're a
student in this case i'm going to say
not a student not enrolled in uh in any
in any degree program
and what is the highest education you've
completed i'm going to say bachelor's
degree
have you for the for the sa for the sake
of this demonstration
and it asks other questions related to
your past educational background
and it's asking about your debt as well
do you have any
outstanding student loans and it now
says i'm eligible for 49
programs it's asking if whether um you
know me or my family member suffer from
any illness
from any injury or illness for again i'm
going to say none of the above so yeah
you know
as you go through this you'll see that
it's fairly straightforward
you don't really need any documentation
while you're filling out this question
you just need to answer the questions
accurately and honestly and truthfully
this is asking about health about you
know your health status whether you've
had any health issues you can say i said
i live in a community with limited
or no health services you know there are
individuals who have no health services
so that's what i'm going to check
in this case do you have end stage renal
disease i said no
it asks about any any military service
and
it also asks about combat wounds or
service trauma because there are
specific programs
available to those who who've been
injured in the line of duty
or who are active who are you know
actively serving
the country it asks about your extent of
health insurance coverage which is
important because that would determine
your eligibility for medicaid
and medicare which are state and federal
funded programs
and it's asking about your child and now
it says you have 52 benefits available
so as you can see
this program is kind is pretty detailed
and as you complete it
and as you become eligible for those
programs those programs may ask for
specific
documentation or may ask for specific
paperwork in order to
come make sure that you are indeed
eligible and then you start getting
those benefits so this is a good good
starting point because it sort of
steers you in the right direction and
that's the whole idea
and this is asking about if you've ever
worked with the us government
because there are specific programs for
federal employees
and what is the main reason for your
current or impending unemployment
and i'm i just wrote that it's related
to the disaster
how many months have you been unemployed
so you make that selection as well are
you willing to start
are you are you willing are you able and
willing to start work immediately
hopefully the answer is yes
because the idea is was to get back to
work as soon as it's safe
are you qualified certified licensed for
any of the following i'm simply going to
check
authorized to work in the united states
are you eligible for retirement i'm
going to say no and as a healthcare
professional are you willing
to uh to serve to provide your services
um that question came up as i was
filling out this form it may or may not
come up for you depending on how you
filled out
the rest of the application are you
affiliated with any specific agencies
i'm going to say none of the above and
again you can see that this is
fairly straightforward after you watch
this video it should be straightforward
for you to
fill this out and also set aside some
time and based on the answers you can
see all the programs 54 benefits
benefits pertaining to disaster relief
family and
children services because i did indicate
that i had a two year old and a six year
old you can see these are the results by
the way
these are the results right now of the
entire questionnaire that i filled out
employment and career development five
benefits financial assistance 12
benefits when i expand that
you'll see all the benefits that are
available employment and insurance
unemployment insurance child tax credit
earned income tax credit
all different sorts of benefits are
available to you food and nutrition
commodity supplemental food program
supplementally supplemental nutrition
assistance program the snap program
uh health care and medical assistance
programs eight
eight health care and medical assistance
programs these are a combination of
federal
and state programs that were available
to me in the 10 to 12 minutes
that i took to complete that
questionnaire now it may take you 20 or
30 minutes but
that's going to be time well spent you
can also right click on any of those
benefits and try to open that web page i
tried to open a web page it's a
government website
so it was a little slow so please be
patient i'm going to try once again
and you know government websites do take
a look there you go that opened this is
the emergency food assistance program
and again you can see all the
information about the program uh who is
eligible
on the right side of the page you'll see
the contact information for that
particular program this is more
information
about other programs food distribution
statewide procurement snap programs
and you can see a state-wide breakdown
my viewers and subscribers this is a
website that gives you a good starting
point
use it because it's available to you use
and leverage the resources that are
available to you in fact use this to
help other people
okay um don't be dismissive of things
that are available to you
be you know use them and try and teach
others how to use them which is by the
way which is what i'm trying to do
i want to help our viewers and
subscribers use these resources to
you know to to their maximum potential
you see that loans are available on the
right side of the screen
on the left side you have housing and
public utilities hope for homeowners
weatherization assistance program
for income people on the right side you
see hope for homeowners education loan
consolidation property improvement loan
insurance free application for federal
student aid a lot of
a lot of resources are available to you
through the government there are other
categories related to agriculture
education and training grants there's
lots of other
resources available to you through this
website and hopefully hopefully
you take the time to go through this
website and explore all the options
available to you you'll see education
and training options on the left side
eight benefits available to me at the
time you know
at this time based on the responses i
provided grants are available
assets for independence cell biology
biophysics research special improvement
project
there's a lot available if you look for
it
as opposed to you know just wait for
things to happen
it's easy to wait for things to happen
it takes a little bit of effort
to go out there and to look and i'm and
i'm trying to help you
my goal with this channel is to give all
my viewers and subscribers
i want to teach you how to fish i don't
believe in what other channels are doing
or other people doing giving out money
and giving out prizes
i mean if i if i give my subscribers the
fish i'm actually doing you a disservice
i'm always going to teach you how to
fish because then you'll be able to go
out there
and you'll be able to achieve success
and achieve wealth and achieve
independence
just like i did this is a channel where
you will
be taught how to do the things that
should
take you to a better financial future
that lead you to the next level
just like i did and i want every single
one of my subscribers
to be extremely successful thank you so
much for watching i hope this was
beneficial
let me know what you thought of this
entire demonstration in the comments
section below
my name is dr nitin choda with ignition
time if you don't know anything about me
please check out my introductory video i
have the fortune the honor the privilege
of living the american dream i'm a
beneficiary of american exceptionalism
check out my check out my introductory
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thank you so much for watching my name
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i'll see you in the next video
take care bye
so
