File appeals, catalog losses, recalculate your financial status, determine your financial needs and reassess insurance coverage.
By Murray Wennerlund published 1-24-2024
Week 2: Debt Reduction, Filing Appeals.
Discretionary income refers to the amount of an individual's or household's income available for spending, saving, or investing after essential expenses, such as taxes and basic living costs, have been deducted. It represents the money that can be allocated to non-essential goods and services, luxury items, entertainment, or savings.
This is what you should use to determine if you can afford the additional debt burden of any type of type of Disaster Recovery Loan such as the SBA Disaster Loan.
Once you've gathered sufficient funds for household recovery, you can proceed to repair or reconstruct.
Never start a project without it being fully funded. It's best to wait and apply for other assistance.
The debt burden level is the percentage of your discretionary income that goes towards paying off debts. It is evaluated during the disaster recovery process to determine your eligibility for grants and other forms of assistance.
Your disaster recovery additional debt burden should be no more than 50% of your total discretionary income.
Unless the debt will be forgiven or is a very short term you do not want your household having zero dollars each month. You would not be able to cover your insurance deductables if that were the case.
The Average Median Income (AMI) is the median income for a particular area or region. It is used to determine your eligibility for grants and other forms of assistance. Your tax returns Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is used to calculate your individual AMI. If you are in a household with more than one income then you would total the income to determine your AMI. You can find your specific area and it's AMI tables by using the HUD AMI pages here.
Continue seeking funding for repairs beyond FEMA's cap, considering all available options.
Secure the maximum grant from FEMA, appeal initial assistance offers, and address any outstanding appeals.
Explore options like filing appeals, seeking legal advice, and engaging with local and state representatives.
Approval, denial, or partial approval, depending on eligibility criteria and the disaster's impact.
Incomplete applications, inaccuracies, or underestimation of damage can lead to denials.
Provide accurate information, document all damage, estimate costs realistically, submit required documentation, and review and verify the application.
FEMA primarily focuses on temporary shelter assistance rather than extensive home repair assistance.
Week 2: Review, Document, Appeal.
The FEMA appeal process involves filing an appeal within 60 days of receiving a decision letter from FEMA. You must provide additional documentation to support your appeal. FEMA will review your appeal and make a decision within 90 days. You will have one additional attempt at an appeal regarding the decision FEMA sent to you. You MUST provide additional documentation that can challenge the negative decision from the initial appeal. After this second attempt, you can appeal one more time, but only if policies or procedures were not followed by FEMA. The entire appeals process can take more than 12 months in some cases. It is essential to retain all copies of documents, including FEMA-related paperwork, in case their database is purged before your appeal is finalized.
Week 2: Appeal any determination of eligibility for assistance.
Week 2: Appeal by Policy.
The strategic appeal process involves understanding FEMA’s policy language and aligning your documentation with that language. You should also be aware of the specific categories for which you can appeal, such as dental, home repair, insurance, medical, and more.
Week 2: Appeal Other Misc.
Week 2: Shelter Ineligibility.
