The Benefit Bank® of North Carolina
Are you having trouble stretching your dollars to make ends meet? Or do you work with an organization that serves people in your community who could use help filling the gap between their income and their needs? Then read below to learn more about The Benefit Bank® of North Carolina: Your Connection to a Brighter Future!
What is The Benefit Bank of North Carolina (TBB™-NC)?
TBB-NC connects low- and moderate-income Americans with work supports through grassroots outreach using internet-based technology and other tools. TBB-NC offers simplified filing of all applications, helping states serve more people and, by saving on data entry and paper-handling, focusing public employees on the skilled work of eligibility determination and case management. When households claims work supports, they spend those dollars in their local communities, which boosts economic recovery through multiplier effects. They enable people to provide for their children, attend classes, and keep a roof over their heads during transition phases, such as retraining after a lay-off or pursuing higher education opportunities.
How Does It Work?
TBB-NC is a web-based, counselor-assisted program customized for North Carolina. It has two components – tax preparation and benefit application – and is available in counselor-assisted, telephone, professional and self-serve editions. Through its eligibility screening tool, TBB-NC can ensure that people are fully aware of the benefits they may be eligible for and, as an expert system, it helps maximize the benefits and tax refunds they can secure. Further, the information a person enters is stored securely, so an individual who wishes to reapply for benefits, apply for new benefits or file future tax returns simply needs to enter his or her username and password to initiate this new action.
Any organization that wishes to may host TBB-NC for free. TBB-NC sites have free access to either the tax preparation, the benefits applications, or both. Connectinc also provides telephone outreach services for dislocated workers, over-burdened sites, and underserved rural areas. Customers will use the sites or the phone to electronically file taxes and fill out forms for Food and Nutrition Services (formerly Food Stamps), TANF, Medicaid, SSI and SSDI and other work supports that they can then take to the proper agency, along with the required backup documentation, and apply for those benefits with a minimum of returned visits and with maximum efficiency.
Why Does North Carolina Need TBB-NC?
The Benefit Bank of North Carolina will generate economic impacts that will help over 30,000 low-and-moderate income rural North Carolinian clients claim more than $34 million in federal work supports dollars, thereby producing $25 million in economic multiplier effects in rural communities, generating $2.5 million in state and local tax revenues, and contributing to the creation of over 450 new jobs in rural North Carolina communities through the increased economic activity generated by the increase in disposable income (not direct Connectinc hires). TBB will return more than $60 million in economic impacts to North Carolina and its local communities.
How Do I Use TBB-NC Services?
If you would like to file your taxes for free (if your household income is less than $57,000), fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), or find a site near you, go to www.thebenefitbank.com. There you will find a link to the Self-Serve option for taxes, where you can electronically file your federal and state taxes and submit your FAFSA. You will also find the Locator, where you can enter your zip code to find your nearest TBB-NC site.
Or you can call 888-7JOB-INFO to find a site near you and fill out the application for Food and Nutrition Services over the phone!
How Do I Become a TBB-NC Site?
If you are a church, a community action agency, a domestic violence shelter, or any other organization that helps the people in your community, consider becoming a TBB-NC site. Call 888-756-2463 and press _1 to speak with someone or click here to request a call to find out how you can easily fit The Benefit Bank of North Carolina into your existing service model.
