About six weeks ago I received an email from the Social Security Administration informing me that I might be eligible for the new Affordable Connectivity Program which provides a $30 monthly subsidy to pay for Internet services. First, I was suspicious as there are a lot of spam emails out there. I didn’t click on anything in the email, but I went to the website fcc.gov/acp.
“The Affordable Connectivity Program is an FCC benefit program that helps ensure that households can afford the broadband they need for work, school, healthcare and more,” according to the website. “The benefit provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward Internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers if they contribute more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase price.
“The Affordable Connectivity Program is limited to one monthly service discount and one device discount per household. A household is eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program if the household income is at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (an adjusted gross income of $13,590 for a single person), or if a member of the household meets at least one of the criteria below:
- Received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year;
- Meets the eligibility criteria for a participating provider’s existing low-income internet program;
- Participates in one of these assistance programs: Free and Reduced-Price School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program, including at USDA Community Eligibility Provision schools, SNAP, Medicaid, Housing Choice HCV Program (Section 8 Vouchers), PBRA 202/811, Public Housing, SSI, WIC, and Veterans Pension or Survivor Benefits or Lifeline.”
Eureka Springs resident Gwen Bennett said she has received mailers from Cox, her Internet provider, about ACP but didn’t think she was eligible because she wasn’t participating in any of those programs.
“It said you qualify if you are on any of the public assistance programs like food stamps, disability and SSI,” Gwen said. “I am not part of any of those programs. I thought the program was leaving out a lot of people and was very happy to find out that more people are eligible than I thought. When I started getting cable Internet 20 years ago, it was $18.50 a month. Now they start you at $40 or $50 per month and, in a year, it goes up to $70 or $80 a month.”
Gwen believes having access to Wi-Fi/Internet is essential for people today.
“Many of the newspapers are starting to suffer and disappear,” Gwen said. “The only way you can get the state paper is on the Internet. That means you can’t find out about anything unless you can go visit the library. People who live in the country can’t necessarily go to the library to read the news. Everything has gone wireless. If you want to do your job, if you want to do your schoolwork, if you want to fill out forms, you need the Internet.”
Gwen said she is worried about a poorly informed electorate and about the lack of good internet that has crimped the growth of small communities.
“People need the Internet to communicate just like they need electricity and telephones. These services should be public,” she said. “It shouldn’t just be corporations being able to profit off providing these services that are essential just like other utilities like electric and gas service.”
The easy part was applying at affordableconnectivity.gov/. I applied on a Sunday and was approved by Monday.
Then the difficult part started. My provider is Cox, and it sent me to a third-party provider called ID.me to verify my identity (I guess being a customer of Cox for 15 years wasn’t enough to verify my identity). Next came hours of difficulty as ID.me is a website that handles multiple different government programs, and its one-size-fits-all was not working for me. What what it says online at ID.me doesn’t necessarily line up with what is required. For example, it said I could provide a copy of my tax return but the agent I chatted with said that wouldn’t work. Instead, she accepted a copy of my Social Security benefits statement. Initially I didn’t think Social Security was “a government benefit program” because I paid into it for decades. I always considered it an entitlement program.
They also wouldn’t take my driver’s license (which was supposed to be acceptable, but I think was too small for the computer to read), so that was another stumbling block. After several tries, they got most of my name right, but left the G off my last name. They eventually accepted my passport.
My advice is if you are unable to take jpgs of your identification and proof of income or that you receive benefits, go to the Eureka Springs Public Library. The librarians there are fantastic about making copies of documents, and there is no charge. Then, if you run into problems with ID.me, connect with a live agent for a chat.