Lifeline Guidelines

Guidelines for eligibility:

  1. Customer’s household income does not exceed 135% of the federal poverty guidelines or
  2. Any person in the customer’s household receives or has a child residing in the customer’s household who receives:
      • Veterans Pension and Survivors Benefit
      • Medicaid
      • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps
      • Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
    • Federal public housing assistance (FPHA) or Section 8

The creditworthiness of a customer shall not be an undue barrier to eligibility in the program.

To become a participant in the program, a customer must:

  1. Complete the Lifeline application.
  2. If establishing eligibility by income (guideline 1 above), provide income documentation substantiating the customer’s household income.Acceptable documents include:
    • a. prior year’s state, federal or tribal tax return
    • b. most recent statement from each type of current income source(s) noted
    • c. three consecutive months’ worth of your most recent paycheck stub(s) from all employers
    • d. statement of benefits from any of the following: social security administration, veteran’s administration, retirement, pension, unemployment or worker’s compensation.
    • e. a divorce decree, if applicable to income
    • f. child support documents

A customer that is enrolled in the federal Lifeline program shall automatically be deemed eligible for ILAP and may not be required to separately apply in order to receive the additional discount available under ILAP.

On an annual basis, a participant’s eligibility to remain in the program shall be verified by the following process:

  1. We shall mail a verification form to the participant not later than 30 days prior to the verification due date.
  2. The participant shall complete and sign the verification form and return it to us with supporting documentation by the verification due date.
  3. If we don’t receive the verification form and supporting documentation by the due date, we shall notify the customer that they will be withdrawn from the program if the signed form and documentation aren’t returned within 30 days.
  4. If the customer fails to provide the information by that date, we will remove the customer from the program.
  5. If the customer gets withdrawn and then provides paperwork, they are re-established with the program credits.

Only one Lifeline Program benefit (either wireless or landline telephone, home internet or cell phone data plan) is allowed per household. The definition of a “household” is anyone

living at an address (including children, relatives, people not related to you, etc.) who share income(s) and household expenses.

For more information

For details on the number of minutes, terms and conditions of any voice telephony service plans, and broadband offered to Lifeline subscribers please call customer service at 870-684-2288.