Immediate Financial Help for Abused Mothers
Mothers may experience abuse at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends, or even their adolescent children. When they decide to escape abusive relationships, they often need financial assistance immediately to meet their basic needs, like securing housing, food and medical care. Without assistance, mothers may decide not to leave abusive relationships, even when their lives are in danger, because they fear homelessness and the inability to care for themselves or their children.
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Help From Shelters
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In addition to providing emergency shelter for abused mothers, battered women's shelters often provide immediate financial help for abused mothers. They might provide money for rent, travel, if mothers and children need to leave the area to stay safe or travel to another area where they have family to support them, money for clothing and financial assistance for other immediate needs.
Food Stamps
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Abused mothers in need of financial assistance may qualify for food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Apply for food stamps at the welfare office in your county. In most instances, it takes up to 30 days to get food stamps, but in some cases you can receive food stamps in no more than seven days. If your monthly income is less than $150, your monthly living expenses total more than your monthly income or you have less than $100 in cash and savings, the agency that administers food stamps in your area will expedite your application.
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Medical Care
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The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act does not provide financial assistance to abused mothers, exactly, but it requires hospitals to provide emergency care even if mothers have no health insurance and no way to pay for the treatment they need. Abused mothers may qualify for Medicaid in some states, and in some states urgent circumstances will expedite their applications, but this varies by state.
Other Sources of Assistance
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Other social service agencies provide immediate financial assistance to abused mothers, but the types of assistance available vary by agency and location. Organizations that may provide financial assistance include rape crisis centers, YWCAs, Catholic charities, community actions agencies and churches. If children were also victims of abuse, county child protective service agencies also may provide immediate financial assistance.
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References
- Photo Credit Mother image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
