If you are someone who has suffered through an emergency and you need to apply for FEMA assistance, you might find yourself worried about the application process. After all, this is a government agency, so you will want to ensure you read over all the qualifications and application procedures fully before you send off your completed application. This way you can be sure that you have the best odds of seeing your relief money in a timely manner.
There are a few things that you will need to make sure that you know before you apply for assistance. First of all, you will have to understand the basics like your social security number, the address that you are currently staying at as well as the address where you were living before the disaster occurred. However, you will also need to have some advanced information like your insurance information, total household income, bank routing information, and a complete description of exactly what kind of losses you suffered as a result of the disaster in your area. Once you have gathered all of this information you can go online to the FEMA website and apply directly for assistance on the website.
After you have applied, you will be given a reference number that you can use to later access the completed application so that you can know where your assistance stands. Also, this will make it easier to access if the government asks for more information and you later have to update your file. This is a common occurrence, and FEMA will often have to recheck and verify information that you have sent to them once (or more) before they will finally agree to pay out on your claim. Because of this it is important that you keep the reference number that they give to you handy at all times.
It is also important to remember that any small hang ups in the application process can cause problems. For example, if the social security number you use to apply for FEMA does not exactly match the information on file then you’ll need to resubmit the application and turn over any additional information (marriage license, military ID, etc) to show them proof you are who you say you are. This could slow down the application’s status considerably, so double-check everything before turning in your documentation.
