Why ‘household’ means something different to a screener than it does to the person filling it out.
@2021 –
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Same income, same household, two different outcomes—here’s where the divergence usually starts.
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Store and brand discount programs often borrow federal poverty guidelines but apply them inconsistently.
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A zip code field can mean the tool adjusts for local rules—or just routes you to an ad partner.
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Many states let certain income sources be partially or fully disregarded, a nuance rarely coded into generic tools.
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A framework for weighing a screener’s output against what it actually knows about your situation.
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Irregular self-employment income turned out to be the exact kind of detail these tools handle worst.