Losing a job is hard in ways that have nothing to do with money, and then the money part arrives anyway. Wisconsin calls its food benefit FoodShare, and the department names who it's for, people with lower-income jobs, people on a small or fixed income, retired people, people who've lost their jobs, and people who can't work because of a disability. It spends at most stores and at many farmers markets.

One thing worth knowing first. The department states that a noncitizen's immigration status isn't affected by getting health care, food or housing, that only cash assistance and institutional long-term care paid by Medicaid could affect it, and that benefits going to children and pregnant women don't touch a parent's or spouse's status. That's the department's general position, so take an individual immigration question to an immigration lawyer.

The collection covers whichever state you're actually in.

Your unemployment claim exempts you from the FoodShare work requirement

Some Wisconsin adults have to meet a work requirement to keep the food benefit, and it reaches people in a defined age band with no young children at home. Your agency checks at the interview and writes to you if it applies.

Getting or having applied for unemployment compensation is on the exemption list. So are pregnancy, being unable to work for physical or mental health reasons including homelessness, living with a young child, being a Tribal member, caring for someone who can't care for themselves, studying at least half-time, taking part in Wisconsin Works, and being in alcohol or other drug treatment. The agency looks for an exemption at the interview, so raise yours there. If the claim isn't open yet, our Wisconsin unemployment page covers that side.

If no exemption fits, three things satisfy it, working or volunteering enough hours, doing a work training program for the same hours, or combining them. Miss the hours for something you couldn't control, illness, weather, no transportation, a court date, a workplace shutdown, and you can ask for good cause. Without either, unmet months count against a limit, and benefits restart once you meet the requirement again.

Wisconsin's free training attaches to the food benefit

FoodShare Employment and Training is free, and the thing to notice is where it hangs. You reach it by being a FoodShare member rather than by being on cash assistance, so an adult with no children at home gets to job training through groceries.

It runs wider than a resume workshop. Free training classes, certification programs, and job training including commercial driver's license and certified nursing assistant courses. Supportive services help pay for work clothes, transportation, books and tools, though what your agency covers varies by region.

Enroll in FoodShare first. A local agency then books an orientation and assigns a case manager, and anyone in the household on FoodShare who's old enough can join, whether or not they have a requirement to meet.

Health coverage in Wisconsin has no enrollment season

BadgerCare Plus is full coverage Medicaid for Wisconsinites on a low income, covering doctor visits, prescriptions and emergency care. It carries no open enrollment period, so the calendar won't block an application. The department is blunt that applying is the only way to find out whether you can enroll, and that the same form can also reach help with groceries, child care costs, finding a job and building skills.

If you'd rather have someone sit with you, Covering Wisconsin navigators are certified and free, and they work outside open enrollment as well as during it. They compare plans, sign people up for BadgerCare Plus, find financial help, and take on billing questions and appeals. Bring the letter showing when your job coverage ends, plus household income and your last tax return.

Any agency in your Wisconsin consortium can do the work

The counties and Tribes run the front counter. Income maintenance and economic support agencies answer eligibility questions, take applications, do the FoodShare interview, and process changes, renewals and the proof you send.

The grouping is what saves time. Counties join into consortia, and you can use any agency inside yours rather than only the office in your county. If your county's line is busy, another one in the same consortium can take you.

Energy assistance in Wisconsin isn't guaranteed

Energy assistance here covers heating and electric bills in two parts, regular benefits and crisis assistance. Its own program page says benefits aren't guaranteed to eligible households, and that once a program year's funds are exhausted nothing is issued at all, even to households that qualify.

A second catch decides whether you're in the program, and it turns on who sells you electricity. Cooperative and municipal utilities may run a Commitment to Community Program instead of paying into the state fund, and customers of a utility that chose that aren't eligible for the state's energy assistance or weatherization benefit. Check which yours is before counting on the money.

Cash help in Wisconsin reaches parents

Wisconsin Works, or W-2, is the cash program, and it's built around parents. A parent with a minor child living with them who meets the income and asset limits may qualify, and what the program offers is work experience and training, education, interview preparation and job matching, with cash assistance while you prepare. It also connects you to FoodShare and helps you apply for federal disability benefits.

The ACCESS website lets you check anonymously whether you might qualify without filing anything. And if the agency turns you down, you can request a Fact Finding Review by telling them you want one.

Emergency Assistance is separate, a one-time payment for a named emergency, fire, flood, natural disaster, an energy crisis, homelessness or the threat of it, applied for at the same local agency.

Dislocated worker services and funded training

Wisconsin's workforce department may treat you as a dislocated worker once you've been laid off, or given notice that a layoff is coming, through no fault of your own, and its services cost nothing. They cover unemployment insurance, job search, career planning, resume help, job training, and questions about pension benefits and health coverage, with the Job Center of Wisconsin holding openings and resumes.

Where that isn't enough, additional training assistance opens up, running to occupational skills and certifications, on-the-job training, high school equivalency, English as a second language, and registered apprenticeships. Funded training works only through approved providers, and the sequence is fixed. A local job center decides eligibility, then a career planner helps you pick the trainer.

Child care help in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Shares pays toward child care while parents, foster parents and kinship caregivers work, combine school with work, or take part in an approved job training activity. A family becomes eligible under a gross monthly income limit and stays eligible as income climbs to a higher line. Once approved, a needs assessment sets the hours and the subsidy, and it has to be done soon after applying.

Here's the part a layoff triggers. You have to tell your agency about changes quickly, and losing a job is on the list, alongside a schedule change or a change in pay. Too much subsidy has to be paid back, so report it rather than wait. If you don't qualify, the agency can point you elsewhere, Head Start may be open to your child, and the Child Care Finder matches providers to a budget.

Wisconsin's homestead credit and earned income

The homestead credit is a refundable credit for renters and homeowners, and reaching it means meeting one of three conditions. Having earned income during the claim year is one, the one that matters if you worked before the layoff. Being disabled is another, and reaching a set age by year's end is the third.

The claim goes in on Schedule H, or the shorter Schedule H-EZ, and a renter needs a rent certificate signed by the landlord. The department publishes what to do when a landlord refuses to sign. It also explains why claims get reviewed, and there's an appeal if you disagree.

Legal Action of Wisconsin covers the whole state from a handful of offices, with satellite desks at agencies and courthouses, and it serves Tribal communities. Requests go through an online intake form or its intake unit by phone, and it lists both on its own page. It won't take a request by email.

Knowing what it won't touch saves a wasted call. It doesn't handle personal injury, malpractice, workers' compensation, contested probate, or private pension cases, and it doesn't represent landlords in eviction cases. Several of those land exactly where a laid-off worker might look first, so don't count on this organization for a pension or workers' compensation question.

Housing and getting to work in Wisconsin

WHEDA runs the free Wisconsin Housing Search service and administers the Housing Choice Voucher program for families on very low to extremely low incomes. The statewide Lead-Safe Homes Program may pay for repairs that make a home safer.

Transport works differently, because the money doesn't come to you. The state's employment transportation program funds local projects run by non-profit agencies, and individuals can't be funded directly. What it publishes instead is a list of county contacts for people on a low income who need help getting to work or to training. Start with the contact for your county.

For everything that isn't specific to Wisconsin, our resources holds the rest, and Wisconsin layoffs sits beside this page.