Boston bombing suspect began collecting food stamps and welfare shortly after his wife gave birth to their daughter



Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, received welfare up until 2012

Couple received food stamps and food stamps from Sep. 2011 to Nov. 2012

Tamerlan and Katherine Russell married in June 2010

Around June 2010, Katherine became pregnant



His wife Katherine worked up to 80 hours a week as a home healthcare worker while Tamerlan stayed at home with their daughter Zahara



The Tsarnaev brothers received state aid as children, when their parents relied on welfare benefits after immigrating to the U.S.



The deceased Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his wife Katherine relied on food stamps and public assistance from 2011 to 2012, soon after they became parents.



New details have emerged about taxpayer money that was shelled out to the family of the bombing suspects, after the Mass. Gov. previously refused to divulge information on their welfare benefits.



A state lawmaker was able to obtain data about government assistance the Tsarnaevs received and that information was passed on to the media.

In need: Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, left on April 20 in Cambridge, and her husband, right in 2009, began receiving welfare shortly after the birth of their daughter



Example: The suspects' parents Zubeidat, left, and Anzor, right both at a news conference on Thursday in Dagestan, Russia, also received federal and state welfare benefits when they lived in the U.S.



On Friday, the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance detailed how the couple received food stamps from September 2011 to November 2012.



The couple, who married in June 2010, are believed to have become parents to their daughter, Zahara, in 2011, in the months before they began receiving the aid.



In addition to food stamps, the young family also benefited from TAFDC (Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children), a program for low income parents with dependent children.

TAFDC is paid out twice a month and can be directly deposited into a recipient's bank account.



The assistance was paid to Katherine, since a person must be a U.S. citizen, or eligible non-citizen, to receive the aid.



While the couple took the government aid, the 24-year-old Rhode Island native would sometimes clock as many as 80 hours a week while her unemployed husband stayed at home.

Ultimately his wife's income made the couple ineligible for welfare and they stopped receiving state money in November 2012.



First born: Tamerlan and Katherine's daughter Zahara, pictured this week with her grandmother Judith Russell in Rhode Island, is believed to have been born in 2011

Welfare officials were forced to divulge details of the aid that was paid out to the family of the bombing suspects, a turn around from their previous strategy of stonewalling.



Mass. Gov. Patrick Deval signaled to state agencies this week that they should not discuss the details of what government assistance Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had received, citing privacy concerns.



Welfare benefits paid to the Tsarnaevs

Food Stamps: Oct. 2002 to Nov. 2004: Tsarnaev parents ( Anzor and Zubeidat) received food stamps Aug. 2009 to Dec. 2011: Tsarnaev parents ( Anzor and Zubeidat) received food stamps Sep. 2011 to Nov. 2012: Katherine Russell Tsarnaev received food stamps Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (TAFDC):

Jan. 2003 to March 2003: Tsarnaev parents ( Anzor and Zubeidat) collected TAFDC money Aug. 2009 to June 2010 : Tsarnaev parents ( Anzor and Zubeidat) collected TAFDC money Sept. 2011 to Nov. 2012: Katherine Russell Tsarnaev collected TAFDC money

Though the welfare information is not available for release unless the person in question provides their consent - it is available to lawmakers.



Thus, Mass. State Representative David Linsky called on the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance to provide him with the information.



Linksy issued an ultimatum on Thursday to welfare officials, giving them 24 hours to provide the information.

The letter from Rep. Linsky was provided to the Boston Herald.

'My office is working to fully comply with your request,' DTA interim commissioner Stacey Monahan wrote in his report to Rep. Linsky, saying they were only providing a summary 'given the great interest in this matter.'



In addition to the aid paid out to Tamerlan and his wife, both alleged bombers had benefited from welfare since their parents Anzor and Zubeidat Tsarnaev collected foodstamps and TAFDC - from 2002 to 2004 and again in 2009 to 2011.

Since the Tsarnaevs are Chechen immigrants, some wondered why they received aid but the state agency explained that they were considered eligible for the public assistance.

'The Tsarnaev parents were eligible to receive benefits as legal, non-citizen residents who were granted asylum status and met the basic eligibility criteria for DTA, including household income levels, presence of dependent children and other factors,' the DTA interim commissioner Stacey Monahan said in a letter addressed to David Linsky, Chairman of the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee.



Breadwinner: Lawyers for Katherine Russell (pictured in high school yearbook photos) said the 24-year-old mother worked tirelessly as a home healthcare aid to support her young family. Her husband was unemployed



The governor of Massachusetts tried to stop state agencies from releasing welfare information this week.

Gov. Deval Patrick's administration on Thursday flatly refused to answer any media inquiries about taxpayers money that funded the suspected bombers, citing the Tsarnaevs right to privacy.



On Wednesday, state officials had confirmed that the deceased suspect, 26-year-old Tamerlan, received welfare benefits. They also said the brothers' family had relied on state benefits when they were children.



News that one of the alleged terrorist had received state money sparked outrage in the community, recovering after the blasts on April 15 that left 3 dead and more than 260 injured.



On Thursday, multiple state agencies, seemingly at the prompting of the Patrick administration, refused to comment further on benefits received by the brothers.



Family: Zubeidat Tsarnaev, center with Tamerlan, and the child's father, Anzor, left, received state aid multiple times from 2002 to 2011 (pictured with an uncle Muhamad Suleimanov (right) in an undated photo)

When asked if Tamerlan had received unemployment benefits, Labor department spokesman Kevin Franck refused to comment, saying the matter was 'confidential and not a matter of public record,' The Herald reported.



University of Massachusetts Dartmouth spokesman Robert Connolly also refused to comment on the financial aid application of 19-year-old sophomore Dzhokhar .



'It is our position - and I believe the accepted position in higher education - that student records including academic records and financial records (including financial aid) cannot under federal law be released without a student’s consent.'

The Federal Communications Commission would not discuss whether the suspected bombers had a government-paid cellphone.

Housing officials in Cambridge also would not comment on if the brothers ever had Section 8 assistance, a rental subsidy offered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to low income households.

Wife: Katherine Tsarnaeva, pictured leaving her lawyer's office in Providence, R.I. on Tuesday, met Tamerlan in 2009 at a nightclub. They married in June 2010, when she was 21-years-old Family. Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, center at the home of her parents in North Kingstown, R.I. on Sunday, has a 3-year-old daughter, Zahara, with her late husband

The Herald had reported that sources who knew Tamerlan said that though he sported a flashy appearance, he failed to earn very much money for his family and was essentially a stay-at-home dad.

His younger brother, on the other hand, has been described as more entrepreneurial.

Dzhokhar, who was a sophomore at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, attended the school on a scholarship and earned petty cash selling marijuana, sources told the Boston Globe.



Investigators are scrutinizing the brothers' source of income, as they probe whether the pair received outside assistance for their attack, either from a radical group or foreign government.

Security experts have noted though that the modus operandi was relatively cheap, estimating that the materials for each of the pressure cooker bombs used at the Boston Marathon attack could have cost a total of $100 each.



Tamerlan, 26, died early on April 19 after a shoot-out with police in Watertown, Mass. His 19-year-old brother was captured late on April 19 after an extensive manhunt.

Marriage: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in 2009 at Boston's Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts center, was unemployed. Friends say he and his wife had a tempestuous relationship and said he would call Katherine a 'slut' and 'prostitute'

Officials believe that Tamerlan became heavily influenced by radical Muslim ideology sometime between 2008 and 2009 before he met his future wife.



A lawyer for the 24-year-old said she was a student at Suffolk University in Boston when she was introduced to Tamerlan at a nightclub, believed to be sometime during 2009.

Katherine Russell Tsarnaev converted to Islam to marry the terrorist suspect in June 2010, when she was 21-years-old



Around the same time, Russell became pregnant with Tamerlan 's baby. She dropped out of school in her senior year and reportedly began pulling away from her friends and family.

After their marriage, she lived with Tamerlan, 'raising her child and working long hours, caring for people in their homes who are unable to care for themselves,' her lawyers said in a statement.



Suspects: State officials will not comment on the taxpayer money that was shelled out in welfare benefits for bombing suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, and his brother Dzhokhar, right

Her husband reportedly looked after their young child, Zahara.



Friends have told the media that the couple had a tempestuous relationship.



Three of Russell's friends told National Public Radio's Laura Sullivan that Tsarnaev would often insult Russell and call her names, such as 'slut' and 'prostitute.'



He was known to fly into into fits of rage where he would throw objects, including furniture, friends said.