The world of EBT makes getting retro food stamps from a prior county, after relocating, difficult. Here is the EBT update that tells counties what to do to get an EBT card issued in the new county, to cover the old benefits.

No more agonizing over food stamp budget sheets to try to see if that benefits notice is right! Take the California Association of Food Bank’s Food Stamp calculator for spin. It even has handy notes and links to help explain some of the technical rules!

DSS has released their ACL on the implementation of AB 433, the bill passed and signed last legislative session to use modified categorical eligibility (MCE) to remove the asset test for applicants.  DSS has decided that they will limit MCE to only households with children and that the MCE status based on presence of children in the household will be re-evaluated at recertification.  Counties can begin implementing MCE at any time during the rollout period - the rollout period begins July 1, 2009 and MCE must be implemented by county offices by January 1, 2010.

Well, in terms of food stamps, it’s almost true. Food and Nutrition has clarified that other than work registration, all other parts of FSET may be voluntary. And, as such, no sanctions! Thanks to Jessica Bartholow and her hard work for this one.

FNS has clarified that in determining the indigency exception to sponsor deeming, the county is not to determine the sponsor’s income.  Rather, it is just to see what income the immigrant actually has/receives from the sponsor. [Download]

Michael Mule and the Empire Justice Center folks have produced a superb checklist for Food Stamps language access, complete with federal cites.

The FNS has posted a policy letter about what to do when income verification shows work under discrepant names or SSNs. The FNS determined that since recipients are required to report and verify income that providing this information should be encouraged, and the state should not disregard the income because of the discrepancies.  If the state deemed the verification insufficient, it must follow the approved means to pursue alternative verification (by assisting the household or through 3rd party contacts), but could not just deny the application or refuse to address the reported income.  The agency further stated that the purpose of the documentation was to verify income, not to prove identity.

Of note, the FNS stated that the State agency does not have the authority to report or disclose information obtained from the household member to any persons to directly connected with the administration or enforcement of the provisions of the SNAP program, and reporting discrepant work names/SSNs is forbidden.”

Bewildered by the arcane rules for applying gross-income rules to food stamp households with “elderly or disabled” members? Well, now there’s a handy dandy chart explaining how the rules apply to all sorts of different situations, available at the elderly/disabled gross income page. (A shout out to David Mandel of Senior Legal Hotline for creating the chart.)

The 2008 Food Stamp Bill clarified that “fleeing felon” means that the authorities are activitely pursuing the individual for pursposes of prosecuting. State law/regs haven’t caught up to this definition, but the Food Stamp Guide has!

The pages on the aged/disabled households and the gross income tests have been corrected. (Thanks to Jessica B.!) Every once and a while, the ole Food Stamp Guide (editor) brain freezes, but it’s been defrosted and the pages corrected. Bottom line: if ANY member of the FS household is aged/disabled, the WHOLE household has NO gross income test. Phew.