In June 2019, a House Agriculture subcommittee implored to discuss the 2018 farm bill as Democrats and Republicans instituted their opinions against Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility rules.

The inquiry was initiated to scrutinize the potential effect of restraining broad-based definite eligibility in SNAP, which the current administration plans to recommend this year after a related proposal was not incorporated in the 2018 farm bill. There was a hot exchange of arguments when Republicans presented a millionaire from Minnesota who allegedly got SNAP benefits to prove a point about eligibility principles. Democrats, on the other hand, declared it as a ridiculous stunt.

Sophisticated cat-el policy, as it’s identified, permits around 43 states to grant SNAP eligibility to families if they’re receiving a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefit. Under this policy States fix the traditional asset limits for SNAP, helping more low-income households getting eligible.

Revised Guidelines

According to the adjustments in the previous guidelines issued by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the revised Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used to ascertain the qualification of a household for SNAP will remain in effect from 1^st July 2019 till 30^th June 2020 (1 year). The same will be used by the schools and other similar institutions taking part in a range of food assistance programs offered to most deserving school children and adults under the Russell National School Lunch Act.

These annual revisions are made to harmonize the eligibility standards with the yearly changes in Consumer Price Index, for free or subsidized price meals under the National School Lunch Program under the Richard B. Russell National School Act.

The said School Program consists of the School Breakfast Program, Special Milk Program for Children, Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program.

Income

The Federal income poverty guidelines provide a basis for the said guidelines which are calculated against the family size of the applicant household to verify their eligibility for the food assistance program. The term ‘Income’ in the eligibility manual means the total net income before paying any taxes or insurances and include:

• Any monetary compensation i.e. wages, salary, commission or fees
• Income from nonfarm or farm self-employment
• Social security
• Dividends on savings or bonds income
• Rental income
• Payments from welfare programs including child support payments
• Unemployment assistance
• Pension payments
• Private donations from nonfamily members
• Royalties etc.

But the income term is not used for benefits or cash received under any Federal assistance program which are, by law, excluded to be considered as a family’s income. Besides the price, any form of food assistance offered to children under this School program will not be counted as income when applying for any other benefit program.

Family

Similarly, for SNAP, the family size is vital to get qualify for the program and is equally important for applying families to determine who should be considered part of the family. Different benefit program has a different definition of household, SNAP considers all those living together under one roof, or preparing and buying of preparing food together as a family. For example, an adult child of a family living in the same house but purchasing food independently is not considered a member of that household in the SNAP definition.

A tenant whom you have rented out part of your house can not be considered family member and the rent amount will be taken as income while evaluating the eligibility.

There are exceptions also like dependent children and those under 22 years of age are counted as a member of the household regardless of their purchasing or preparing food with family or on their own. Another exception is for households with elderly and disabled members, who are considered family members as they are unable to cook food for themselves and the family does do for them.

An elderly patient living with a family but buying the food separately for himself/herself, in that case, the elderly person will be officially counted as a member of the household.

The given criterion of the family for SNAP is not different from other Federal assistance programs like Medicaid, where the family members are limited to those declared dependents on the tax documents. In SNAP, a friend living with a family sharing food is considered part of the household. It only requires that the proof that all those people are physically living together along with all the income coming into the house.

Eligibility Evaluation Service by a Tech-Company

A not for profit tech startup company called mRelief is helping people to know whether they meet the criteria for SNAP benefits. They have developed a questionnaire with 10 simple questions and an individual or a family can answer those questions to know their eligibility without spending a long time waiting in the agency’s office or making phone calls.

Genevieve Nielsen, co-founder of the company said that their goal is to provide the facility for everybody to access the safety net programs.

This initiative has unlocked over $91 million in SNAP benefits. There are an estimated 9 million SNAP-eligible people in the United States not receiving this vital food support just because they do not know they can receive this assistance. One-third of these non-participating eligible people live in California, where this tech company is based and where it plans to concentrate, but not limited to, offering its evaluation and information services

The mRelief also found massive disorganization of federally funded assistance programs offered in the city of Chicago, where according to the company, over 10,000 applied for housing assistance but only a meager 600 could qualify. The statistics reflect an immense wastage of time for those applying and staff involved in dealing with the whole evaluation process. The company focused the provision of its evaluation services on SNAP applicants and also foresees the potential for expanding their support to other similar programs.

According to the company’s official statement, it costs around $13 to enroll a household, whereas that household receives $1,000 in remuneration during the initial six months of this food assistance. This means that the company can provide this vital service in a highly cost-effective manner saving precious time and money for the applicants and the dealing agency.

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Fraud is a deliberate action that breaks federal and/or state laws, not unintentional mistakes. Certain acts, such as trafficking SNAP benefits, are always considered fraud; other acts, such as duplicate enrollment, may be the result of either error or fraud depending on the circumstances of the case.

SNAP frauds are comparatively rare, according to available data and reports. There is no single gauge that reflects all the forms of fraud in SNAP. There are some frequently cited procedures that describe some parts of the issue

The official Congressional Research Service report on the errors and frauds in The Food Stamp program, updated in September 2018 highlighted the following facts about the fraudulent practices in the program.

Frauds in SNAP

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) commonly known as Food Stamps,  is the nation’s principal food aid initiative, assisting over 42 million people (with a federal cost of around $68 Billion per month in the year 2017). The program is managed together with state agencies, which take care of most recipient functions, while the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (USDA-FNS) watch over the states and handles most retailer functions.

In a program of these proportions with various stakeholders, detecting, preventing, and addressing fraud and deception is complicated. Food Stamp program is usually been reauthorized in a farm bill roughly every five years; this happened last time in 2014.

Policymakers have long been struggling in dropping interested in dropping fraudulent practices and refining payment precision. Provisions associated with these objectives have been included in last farm bill reauthorizations.

There are four main types of inaccuracy and misconduct in SNAP:

1. Trafficking SNAP benefits: It is the unlawful sale of SNAP benefits in exchange for cash or controlled substances (firearms or explosives etc) and it can entail both retailers and beneficiaries of the program. This is considered as one of the most serious forms of SNAP fraud that diverts federal funds from the intended purpose.
2. Retailer application fraud: This practice generally relates to an illegal effort by a store owner to participate in SNAP when that particular store or owner is not eligible for that service. To obtain SNAP authorization, applicant retailers must meet certain requirements, including stocking and business integrity standards. Avoiding disqualification during the application’s review process can be a potential source of fraud. Another kind of this fraud entails a store owner attempting to prevent ineligibility from SNAP by engaging in a supposed sale or transfer of ownership; after which the new purported owner applies to participate in SNAP, claiming that the former disqualified owners are no longer connected with the store
3. Errors and fraud by households applying for SNAP benefits: In addition to the above, errors and fraud can take place during the evaluation of qualification and benefit sum for beneficiaries resulting in wrong payments. These could be either deliberate or unintended violation of program rules.
4. Errors and Fraud by state agencies:—this can either be any intentional effort by state employees or state officials to illicitly produce and benefit from SNAP overpayments to favor the applicant. If a state agency commits mistakes it results in inaccurate payments; the debate of agency fraud mainly centered on certain states’ Quality Control (QC) misconduct.

Measures to Control the Fraud

USDA-FNS has specific laws to correct the mentioned frauds and has taken a number of measures to guard the very occurrence of these above particular practices.

1. In case a retailer accepts or redeems SNAP benefits in violation of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (FNA), that retailer may be forced to pay back the amount that they criminally transferred. USDA-FNS also has the authority to publicly reveal the store and owner name for disqualified retailers. Retailers engaged in trafficking can be criminally charged and reprimanded with fines up to $250,000 and detention up to 20 years.
2. In the case of falsification of retailer’s application then the retailer’s application is to be denied for a period ranging between three years to a permanent disqualification depending on the severity of fraud.
3. SNAP certification is the procedure of determination of applicant’s eligibility to receive food stamp support. It is one of the chief responsibilities of state agencies (with federal oversight). Under-issuance or over-issuance of SNAP benefits can be the possible Errors (i.e., recipient errors and agency errors) that take place during this process.
4. Agency errors generally occur due to the fact potential human error, and training and supervision of eligibility workers is the primary measure of diminishing them.

On top of the above corrective measures, USDA works to assure that only those households receive the SNAP benefits who are qualified for that and correct amounts are provided to those recipients. Over the last many years USDA has initiated major steps to improve the service quality of this program vital for the poor and vulnerable masses. make sure that only those families who are actually eligible for the program participants, and that the correct amount of benefits is provided to them.

Consequently, over 99 percent of SNAP beneficiaries, crosschecked by SNAP’s Quality Control (QC) system, proved to be eligible. At the same time, the payment accuracy was found 96 percent.

The precious resources coming from the taxpayers’ hard earned money were saved and now payments errors are half the numbers they were a decade ago.

Through Stronger Rules and strict oversight by the federal government USDA requires state agencies involved in the SNAP program have a foolproof system of verification of documents and electronic data including the Social Security Master Death File, Social Security’s Prisoner Verification System, and FNS’s Electronic Disqualified Recipient System, prior to recommending individuals for the benefits to prevent ineligible people receive benefits aimed to help the poorest.

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SNAP for College Students

Back in November 2018, the New Jersey Department of Human Services announced new rules that will allow more poor college students to receive SNAP benefits. The food aid was planned to be offered to career and technical education students at community colleges, which is considered to be a top priority for Hunger-Free New Jersey according to the officials of the State.

It was estimated that around 67,000 poorest college students — several of whom face the awful choice of continuing their education or having something to eat- will benefit from this expansion of the program.

The Middlesex County College is among the pioneers of this new offer that opened a food pantry for students in early 2018. New Jersey Human Services Commissioner announced during his visit to the University that the SNAP will be offered to students in community college career and technical education programs. The advocates from Hunger Free New Jersey termed the condition of the low-income college students a hidden crisis on college campuses. New Jersey Human Services discussed and researched on how to tackle food insecurity among college students, expand SNAP eligibility for them, and raise understanding of food assistance on college campuses.

National studies reflected that around 40 percent of community college students reported being food insecure, which meant a not having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of reasonable, nutritious food.

While addressing the students in the University Human Services Commissioner Johnson said “SNAP is the first line of defense against hunger, which is a year-round problem for far too many people, including students who too often are forced to worry about food instead of their studies. Students learning employable skills in New Jersey’s community colleges should not be left behind when it comes to this crucial nutritional assistance program.”

Eligibility for New Jersey program

Those college students who are at least half-time students participating in state-recognized employment and training program will be eligible. The State Administration will now recognize all approved Career and Technical Education Programs at New Jersey community colleges as eligible SNAP employment and training programs.  Students qualifying for SNAP income eligibility standards and participate in these training programs will now have access to this critical food assistance.

The New Jersey’s administration, which is the first one to extend the offer to students, is committed to helping families by investing in access to quality and affordable childcare that helps allow students to attend classes and by providing this expanded and vital food assistance for eligible career and technical education students. For a lot of students, this initiative will make a remarkable difference which will not only mitigate potential barriers in the education of many but also make it possible for more college students to complete their degrees and succeed in life.

Proposed Bill the College Student Hunger Act of 2019’

Recently in early July 2019 a United States Senator and one of the Democrat’s presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts along with Rep. Al Lawson, a Florida Democrat introduced a bill aiming to make low-income college students eligible for SNAP benefits under.

The bill called ‘the College Student Hunger Act of 2019’ would amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to include eligible college students for a federal Pell grant or whose families are considered low-income.

While introducing the bill Sen. Warren said, “As more and more students struggle to afford college and take on a mountain of student loan debt, nearly one in three college students cannot even afford necessities like food, our bill will ensure students have the support they need to work toward a better future without going hungry.” This bill is presented in continuation of a letter signed by many Senators including Warren submitted in February 2019 requesting a study on food insecurity at universities and colleges countrywide.

According to the official statement of the US Department of Agriculture, a majority of people between ages 18 to 49, who are enrolled in college with no disabilities, are not qualified for the program, with an exception for some students in state-designated work and training programs. The proposed legislation emerged months after a Government Accountability Office report identified that 2 million at-risk college students who could be eligible for SNAP didn’t receive benefits in 2016.

The other cosponsors of the bill include Senators Ed Markey, another Massachusetts Democrat and Kamala Harris, a California Democrat also running for president. Seven House Democrats co-sponsored the legislation, including Rep. James McGovern. Democrats on Beacon Hill welcomed the proposed draft of the legislation, including Senate Assistant Majority Leader Sal DiDomenico, Sen. Anne Gobi, Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, and Rep. Jeffrey N. Roy.

The Contents of the Bill

The proposed bill would lower SNAP’s current work requirement for college students from 20 to 10 hours per week as the work requirement can often cause students to drop out of college because they struggle to balance work with classes and homework. Besides, the bill requires the Education Department to notify low-income students about their potential SNAP qualification.

In addition to informing states and educational institutions about student eligibility for SNAP benefits, the bill would also require the USDA to inform and launch pilot projects to try methods to make SNAP more reachable to students, including using SNAP to buy prepared food from participating dining halls.

Rep. Lawson also echoed Warren in a statement saying “The significant increase in college tuition over the last decade has forced students to choose between buying food or paying for books and housing expenditures. This bill will help to relieve some of that financial burden for them.”

Study

Temple University’s Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice surveyed nearly 86,000 college students from 123 schools and established that nearly half are “food insecure.” It was also found during the research that 45% of study participants often or sometimes are nervous that they do not have money to buy food or that their food will run out before they have the money to buy more or that they do not afford balanced meals. Currently, just 60% of first-time full-time students earn a bachelor’s degree in six years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

A 2018 U.S Government Accountability Office report reflected that there are roughly 2 million college students in the U.S. who qualify for SNAP benefits but do not receive them. The GAO report analyzed food inaccessibility among college students in four states: California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Michigan. In Massachusetts, researchers did site visits of a two-year institution, Bunker Hill, and a four-year institution, the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

At present, SNAP eligibility differs from state to state, but the common condition is that the most non-disabled college students do not qualify unless they meet requirements beyond standards. For example, some poor students who have a disability or who are caregivers to a dependent family member can qualify for SNAP.

The chair of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, Rep. Jeffrey N. Roy said he is aware of the issues that a huge number of college students having to choose between meals and materials for school. He maintained that with ever-increasing education costs, this legislation would provide concrete ways to assist students with the nutrition they need to thrive.

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