Social Security Update: SNAP Benefits
SSI and Food Assistance
Social Security stopped reducing benefits because of food assistance. This includes food received from friends, family, and community networks, like food banks and other community food programs. This change means HD individuals receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments, any disabled individual receiving SSI payments, will keep more of their SSI benefit. Social Security recognizes that “disabled individuals are more likely to become food insecure, and this policy change will remove critical barriers to receiving informal food assistance…”
Social Security will continue to consider shelter expenses in their in-kind support calculations (i.e., rent, mortgage payments, property taxes, gas, electricity, water, sewer, and garbage collection). In-kind support is non-cash income that helps an SSI recipient with their shelter needs.
SNAP Benefits
Most importantly, Social Security no longer considers SNAP benefits as income for SSI eligibility. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps eligible individuals and families buy eligible food items from authorized retailers. Additionally, SNAP recipients now qualify under the public assistance household exemption. This means any household with at least one SNAP recipient are exempt from the SSI income standard. Individuals and married couples will still need to meet the resource limit standard of $2,000/$3,000.
What does this mean for the HD community? It means more married couples with disabilities should benefit from SSI. For instance, Mike and Sarah are married. Mike has HD and Sarah works, earning $1,500 a month. They are approved for $170 in SNAP benefits. Sarah’s income is now exempt from Mike’s SSI application. He is approved for $967 per month. The couples total income is now $2,467 per month plus $170 in SNAP.
This is a very impactful change and will increase the number of households that can benefit from SSI.
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