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49. Example 3 – Household with legal immigrants

Mr. and Mrs. Lee are legal immigrants who entered the United States in January 1997. They currently have permanent resident alien status. Mr. Lee is 30 years old and Mrs. Lee is 28 years old. Both have been working steadily in the United States since March 1997. Mr. Lee earns $100 a week before taxes. Mrs. Lee earns $50 a week. The Lees live with Mrs. Lee’s sister and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Park. Mr. and Mrs. Park are naturalized U.S. citizens. Mr. Park earns $160 a week; Mrs. Park stays home with the Park’s six month-old daughter. The Parks and Lees pool their resources to buy food and they eat together as a family. The Parks pay $400 a month in rent, including utilities. The Parks and Lees apply for food stamps on April 1, 2008.

Answer to Example 3

Mr. and Mrs. Lee are legal immigrants. They are not veterans and they do not yet have 40 quarters of work, individually or combined. They are not elderly or under age 18 and are not disabled. Therefore, they are ineligible for federal food stamps. The Lees are eligible for the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP), however, which looks and acts just like the federal Food Stamp Program. Since they arrived in the U.S. after August 22, 1996, their eligibility may be time-limited. (See the section about immigrant eligibility for details.) The Parks are U.S. citizens and can apply for food stamps for themselves and the baby. The food stamp household consists of all five people.

Mrs. Park is exempt from work requirements as the parent responsible for the care of a child under age six, but the rest of the food stamp household must meet the work requirement or register for work. An applicant has to register for work unless he already works at least 30 hours per week or works a job that pays at least 30 times the federal minimum wage per week. ($5.85 x 30 = $175.50). Mr. Park does not have to register for work, but the Lees do. (The section with an overview of work requirements details more information about these requirements.)

Income and allotment:

  • Step A – gross monthly earned income is 4.3 times the total weekly earnings for the household, (4.3 x ($160 + $100 + $50) = $1,333).
  • Step B – there is no other income.
  • Step C – the gross monthly income is $1,333. This falls below the maximum of $2,794 for a five member household.
  • Step D – gross monthly earned income is $1,333.
  • Step E – the earned income deduction is 20% of the gross monthly earned income, or $266 ($1,333 x 20% = $266.60).
  • Step F – the net earned income is $1,067 ($1,333 – $266).
  • Step G – the total net income is $1,067.
  • Step H – subtract the standard deduction – $1,067 – $179 = $888.
  • Step I – there are no dependent care costs.
  • Step J – there are no child support payments.
  • Step K – there are no elderly or disabled members, so any medical expenses the Lees or Parks may have are not deductible.
  • Step L – the adjusted income is $888.
  • Step M – finding excess shelter costs – the total shelter costs are $400, including utilities.
  • Step N – the Parks and Lees can add $20 for a telephone allowance (TUA), since they aren’t eligible to claim the standard utility allowance (SUA) (which includes the phone allowance).
  • Step O – total shelter costs are $420 ($400 + $20).
  • Step P – half the adjusted income is $444 ($888 รท 2=444).
  • Step Q – excess shelter costs are $0 ($420 – $444 = -$24). Negative values indicate no excess costs, since they pay less than half their adjusted income to shelter costs.
  • Step R – monthly net income is $888.
  • Step S – $888 is less than the $2,150 maximum net income for a household of 5, so the household is eligible.
  • Step T – multiply the household’s net income by 0.3 ($888 x 0.3 = $266.4).
  • Step U – the adjusted food stamp income is $267 (always round up).
  • Step V – monthly food stamp allotment is $526 ($793 – $267).
The food stamp office will determine how much of this allotment is paid for with federal stamps (for the Parks and the Lee’s citizen daughter) and state-funded CFAP (for the Lees). To maximize the allotment paid for federal food stamps, the county does not count any of the ineligible household members’ income when doing the calculation of federal benefits, but this does not affect the bottom-line amount for which the household is eligible.