Site Map
Introduction: What is the Food Stamp Program and How Does It Work?
- 1. Summary of basic eligibility
- 2. How the Food Stamp Program is structured
- 3. County and state operational responsibilities
- 4. Using food stamps
General Eligibility: Who Can Receive Food Stamps?
- 5. Households receive food stamps
- 6. Multiple households in the same house
- 7. People on CalWORKs, General Assistance (GA) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
- 8. People who leave the CalWORKs program
- 9. Immigrant eligibility for food stamps
- 10. Counting legal immigrants’ quarters of work
- 11. Special rules for students, strikers, roomers, boarders, and others in unusual situations
- 12. People who cannot get food stamps, and how to count their income and resources
- 13. Special rules for the “elderly” and “disabled”
- 14. How “elderly” and “disabled” are defined by the Food Stamp Act
Application Procedures
- 15. Getting and filling out an application form
- 16. Authorized representatives
- 17. People who do not speak English
- 18. Applicants for food stamps and CalWORKs diversion
- 19. After the household files its application
- 20. The interview process
- 21. Verifications the food stamp office requires
- 22. Social security number requirements
- 23. Finger imaging
- 24. Notification of qualification or denial
- 25. Failure of the food stamp office to act on an application within 30 days
Financial Eligibility: “Income” and “Resources”
What is “income”?
- 26. Definition of “income”
- 26a. Things that are NOT income
- 27. Money that counts even when the household does not get it as income
- 28. How student aid is counted
- 29. How self-employment income is counted and what business expenses can be deducted
- 30. Money a boarder pays the household
- 31. Income (and deductions) of ineligible immigrants in mixed food stamp households
- 32. Income of an immigrant’s sponsor
- 33. Child support payments made by a household member to someone not in the household
- 34. Income limits
- (see also How to calculate the monthly grant amount)
What are “resources”?
- 35. Definition of “resources”
- 36. How many resources a household can have
- 37. Resource exclusions
- 38. Vehicles don’t count for food stamps in California
- 39. Selling or giving resources away
How to Calculate the Monthly Grant Amount
- 40. Applicant budgeting rules
- 41. Prospective budgeting (Quarterly Reporting households)
- 42. Budgeting for “change-reporting” households
- 43. Income deductions for food stamp households
- 44. Medical expense deductions
- 45. First, calculate household income
- (see related calculation work sheets)
- 46. Second, use net income to determine the monthly food stamp allotment
- 47. Example 1 – household with an elderly or disabled member
- 48. Example 2 – household with an unemployed adult
- 49. Example 3 – household with legal immigrants
- 50. Example 4 – household with both documented and undocumented immigrants
Benefits: What Does the Household Actually Get?
- 51. How many food stamps a household gets each month
- 52. How many food stamps a household gets the first month it applies
- 53. How households get their food stamp benefits
- 54. Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system
- 55. Expedited (emergency) food stamps
- 56. California Food Assistance Program (CFAP)
- 57. Getting food assistance after a natural disaster or household misfortune
Procedural Requirements for Keeping Benefits
- 58. Food stamp time limits
- 59. How to keep getting food stamps (certification periods)
- 60. Failing to fill out the Quarterly Report (QR) form and send it in
- 61. Coming in for an interview before the certification period is over
- 62. NAFS restorations after curing basis for termination
- 62a. Moving
- 63. Replacing food stamps if something happens to them
Work Requirements
- 64. Overview of work requirements
- 65. Exemptions from work requirements
- 66. Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWADs): Work rules and three-month time limit for employable adults
- 67. Waiver of ABAWD requirements: Excusing people from the three-month cut-off
- 68. Work programs for people subject to ABAWD requirements
- 69. Registering for work
- 70. Wage supplementation programs
- 71. Non-compliance with a work requirement
Special Eligibility Rules and Options
- 72. Homeless persons’ rights in the Food Stamp Program
- 73. Where can the homeless use their food stamps?
- 74. How can homeless people verify their identity and residence?
- 75. Can homeless people get a deduction for shelter expenses?
- 76. What other special help can homeless people receive?
- 77. Farm workers’ rights in the Food Stamp Program
Underissuances and Overissuances
- 78. Underissuances: Getting too few food stamps
- 79. Overissuances: Getting too many food stamps
- 80. Overissued … because of an agency (“administrative”) error
- 81. Overissued … because of a mistake the household made (“inadvertent” household errors)
- 82. Overissued … because the food stamp office thinks the household committed fraud
- 83. What is the correct amount of a food stamp overissuance?
- 84. How the food stamp office collects benefits it overpaid
- 85. The overissuance “Demand Letter/Notice of Action”
Fraud Claims
- 86. What counts as an “intentional program violation” (IPV)?
- 87. What is a “disqualification consent agreement” or “waiver” of the IPV hearing?
- 88. The IPV fraud hearing
- 89. What happens if the person loses the fraud hearing or signs a hearing “waiver” or “disqualification consent agreement”?
- 90. Being taken to court on a fraud claim
Notices and Fair Hearings
- 91. Notice the food stamp office must give when it plans to cut or stop someone’s food stamps
- 92. What to do if the food stamp office has done something wrong
- 93. Requesting a fair hearing
- 94. What the food stamp office must do when the household asks for a fair hearing
- 95. Continuing benefits while waiting for a fair hearing
- 96. Specific rights a household has in a fair hearing
- 97. What happens after the household wins the hearing
- 98. What happens after the household loses the hearing
Tables – Income, Deductions and Allotments
- 99. Maximum food stamp deductions
- 100. Maximum food stamp allotment levels
- 101. Gross and net monthly income eligibility standards
- 102. Gross monthly income standards for households where an “elderly” or “disabled” member is a separate household
- 103. Gross/Net income checklist
Additional Legal Tools and Other Resources
- 104. Federal Food Stamp Act
- 105. Federal food stamp regulations
- 106. FNS Administrative Notices
- 107. California food stamp statutes
- 108. California food stamp regulations
- 109. California All County Letters (ACLs) and All County Information Notices (ACINs)
- 110. Policy guidance and article references
- 111. Recent policy developments and other changes in the works