The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 requires that children in food stamp households be directly certified for free school meals. To prepare for the phased in implementation of mandatory direct certification, which begins for the largest school districts in July 2006 and covers all school districts by July 2008, we convened a work group on Jan. 26–27, 2005.
On Dec. 8, 2004, the President signed The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005. This law contains a provision which excludes from consideration as income in the Food Stamp Program additional pay received by military personnel as a result of deployment to a combat zone.
We received a question as to how to treat disaster relief employment income received from a National Emergency Grant.
We have been asked whether to adopt for food stamp benefit purposes the $48.17 average cost for prescription drug purchases that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) calculated. The answer is yes, with some caveats. We have prepared two new Q&As to outline how this should work.
This memorandum is to reiterate and clarify current policy governing intentional program violations as set forth in the Food Stamp Program regulations.
The head of household may not be held "automatically" responsible for trafficking the household's benefits if there is no direct evidence identifying him/her as the guilty party. However, OGC was also supportive of holding the head of household responsible when there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to show his/her complicity in the violative act.
After a further review of this matter, and upon advice of our legal counsel, we have reconsidered our position on the use of the Request for Contact (RFC) to facilitate household cooperation with fraud investigations. We have decided that the RFC may only be issued by state eligibility workers and only when the state agency learns of a change in the household’s circumstances that calls into question the household’s continued eligibility for the program or its current level of benefits.
Over the past few months, we have learned that some local offices suggest that clients withdraw their applications. The suggestion or recommendation that a client withdraw impinges on the voluntary character of a withdrawal.
This memorandum encourages those state agencies that have not already done so to consider seriously adopting provisions currently available to simplify operations and improve program access for households with earnings.
Update on the Department of Defense (DoD) Subsistence Supplemental Allowance for Members of the Armed Forces