The Program Access Index is one of the measures FNS uses to reward states for high performance in the administration of SNAP. Performance awards were authorized by the 2022 Farm Bill. The PAI is designed to indicate the degree to which low-income people have access to SNAP benefits. The purpose of this step-by-step guide is to describe the calculation of the PAI in detail. It includes all of the data, adjustments, and calculations used in determining the PAI for every state.
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will discontinue the requirement for vendors to use high security seals to secure USDA Foods deliveries as of July 1, 2023.
FNS has estimated the number of new discretionary exemptions each state has earned for FY 2023. States that operated under a statewide waiver of the ABAWD time limit did not earn any new exemptions.
FNS has estimated the number of new discretionary exemptions each state has earned for FY 2022. States that operated under a statewide waiver of the ABAWD time limit did not earn any new exemptions.
On April 30, 2021, FNS issued a memo that SNAP Quality Control will resume nationwide starting July 2021, with special QC review procedures related to COVID-related adjustments, and provides state agencies with a blanket waiver regarding the QC face-to-face interview.
The Characteristics report is published annually, dating back to 1976, and provides information about the demographic and economic circumstances of SNAP households. Using a sample of SNAP Quality Control data that is representative at both the state and national level, this report summarizes the characteristics of households and individuals who participated in SNAP in fiscal year 2019. Because SNAP is available to most low-income households, participants represent a broad cross section of the Nation's poor.
FNS will allow state agencies to suspend requirements to conduct face-to-face interviews for QC active reviews through Dec. 31, 2020.
This memorandum clarifies the use of third party payroll sources for SNAP certification policy and quality control purposes. The first two sections of this memorandum apply to certification policy and the section titled Quality Control Considerations provides details on how to treat verification from a third party payroll source for QC reviews.
This memorandum provides clarification of changes made to Section 1240 - Transmission/Release of Active Case Findings to FNS, Data Checking, and Changing Case Findings and Section 13 70 - Transmission of Negative Case Findings to FNS, Data Checking and Changing Case Findings in the October 2017 edition of the FNS Quality Control Review Handbook 310.
The memorandum that follows is intended to clarify the three ways in which FNS measures timeliness of initial SNAP application processing. This memorandum does not represent new policy, but seeks to clarify the three existing data collection and monitoring procedures.