USDA Efforts to Reduce Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Strengthening SNAP integrity, rooting out waste, fraud and abuse so that federal dollars are used appropriately.
This report responds to the requirement of PL 110-246 to assess the effectiveness of state and local efforts to directly certify children for free school meals. Under direct certification, children are determined eligible for free school meals without the need for household applications by using data from other means-tested programs.
Section 9(b)(12)(A)(i) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act restricts categorical eligibility for free school meals based on SNAP participation to children who are members of a household receiving assistance under SNAP. Therefore, a child who is a member of a household that is receiving “zero benefits” from SNAP is not categorically eligible for free meals, unless the child is categorically eligible for another reason.
This memo is to inform you of changes and clarifications related to direct certification for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The purpose of this memo is to transmit guidance regarding the sale of, or intent to sell, SNAP benefits and/or EBT cards in public or online through web sites and social media. FNS considers the offer to sell SNAP benefits to be a violation of SNAP regulations.
The sale or exchange of SNAP benefits for anything other than food sold by an authorized retailer is illegal – and is neither accepted nor tolerated by USDA.
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is proposing changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) regulations pertaining to SNAP client benefit use, participation of retail food stores and wholesale food concerns in SNAP, and SNAP client participation in the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).
The purpose of this memorandum is to implement provisions contained in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 which establish direct certification rate benchmarks for states and require continuous improvement plans from states that do not meet the benchmarks.
The interim rule, Direct Certification and Certification of Homeless, Migrant and Runaway Children for Free School Meals, was published on April 25, 2011. One of the provisions in this rule concerns the frequency of direct certification matching activities with the SNAP and is effective July 1, 2011.