Treatment of recouped or "withheld" Social Security income for SNAP households

FoodSNAP

FNS Agrees that DTA Must Stop Erroneously Counting "Recouped" or withheld Social Security Benefits (same rule for recouped UI and VA Pension)

We are continuing to hear of cases where DTA is incorrectly counting in the SNAP calculation the income that Social Security is recouping for a Social Security overpayment.  Recouped income from non-means tested programs like Social Security and Unemployment Insurance is NEVER countable as income in the SNAP math. That means DTA should only count the "net" Social Security or "net" Unemployment received by the RSDI or UI recipient. And the SNAP recipient does not need to "prove" the amount or reason for the SSA or DUA recoupment. DTA has access to that information directly from SSA or the DUA (Department of Unemployment Assistance) Further, recouped income from the federal Veterans Pension program, although needs-based) is also not countable income for SNAP.

For income recouped in the needs-based SSI program, the state Vets Services (Chapter 115) or the TAFDC and EAEDC cash assistance programs, DTA is allowed to count the recouped benefits but ONLY if the reason for the cash assistance overpayment is a)  due to a program sanction (e.g fraud) and b) the incident triggering the sanction/overpayment happened when the individual was also getting SNAP benefits. Note that it is very rare for SSA to make a "sanction" determination in the SSI program, so please carefully review those cases and contact MLRI if you have that situation.

Attached is a copy of a 4/30/15 letter from the FNS Regional Office to MLRI confirming that recouped RSDI income is non-countable as well as a 4/7/15 letter from MLRI  and the Food Bank of Western Mass earlier in April. Please let us know if you are seeing any of these cases.