FOOD STAMPS ADVOCACY

On January 15, 2008 Ambika Panday and Naomi Meyer from Greater Boston Legal Services presented “What Advocates Should Know about Applying for Food Stamps” as part of the Community Resource Center “Information Session” series. You may recall that Ambika Panday is our liaison with the Securing & Expanding Access to Legal Services (SEALS) Program, (for more information on the program see: ).http://healthcare.partners.org/ss/ssframebottom/staffresources/New Site/Basic Needs/BN_PB-CA_SEALS.html

Myth
Taxpayer’s money supports Food Stamp recipients’ cigarette or alcohol habit.

Fact
Recipients cannot use Food Stamps to buy tobacco or alcohol. For that matter they can’t use Food Stamps to buy non-food necessities such as diapers, toilet paper, toothpaste, and feminine hygiene products either.

Other Food Stamp Facts:

1. The benefits are dispersed once monthly on a plastic card called an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card, which resembles a debit/credit card. This it is much more discrete than the old-style actual stamps, and has helped remove some of the stigma associated with using food stamps.
2. A recipient’s deposit date depends on the last digit of her social security number.

Financial Eligibility Requirements

1. The income limits are based on household size and are updated every October.

a. The process to determine eligibility is complex. For example, factors such as age, disability, make-up of the family and receipt of other benefits may affect whether one is eligible. Rather than try to understand the precise calculations, it makes most sense to use one of the online food stamp calculators to estimate eligibility. Here are a couple of food stamp calculators: http://www.gettingfoodstamps.org/qualify.htm and http://www.masslegalservices.org/FScalculator .
b. Careful! Make sure that families are using their gross income in these estimates (i.e., before taxes and other withholding). Also. to determine the monthly income multiply the weekly income by 4.333 (not 4).

2. Some Households are also subject to an Assets Limit of $3000 (disabled) or $2000 (non-disabled). The home and one car are not countable assets. These households do not have to meet the assets limits test:

   a. Households with children under 19
   b. Households consisting only of a pregnant woman
   c. Households in which all members receive TAFDC, EAEDC, or SSI

Advocacy tip: Applicants should be encouraged to report all income to DTA, including income that was not reported to the IRS. If it is discovered that a member received benefits in excess of what they were entitled because they withheld income information they can be required to repay the benefits and barred from the Food Stamps program for a period of time. The DTA does not report this income to the IRS.

Application
An in-person interview is NOT required, though it is available and may in some cases be beneficial. An applicant (or any adult whom she chooses to be her “authorized representative”) may submit a Food Stamps application:

• In person at the local DTA office
• Over the phone
• By fax
• By mail or
• Online

Online instructions
From www.mass.gov/dta

1. Click on “Food Assistance” in the upper left corner
2. Click on “Proceed to online application”
3. The online application process accepts NEW applications only (not recertifications).
4. Applicants must answer some preliminary questions intended to screen out applicants who are ineligible for Food Stamps. Be aware, however, that getting through the screen is not a guarantee of Food Stamps eligibility.

Combining Application with Cash Assistance
TAFDC and EAEDC do require an in-person interview. Applicants however do not have to file a separate Food Stamps application or go to a separate interview with DTA to complete the Food Stamps application process. This is true even if an applicant’s cash assistance application is denied.

Applicant’s Rights

1. If approved for Food Stamps, benefits will begin retroactive to the date of application, so it behooves the applicant to apply as soon as possible and ensure that it is recorded as such to “protect the date”. At minimum, if not able to complete the application on the first possible date, applicants can submit a “Request for Assistance” which secures the application date. It can be submitted by fax or in person and only needs to include the applicant’s:

a. Name
b. Address (if any)
c. Signature
d. Date
After submitting the Request for Assistance, the applicant has 30 days to complete the application.

2. All applicants are entitled to apply for benefits regardless of whether a DTA worker thinks the applicant is eligible.
3. Applicants with disabilities must receive reasonable accommodations if requested. Some examples might, depending on the nature of a disability, include communicating by mail or telephone only, or ensuring that DTA communicates with the applicant or recipient via the preferred communication method before taking adverse action in her case. Or if the applicant needs help gathering verifications the DTA must assist. This is rarely offered, but those who need this assistance can request it or it can be the basis of an appeal.
4. Applicants with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) are entitled to interpreter services. Applicants who need interpreters must not be turned away or told to return with their own interpreter

   a. DTA cannot compel LEP applicants to utilize their children, adult relatives, or friends as interpreters
   b. DTA must tell the applicant that he or she has the option of DTA providing an interpreter free of charge

5. Applicants may request to have their in-person interview waived and interview over the phone instead.
6. Receive Food Stamps or a written denial within 30 days of the application date, or within 7 days for Emergency Food Stamps. DTA does not meet its obligation if it just sends a letter by day 30 saying that someone has been approved- recipients are supposed to have an EBT card and be able to access their benefits by day 30.

Required Verifications

1. Identity (for Emergency Food Stamps, this is the ONLY required verification)
2. Massachusetts Residency
3. Income of any kind
4. Assets (if applicable)
5. Immigration Status

   a. Only required of household members applying for benefits
   b. U.S. citizens do NOT need to provide verification unless questionable, and appearance and/or accent are not sufficient to prove this is “questionable”. That said, immigrants are well advised NOT to lie about their status as this constitutes fraud.

DTA must accept the best available verification. For instance, if there is no documentation of income, such as when one has been working “under the table” and the employer refuses to provide verification, DTA must accept an applicant’s written statement as verification. DTA must help the applicant gather the verifications if the applicant cannot do it alone.

Optional Verifications

• Rent or Mortgage
• Utilities: Heat, Electricity, and Phone. The actual cost of these expenses does not matter
• Medical expenses of disabled person if greater than $35/month
• Child care expenses
• Child support paid by household

These are not required, but possibly beneficial. They might document costs that may be deducted from income or increase the amount of benefits. DTA cannot deny an application, however, for failure to provide optional verifications unless otherwise over-income.

Immigrant Eligibility
Food stamps are a federal benefit, so have relatively strict immigration requirements. The eligibility rules for immigrants are very complicated and often require expert advice. But remember: immigrant parents who are ineligible for Food Stamps can still apply for their eligible children! All applicants are given “Supplement A” which asks for information about those applying- who is and who isn’t. Workers are not to probe further into the immigration status of those not applying (though they can ask about financial information).

Immigrant groups eligible for food stamps:

• Refugees, asylees, and some other categories of immigrants who received status because they have fled persecution
• Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) who previously had one of these special statuses. In other words, a refugee or asylee who gets LPR status, is not subject to the 5 year bar. Advocacy tip: Ask what applicant’s status was prior to receiving LPR status.

Those exempt from the 5 year bar on receiving Food stamps include:

• Children under 19
• Severely disabled receiving disability benefits (EAEDC, MassHealth)
• Adults with 40 quarters of work history.
  • Advocacy note: Applicants adults might be able to “borrow” credits from their parents’ work history before the child turned 18 (without negatively affecting their parents’ ability to also qualify). Married adults can borrow quarters from a spouse also without negatively impacting the spouse.
  • Also many immigrants work before receiving LPR status and those work quarters count

Appealing a Denial

1. Applicants have the right to ask for a fair hearing if DTA denies them Food Stamps or issues any adverse decision against them
2. Requests for a fair hearing must be submitted to the Division of Hearings by mail or fax within 90 days of the date of an adverse decision notice. The request for a fair hearing form is found on the reverse side of all DTA denials, terminations, or reductions of benefits. The applicant or an advocate should submit this request directly to DOH.
3. Applications denied for lack of verifications can be opened without reapplication if the applicant sends in the appropriate verifications within 60 days of the application. It is fairly common for applications or verifications to be lost. The denial letter will say case was denied because ‘we didn’t have the proof we needed.’ This is the kind of case when it makes sense to re-open an application. DTA should re-open the case as soon as the missing verifications are received. The regulations are not clear as to how long they have , but it is clear that they do not have an additional 30 days. If approved, benefits should be retroactive to the original application date.
4. Applicants always have the right to reapply for Food Stamps after receiving a denial letter.

CRC staff recently had the opportunity to hear the current DTA Commissioner, Julia Kehoe, speak. She acknowledged the long history of customer service issues and declared her commitment to customer service training for her staff. She seemed sincerely dedicated to ensuring that the DTA culture supports helping people get aid to which they are entitled.

More Information
For detailed food stamps information and advocacy tips see Mass. Law Reform Institute’s Food Stamps Advocacy guide: http://www.masslegalhelp.org/income-benefits/food-stamps-advocacy-guide.

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