THE FARM BILL AND FOOD STAMPS CHANGES
On May 22nd Congress enacted the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 otherwise known as the “farm bill”. After a Presidential veto, the House voted 316-108 and the Senate voted 82-13 to override the veto.
One provision renames the Food Stamp Program the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. The food stamp provisions are all effective October 1, 2008.
Key provisions:
1. Asset Limits
a. Adjusts the food stamp asset limits — $2,000 for most households and $3,000 for households with elderly or disabled members — for annual inflation (rounded down to the nearest $250). According to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) most recent inflation projections, the asset limits will first increase to $3,250 for households with elderly or disabled members in 2012 and $2,250 for all other households in 2014.
b. Excludes all tax-preferred retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and all tax-preferred education accounts, such as 529s, from countable resources. According to CBO, when provision is fully phased in about 80,000 people will receive about $125 in a typical month.
2. Raises the minimum standard deduction that households with one to three members receive from $134 to $144 in FY 2009 with annual inflation adjustments in later years. (Larger households already receive a larger, annually indexed standard deduction.) Ends erosion in food stamps’ purchasing power for about 10 million people. Will provide a typical working family an additional $4 to $5 a month in 2009, rising (in nominal terms) to $17 a month by 2017.3. Removes the cap on the dependent care deduction and targets more food assistance to working families that are less able to afford food because of this expense. Will provide an average of almost $500 a year to approximately 100,000 working households that pay high child care costs.
4. Raises the minimum benefit that one and two person households receive from $10 a month to 8 percent of the thrifty food plan for a household of one (likely $14 in FY 2009, with adjustments for food inflation in later years). Approximately 650,000 households with 780,000 people, mostly seniors or people with disabilities, will receive the higher minimum benefit.
5. New Eligibility Disqualifications Disqualifies individuals from food stamps for:
-Adapted from: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities http://www.cbpp.org/5-23-08fa.htm and http://www.farmland.org/programs/farm-bill/default.asp?gclid=CKzh-aGsnJQCFQ5THgod6mCQtwa. intentionally obtaining cash by using food stamps to purchase a product that has a returnable container, discarding the product, and returning the container for the deposit amount; or
b. intentionally selling food that was purchased using food stamp benefits.
06/08