Are Food Stamps Reduced If You Receive Unemployment?
Case workers use federal guidelines to calculate food stamp allotments and, according to the guidelines, the most important factor is income. The lower your income, the more help you receive, regardless of where your income comes from. Food stamps and unemployment benefits are unrelated assistance. Participation in one program does not directly affect the benefits received through the other.
Other People Are Reading
-
Purpose
-
Food stamps help recipients buy healthy food that would otherwise be unaffordable to them. The government gives food stamps to qualifying households so its members can afford a filling and nutritious diet.
Programs
-
Receiving food stamps does not affect an individual's participation in any other government assistance program. Enrollment in other government assistance programs only affects food stamp benefits if participation raises or lowers a household's income.
-
Income
-
The federal government stipulates that a household's take-home pay must be less than 130 percent of the federal poverty rate, a number which changes annually, for the household to receive food stamp benefits. Your food stamp allotment will only be reduced if unemployment benefits raise your monthly income.
Deductions
-
The one way in which receiving unemployment affects your food stamps more than any other change in your income is through deductions. When figuring your food stamp allotment, a case worker takes your monthly income and reported expenses and subtracts amounts for different purposes (known as "deductions"). Deductions can be for medical expenses, child support, high rent or earned income. The case worker calculates your food stamp allotment and the smaller the number is, the more help you receive. Unemployment benefits are not earned income, hence, if you were previously working and receiving food stamps, you will lose the earned income deduction and your allotment may be reduced accordingly.
Budget
-
Food stamps are not meant to pay for a household's entire grocery bill. The government estimates that a household will spend 30 percent of its disposable income (which means 30 percent of what is left after rent, childcare and other bills are paid) on food. Food stamp guidelines state that each American should be able to spend at least 30 percent of the federal poverty rate on food, hence, food stamps supplement your disposable income to ensure that you have that 30 percent available at the cash register. For example, if the poverty rate is $900, the government hopes that the individual spends $270 on food. If your disposable income is $600, 30 percent is $180, and you will receive about $90 in food stamps each month.
-
