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Title 7: SNAP Page 6 Iowa Department of Health and Human Services Employees’ Manual Chapter C: Nonfinancial Eligibility Household Composition Revised September 27, 2024 Elderly Members Who Are Disabled
Mr. X is over 60 and gets SSI. He cannot buy or fix his own meals due to his permanent disability. Mr. X and his spouse, Mrs. X, live and eat with their son, aged 40; their daughter-in-law; and two grandchildren. The son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren have gross income of $1,400 per month. This is less than 165% of poverty line for four people, so Mr. and Mrs. X can be considered a separate SNAP household. Mr. and Mrs. X are eligible for SNAP, but don’t choose to participate. Their son’s family can get SNAP benefits as a separate household. Children Under Joint Custody Legal reference: 7 CFR 273.1 Policy: When a child is under joint physical custody and the child spends an equal amount of time in each household during a month, include the child in only one household for SNAP. The custodians decide in which household to include the child. If there are multiple children, there is no requirement that all of the children are included in the same SNAP household.
Mr. L and Ms. L are divorced and have 50/50 custody of their two children. They both apply for SNAP and would like to include one child in each SNAP household, to assist the parents in taking care of the children while in their care. This is acceptable. If the parent who has children the majority of the time does not receive SNAP, the other parent may include them in their SNAP household if the children spend a significant amount of time there. If the parent with majority custody later applies, the children would have to be removed from the first household and included with the household in which they spend the majority of time. Comment: Custodians might choose to have one parent apply for SNAP and another parent apply for a different program, such as Medicaid. Having active benefits for another program on a different case does not affect SNAP eligibility. Family-Life Homes Legal reference: 7 CFR 273.1(c) Policy: Adults for whom a family-life home payment is made cannot get SNAP on their own. They are not members of the SNAP household unless the household wants to include them, even if they buy and fix food with other household members.