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Title 7: SNAP Page 8 Iowa Department of Health and Human Services Employees’ Manual Chapter G: Case Maintenance Action on Changes Reported During the Certification… Revised September 27, 2024 Changes Held Until Recertification Changes Held Until Recertification If the change does not meet one of the criteria for taking action during the certification period:  Do not send a request for verification. Instead, document the report in the case file. At recertification, the information will need to be clarified and, if appropriate, verified.  Inform the household that, while we are not requesting verification, we will take appropriate action on any information they choose to voluntarily verify. Follow policies for increasing or reducing benefits to adjust benefits for the appropriate month. Follow the approved procedural scripts for explaining this to the household. This is especially important if the reported change could result in increased benefits. Because some changes are held until recertification, it is important to thoroughly review the case file before taking action when a change is voluntarily verified. This must be done to avoid unnecessary errors.

Luna is approved in August using $500 earned income from Dottie’s Discount. In November, she calls to report her job ended and you explain that if she voluntarily provides verification, you can remove the income. A few days later you get a copy of a termination letter from ABC Bank showing she was hired in September and her last day of employment was October 28. Since the “rolling” income is from a different employer, and she hasn’t reported or verified it ended, no action is taken. At recertification, you will need to clarify what happened to the job at Dottie’s. If there is any indication that the two jobs overlapped or combined income would have caused her to exceed the threshold, further verification may be needed at that time. Comment: If the household is active for another program, you cannot include SNAP on the RFI and cannot cancel SNAP if the information is not provided. However, if verification is provided and becomes part of the case record, you must take action for SNAP. At that point the information is verified and the impact on the case is clear. If the household reports a future change, do not request verification if it does not yet meet a criterion for a change requiring immediate action. For example, a household might report a new job and, based on the information provided, it appears the job will put them over the income limit. Unless they have already exceeded the limit in a month, they are not required to report it and we cannot request verification. At that point, remind them of the importance of reporting the job once it causes their income to exceed the reporting threshold. If they voluntarily provide verification so they don’t need to remember to report again later, take action on the verified information.