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Title 7: SNAP Page 26 Iowa Department of Health and Human Services Employees’ Manual Chapter I: Specific Households and Participants Households with Alien Members Revised February 13, 2026 Establishing Qualifying Orders To calculate the number of quarters for a year, divide the person’s total earnings for the year by the amount needed to get one credit. For earnings from employment, use the gross amount of earnings. For earnings from self-employment, use the amount of earnings after allowable self- employment expenses have been deducted. Starting with January 1, 1997, do not count the income from any quarters in which an alien got SNAP benefits or any other type of federal means-tested public assistance during the quarter. The quarters in a calendar year are: January through March, April through June, July through September, and October through December. This means if an alien got SNAP, Medicaid, Family Investment Program (FIP), or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) in June 1997, you subtract April, May, and June earnings from the total 1997 earnings before dividing to see how many qualifying quarters the person has. Aliens can count their spouse’s quarters that were earned during the marriage in addition to their own quarters in order to meet the 40-quarter requirement, whether the spouse is a citizen or an alien. Count the spouse’s quarters earned during the marriage if:  The couple is currently married, or  The couple is separated but not divorced, or  The spouse is deceased and the remaining spouse is not remarried. For example, if each spouse earned 20 quarters since they got married, you would add the quarters together. Both spouses would be counted as having 40 quarters and both would meet this requirement. An alien can also count the quarters earned by a parent in addition to the alien’s own quarters in order to meet the 40-quarter requirement, whether the parent is a citizen or an alien. For this policy, “parent” means natural parent, adoptive parent, or stepparent, but not a person having parental control. Count the parent’s quarters if the parent earned the quarters before the child turned 18. Include quarters earned before the child was born. Count the quarters earned by a stepparent during the stepparent relationship only if the stepparent relationship still exists. Do not count quarters earned before the stepparent relationship began. Death of a stepparent does not end the relationship. Do not count any quarters of the stepparent if the parent and stepparent are divorced. The quarters earned by a child do not count towards the eligibility of a parent.