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MS 5220

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Volume 2 - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) MS 5220 – R. 12/15/25 – OMTL – 686 Countable Income

Consider all non-excluded payments received by household members as countable income.

A. Earned Income: Consider the following as earned income:

1. Wages and salaries, includes all actual non-allocated tips for services performed as an employee, wages earned by a household member that are garnished or diverted by an employer and paid to a third party, any employee Federal insurance contributions paid by the employer, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) on-the-job training, except when paid to a member age 18 or younger who is under the parental control of another household member or paid to a member participating in the Summer Youth Employment and Training Program (SYETP), non-excluded earnings of children and cafeteria plans. A cafeteria plan refers to a variety of benefits, health insurance or childcare benefits, offered to an employee by their employer. If the benefit plan involves money owed to the recipient, it is countable income.

2. American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds to assist employers in paying wages.

3. Vacation pay received in more than one payment of a laid-off employee no longer in active pay status.

Vacation pay received by an employee on active pay status is considered in the gross income as regular wages.

Vacation pay, which is paid in one payment, is a resource. Example: The individual works all week but also receives vacation pay for that same week. The wages are considered as earned income, and the vacation pay is a resource.

4. The total gross income from self-employment, excluding the cost of doing business. This includes payment from a roomer or boarder, selling blood, operating a business, operating rental property if a household member is actively engaged in its management more than 20 hours per week, and farming, including payments from the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service.

Child Care Assistance payments, which are paid by an outside source, such as the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), are treated as self- employment income to the person providing the childcare.

5. Training allowances from vocational and rehabilitative programs recognized by federal, state, or local governments, unless excluded by law.