loading…
loading…
loading…
A. The Department shall act on verified changes as they become known to the Department. Changes that are considered verified upon receipt, such as verified changes reported by the household, changes reported by the Social Security Administration, the Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery and the Department of Labor Bureau of Unemployment Compensation will be acted on whether they increase or decrease benefits. If reported changes cannot be considered verified upon receipt, the Department will not act on the change unless required by another program in which the household is participating.
B. Changes acted on for other programs for a household receiving SNAP benefits must be acted on for SNAP. If the Department requests verification from the household to clarify circumstances for another program and the household fails to respond to that request, the Department must consider the impact on SNAP benefits according to Section 222-5.
C. At any time during the certification period, changes that are reported, whether as part of the annual eligibility review, as mandatory reporting or as a voluntary report will be acted upon in the following manner:
(1) Reported changes that result in a decrease in benefits or closure do not require verification, unless questionable. The Department shall provide adverse action and advance notice of the decrease. If the reported change is considered questionable as defined in Section 999-1 the Department may require verification for benefits to continue. If the household is expected to be ineligible for only one month, the case is suspended.
NOTE: If any responsible member provides information that results in ineligibility for the household or a member of the household, requests that the action take effect immediately, and signs a statement affirming so, the action shall be taken immediately.
(2) Changes that result in an increase in benefits (e.g., decreases in income) must not be made without verification if it is a mandatory item per Section 222-5(2) or the information is considered questionable as defined in Section 999-1. If no verification is necessary the increase is effective the month the change is reported. The household may be eligible for a supplement.
(a) Recipients may be asked to submit verification; however, they are not required to do so. The Department shall inform recipients of the advantage of submitting verification of changes that increase benefits.
(b) If verification is received and it results in an increase to the benefit amount, the increase takes effect the month the verification was received. The household may be eligible for a supplement.
D. During the certification period, information on household circumstances may be received that requires clarification or verification in order to determine a household’s continued eligibility for benefits. Unclear information can be either not verified or verified but still requiring additional information to act on it. Unclear information will be processed as follows:
(1) If the unclear information is received other than at application or annual eligibility review and the change is less than 60 days old from the current month of participation and would have met the requirements for a reportable change, as stipulated in 1 above, the Department shall send a letter which informs the household about the required verification needed to clarify household circumstances, with a 10-day time frame in which to respond.
Failure to respond will result in a notice of adverse action to close the case and advise the household they may be required to submit a new application if they want to continue to participate in SNAP.
(2) If the unclear information significantly conflicts with the information used by the Office for Family Independence (OFI) staff to determine eligibility at the time of certification, then the Department shall send a letter which informs the household about the required verification needed to clarify household circumstances, with a 10-day time frame in which to respond.
Failure to respond will result in a notice of adverse action to close the case and advise the household they may be required to submit a new application if they want to continue to participate in SNAP.
(3) If the unclear information is received as a result of a data match with the prisoner verification system or the deceased matching system, and the department cannot verify the information, then the Department shall send a letter which informs the household about the required verification needed to clarify household circumstances, with a 10-day time frame in which to respond. Collateral contacts will not be used to verify data matches with out the household’s consent.
Failure or refusal to respond will result in closure of the SNAP case.
(4) If the unclear information does not meet the criteria for numbers 1 or 3, above, OFI staff will not act on the information or require the household to provide any verification related to this information until the next annual eligibility review.