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House Research Department Updated: August 2010 Minnesota Family Investment Program Grants: Calculation and Exit Points Page 2
A family receives both the cash and food portions of its monthly MFIP grant in electronic debit card form, called EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer). The two kinds of benefits are electronically segregated on the family’s EBT card. A family can only use the food portion of its MFIP benefits to pay for groceries, with qualifying purchases deducted from the balance in its food portion account. There are no such restrictions on the cash portion of a family’s MFIP grant.3 A family accesses the cash portion of its grant through automatic teller machines (ATMs). Table 1 shows the transitional standard by family size for families in which all members qualify for both MFIP cash and food assistance.4
Table 1 MFIP Transitional Standard Federal Fiscal Year 2010 Family Size Cash Portion + Food
Portion = Transitional Standard 1 $250 $178 $428 2 437 327 764 3 532 473 1,005 4 621 601 1,222 5 697 702 1,399 6 773 835 1,608 7 850 904 1,754 8 916 1,024 1,940 9 980 1,145 2,125 10 1,035 1,269 2,304 Each add’l member 53 125 178 House Research Department
Beginning in October 1998, the food portion of the transitional standard was adjusted to reflect cost-of-living adjustments to the federal SNAP.5 The food portion is adjusted as needed to reflect adjustments to SNAP. The cash portion of the MFIP transitional standard is not automatically adjusted. MFIP provides an employment incentive for families with earnings by allowing them to disregard a percentage of earnings and by basing grants on a family wage level that equals 110 percent of the transitional standard.
3 However, MFIP benefits are vendor-paid for all new applicants for the first six months a family is on the program. A county pays the applicant’s shelter costs, up to the amount of the cash portion of the family’s MFIP grant, directly to the landlord or mortgage holder. 4 Some MFIP recipients, such as relative caregivers who choose not to be part of the assistance unit and who are exempt from work activities, do not receive the food portion of the MFIP grant. 5 Minn. Stat. § 256J.24, subd. 5a.