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1. All household members who purchase and prepare food together (FILING UNIT) unless specifically excluded based on criteria for Excluded Household Members of this manual section. 2. The following must be CONSIDERED ONE HOUSEHOLD even if they purchase food and prepare food separately unless ineligible per policy for “Required Members Ineligible” for SNAP in this manual section. a. Spouses residing together unless otherwise excluded (e.g., ineligible student, probation/parole violator, etc.). Spouses are included in the household when the spouse is in the household for any part of the month. If same sex couples marry in a jurisdiction recognizing same sex marriage, they are considered spouses. Same sex marriage is permissible under Montana law. The state of Montana recognizes same sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. NOTE: COMMON LAW MARRIAGE: In Montana, a couple who have not gone through a formal marriage ceremony may enter into a legally binding common law marriage. Each of the parties must be old enough to marry and not married to anyone else to enter into a valid common law marriage. i. For a common law marriage to exist, 3 elements must be present: 1. Consent and agreement - the man and woman must have mutually agreed and consented to enter into a marriage relationship. 2. Competency - both were legally competent to enter into a marriage; and 3. Cohabitation - holding themselves out as married. ii. We cannot consider someone as “married” just because they file their taxes jointly. For individuals who file taxes as jointly, we may consider them as married for ALL programs, if all the 3 elements listed above are present. Keep in mind that both adults must attest to being in a common law marriage. When reviewing the DOR interface, remember that you are looking at last year’s tax information and the household’s circumstances may have changed (members become separated, filing for divorce, etc.). Marital status should be discussed, and case noted clearly. For SNAP, if individuals file their taxes as jointly and report they purchase and prepare their food separately, we must honor their statement. CSCs may refer households to the IPV unit, if they are skeptical of the information provided by the client. iii. There may be times that a client applies for benefits and does not intend to file taxes with their significant other. We must honor their