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FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICES CERTIFICATION FNS 425 EXPEDITED SERVICE PROCESSING

12 SecƟon 425 Change #1-2024 March 01, 2024 ii. If the income is normally received less often than monthly, the income is considered from a new source of income of more than $25 was not received at the last scheduled payment date or during the interval prior to the next scheduled payment date. c. Households may receive both income from a terminated source prior to the date of application and income from a new source after the date of application and still be considered destitute. This is possible if: i. The household receives no other income in the month of application, and ii. Income of more than $25 from the new source will not be received by the tenth calendar day after the date of application. 4. Some employers provide migrants and seasonal farmworkers with payments to cover travel costs of new employees who must journey to the location of their new employment. To the extent that these payments are excluded as reimbursements, receipt of travel advances does not affect the determination of whether a household is destitute. However, if the travel advance is by written contract (an advance of wages that will be subtracted from wages later earned by the employee rather than a reimbursement), the wage advance is counted as income. The receipt of a wage advance for travel costs is not considered a new source of income. The amount of the wage advance to cover travel costs does not prohibit the FNS unit from being considered destitute. NOTE: Consider a migrant farmworker’s source of income to be the grower for whom the migrant is working at a particular point in time and not the crew chief. Consider a migrant who travels with the same crew chief but moves from one grower to another to have moved from a terminated income source to a new source. 425.11 EXPEDITED SERVICE APPLICATION TIMELINESS MEASURE Compliance with expedited service application processing requirements is not measured by the date the FNS application is disposed. USDA requires that compliance with expedited service is measured from the date the FNS household has both a valid EBT card and access to the FNS benefits. This is known as the Benefit Availability Date (BAVDT). To be considered timely the BAVDT must be less than seven (7) calendar days from the date of application. A. If the FNS unit has a valid EBT card when approved, you must add one processing day to the date the application is processed to determine the BAVDT.