Page 46

State Plan NM FY26 - Original Submission Page of 46 77 WORK REGISTRANT DATA The SNAP general work requirements are described at 7 CFR 273.7(a). Individuals who do not meet a federal exemption from the general work requirements, as listed in 7 CFR 273.7(b)(1), are subject to the general work requirement and must register for work. In accordance with 7 CFR 273.7(c)(10), the State agency must submit to FNS the number of work registrants in the State as of October 1st. This information is submitted on the first quarter E&T Program Activity Report (FNS-583). Describe the process the State agency uses to count all work registrants in the State as of the first day of the new fiscal year (October 1). NMHCA utilizes ASPEN Plus, an on-line interactive system, in determining eligibility and providing benefits and assistance payments for SNAP and for all other programs administered by ISD under the NMHCA. ASPEN Plus is the system currently being utilized to generate FNS-583 report and identify work registrants. This report is available quarterly and obtains the initial count of work registrants at the beginning of each new FFY. The method for ensuring that the count is unduplicated is: Line 1 Number of work registrants receiving SNAP on October 1 of the new FFY. • As of October 1st, the total number of unduplicated individuals who are actively receiving SNAP benefits for the month of October will be counted • The population should only include individuals who are approved for SNAP and do not qualify for a federal exemption. • The age criterion (1 6-59 years old) is calculated at the end of the reporting month. • The FNS-583 report displays the count for Line 1 for all the runs of the report to show the baseline count. The Line 1 count is reported in Quarter 1. Provide information about how work registrant data is pulled from the eligibility system, including the date the data is pulled. • To determine Line 2 individuals are included following the same criteria as Line 1. • Retro-Approvals 1 An individual will be counted on in the month they are approved and not for the reporting month. For example, if an applicant applies in December but is approved in January they will be counted in January. • Quarter 2 report on Line 2-Month 1 (January). • This count (for all four quarters) shall not include individuals who were counted in Line 1. ASPEN Plus utilizes social security numbers to determine if an individual has been counted. • This count shall be unduplicated for the FFY, IE: an individual can only be reported only once in Line 2 during all four quarters of the report. How are work registrants identified in the eligibility system? Work Registrant are identified in the eligibility system ASPEN, once the eligiblity worker completes the SNAP interactive interview and enters all data on household composition, barriers, address etc. Both the eligiblity worker and ASPEN will recognize the individual as a work registrant if they are not exempt from the SNAP General Work Requirements. The data point in ASPEN that identifies an individual as a work registrant are: 1. Age 2. Employment 3. E&T