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272 (07/2026) Chapter 2:Eligibility • Section 5: Financial eligibility Here is a high-level explanation of the calculation completed by the system to calculate the benefit allotment • Step 1: Enter the Income:
Add all types of income (the system will round the income for you).
If income includes self-employment with allowable costs of doing business, the system will allow 50 percent exclusion for the costs as long as Self Employment with Costs is selected. For self- employment with no costs, select Self Employment Without Costs. ONE will not allow the 50 percent exclusion for the costs.
When Court Ordered Support (COS) expense payments are being made by a member of the filing group for a child who is not in the filing group and have been verified, the amount of the allowable expense is subtracted from the countable income. This expense is called the Court Ordered Child Support Exclusion (see OAR 461-140-0266).
The subtotal is the applicant’s SNAP countable income.
This amount is compared to the SNAP countable income limit – 130 percent FPL.
Filing groups that are categorically eligible or contain an elderly person or an individual with disabilities do not need to meet the SNAP countable income limit. If the household is not categorically eligible or does not contain an elderly person or an individual with disabilities, and income is equal to or exceeds the countable income limit, the household is not eligible for SNAP and the computation ends with this step. Deductions • Step 2: Subtract 20 percent of the total earned income, before COS exclusion. The COS exclusion does not reduce the total earned income for this 20% deduction. (See examples of COS in Chapter 8, Examples, Expenses and Deductions section of OPEN.) • Step 3: Subtract the standard deduction amount for the household size. (See DHS 5530) • Step 4: Subtract the dependent care deductions. (The system will round this amount for the worker.) • Step 5: Total all the allowable medical costs. (The system will subtract $35 from the allowed medical costs.) Shelter • Step 6: Subtract the excess shelter costs. (The system will calculate the excess shelter costs.)
This requires a comparison of the subtotal through step 6 above to the applicant’s shelter costs. According to the SNAP calculation, half of this subtotal should be available for the applicant to pay their shelter costs.
If half of this subtotal is less than the applicant’s shelter costs, they have excess shelter and are entitled to another deduction.
If half of the subtotal is equal to or more than the shelter costs, the applicant has adequate funding for their shelter costs and does not have an excess to count as a deduction.