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S N A P M A N U A L

224 Chapter 18 Fair Hearings 1 8 . 1 F A I R H E A R I N G D E F I N I T I O N The fair hearing (appeal) is the administrative process to protect the applicant or recipient household’s rights to due process of law when an adverse action is proposed or when the household is aggrieved by any action of the Agency which affects the household’s participation in SNAP.

Fair hearing requests involving EBT transactions should be referred to the SCEBT office. SCEBT will prepare the summary, testify and resolve the issues on all EBT transaction hearings.

1 8 . 2 T I M E F R A M E S The household may be granted a fair hearing for: • Actions taken/not taken by the Agency which have occurred within the previous 90 days. • Loss of benefits which have occurred within the previous 90 days. • Current level of benefits (for example the allotment occurring over the last 12 months for those households certified for 12 months or 24 months for household that can contain a disabled household member or ESAP households).

Any household who wishes to appeal an adverse action should be offered the following options in which to file their appeal: 1. Call the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) at 1-803-898-8080 or 1-800-311-7220; 2. Complete the DSS Form 2633 and submit the form to either their local office, mailed to OAH, or by email to appeals@dss.sc.gov; or 3. Have the Economic Services worker or supervisor they are speaking with to complete the DSS Form 2633 on the household’s behalf. The Economic Services worker/supervisor should email the completed form to appeals@dss.sc.gov.

Chapter 18