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VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES INCOME DEDUCTIONS

10/25 VOLUME V, PART X, PAGE 3

c. Insurance premiums on the home structure are allowable. Separate costs for insuring furniture or personal belongings are not allowable. If insurance premiums on the home structure are combined with other costs that cannot be separated, the total premium is allowable.

d. Repair costs that result from a fire or flood or a similar disaster are allowable, provided the household will not receive reimbursement or assistance from some other source such as insurance or private or public relief agencies. The disaster does not have to be a presidential declaration but can be a personal disaster, such as a fire damaging only one home.

e. Utilities incurred separately and apart from the rent or mortgage cost are allowable. Actual direct utility costs may be used in determining shelter costs.

Households may be entitled to use a standard utility amount as its utility expense instead of its actual utility expenses. A standard utility allowance has been established based on the number of persons in the residence. The utility standard includes allowances for heat, electricity, gas, water, sewerage, septic tank maintenance fees, garbage collection and telephone costs. Households may use the standard utility allowance only if the household is responsible for an identifiable heating or cooling expense or an established percentage of an identifiable expense. A household may use the utility standard for a full year if the household incurs a heating or cooling expense at any point during the year or anticipates such an expense.

Recipients of Low-Income Home Energy Assistance payments may claim the utility standard, even if they do not incur direct utility costs, if: 1) they received energy assistance at the current residence during the previous 12 months; and 2) the SNAP household contains a household member who is 60 years of age or older or is disabled, as outlined in Definitions.

The current standard utility allowance amounts are:

Number of Persons Utility Standard 1 - 3 $375 4 or more $476

Multiple family units living in the same residence may have only one standard utility allowance for the residence, based on the total number of people in the residence. The BPS must divide the one utility standard among the units that contribute to meeting heating or cooling costs, regardless of whether each unit is applying for or receiving SNAP benefits. In these instances, each unit may use only its prorated share of the standard allowance, unless it uses its actual costs. The BPS may not prorate the standard allowance if the nonhousehold members are all excluded from the household because they are ineligible to receive SNAP benefits.

TRANSMITTAL #36