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VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES D-SNAP

10/24 VOLUME V, PART XX, PAGE 14

2. PURCHASE AND PREPARE. The household must intend to purchase food and prepare meals during the disaster benefit period.

3. ADVERSE EFFECT. Depending on the disaster, the household must have experienced one or more of the following adverse effects that directly result from the disaster. Additional adverse effects may be identified at the time of the disaster.

a. Loss or Inaccessibility of Income.

Loss or inaccessibility of income means a reduction or termination of income, or a significant delay in receipt of income, due to the disaster. This could occur, for example, if a disaster has caused a place of employment to close or reduce its work days, or if the work location is inaccessible due to the disaster (e.g., roads washed out).

b. Inaccessibility of Liquid Resources.

Inaccessibility of liquid resources includes situations in which the financial institutions in which the household has its resources are expected to be closed due to the disaster for at least half of the disaster benefit period.

Note: This may be an infrequent occurrence, as households can usually access their resources via online banking or ATMs even if the bank branches are closed in the affected area.

c. Disaster-Caused Expenses Due to Damage to the Home Property or Self- Employment Business.

The household must have had damage to the home property or self-employment business and have unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses to qualify under this criterion for the D-SNAP. The client will not have to verify these expenses.

Eligible expenses include but are not limited to; home and business repairs, home and business protection, temporary shelter expenses, evacuation expenses, medical expenses due to personal injury, disaster-related funeral expenses, disaster-related pet boarding fees, disaster-related damaged vehicle expenses, storage expenses, expenses for clean-up supplies, and expenses related to replacement of items, such as clothing, appliances, tools and educational materials.

d. Loss of Food. (state option)

Food lost or damaged in a disaster or lost because of a power outage that exceeded four hours.

Virginia utilizes a Disaster Standard Expense Deduction (DSED) in lieu of actual disaster expenses incurred by a household. Only households with actual unreimbursed disaster-related expenses equal to or greater than $100 qualify for the DSED. Households with deductible

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