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West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Chapter 12

West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Page 3 Chapter 12 Benefit Replacement

A household misfortune such as, but not limited to, loss of power more than 4 hours, termination of service or equipment malfunction (refrigerator or freezer) may affect an individual household. In these cases, replace perishable food only. Examples of perishable foods are meat, fish, dairy, fruits vegetables, frozen foods, etc. A disaster, such as, but not limited to, fire, flood, tornado and hurricanes may affect either an individual household or more than one household. In these cases, replace the last full monthly allotment issued. During a mass power outage, verification of the outage is self-attested. When the Governor of West Virginia declares a State of Emergency (specific counties or statewide), the requirement that the household be without power for a minimum of four (4) hours is considered automatically met for purposes of SNAP benefit replacement. No additional verification of the four-hour requirement is needed during the period covered by the declared State of Emergency. The Worker replaces the value of the food using the appropriate eligibility system procedure. The replacement benefit must be received within two days of the receipt of the completed and signed DFA-SNAP-36. The original DFA-SNAP-36 is retained in the case record. It is not necessary to send a copy to the Division of Family Assistance Policy Unit. Verification may be requested only when necessary to clarify information required for a SNAP replacement request. A SNAP replacement request must not be denied solely for failure to submit verification along with the DFA-SNAP-36. If additional verification is required, the worker provides the household with the opportunity to provide clarification or verification before denying. When verification is requested and not returned, the worker must attempt to contact the household to clarify unclear or missing information in order to issue the replacement when possible. The worker must document the information requested, all contact attempts made, and the basis for the final determination. 12.2.1.A.2 Limits on Replacement There is no limit on the number of times the value of food lost in a misfortune or disaster may be replaced, but replacements are issued only once per incident. NOTE: The loss of power due to the termination of service to an individual household is considered a household misfortune.