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SNAP Benefits Adjust Every Year. This Resource is Always Up-to-Date.

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  • bryce28
    2019-01-02 02:13:03 PM
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    Every year the government adjusts the SNAP (or food stamp) program's numbers to account for cost of living increases. Found a really good resource that shows you all the changes per year, since 2004, and it's updated every year so it's always current:

    Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) Information

    Changes include new income eligibility standards, different deductions and different minimum and maximum allotments. Per the site:

    We adjust SNAP maximum allotments, deductions, and income eligibility standards at the beginning of each Federal fiscal year. The changes are based on changes in the cost of living. COLAs take effect on October 1 each year.

    Maximum allotments are calculated from the cost of a market basket based on the Thrifty Food Plan for a family of four, priced in June that year. The maximum allotments for households larger and smaller than four persons are determined using formulas that account for economies of scale. Smaller households get slightly more per person than the four-person household. Larger households get slightly less.

    Income eligibility standards are set by law. Gross monthly income limits are set at 130 percent of the poverty level for the household size. Net monthly income limits are set at 100 percent of poverty.

    So if you're looking for a good place to see the yearly changes to SNAP, bookmark this one.
  • JFoster
    2019-01-03 04:21:55 PM
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    Definitely will keep this link in mind. I wanted to see how much it has increased from 2004 to 2018. I wasn't surprised what I saw. One thing that I couldn't quite figure out was on the first line of 2018 on Household size 1, I see that it says "48 States, DC, Guam, and US Virgin Islands," but then when I look at 2004, it just says "48 States 1." Did they not count Guam in 2004? I'm really fuzzy on my politics from 2004. I could have sworn there was some territorial dispute going on, at least with tax brackets.
  • bryce28
    2019-01-03 05:11:52 PM
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    JFoster Wrote: Definitely will keep this link in mind. I wanted to see how much it has increased from 2004 to 2018. I wasn't surprised what I saw. One thing that I couldn't quite figure out was on the first line of 2018 on Household size 1, I see that it says "48 States, DC, Guam, and US Virgin Islands," but then when I look at 2004, it just says "48 States 1." Did they not count Guam in 2004? I'm really fuzzy on my politics from 2004. I could have sworn there was some territorial dispute going on, at least with tax brackets.

    Good question. Not sure on that. I did some digging and only thing I could find was this paragraph from A Short History of SNAP:

    State food stamp agencies worked with contractors to procure EBT systems for delivery of Food Stamp and other State-administered benefit programs and benefitted from technological innovations in the commercial sector. As of July 2004, all 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, and Guam operated statewide, citywide, and territory-wide EBT systems to issue SNAP benefits.

    That makes it sound like Guam wasn't fully funded by the US for SNAP until mid 2004. So maybe that's the case. But another paragraph seems to say it was supported as early as 1970/1971:

    The Food Stamp Act Amendment of 1970 (P.L. 91-671) passed on January 11, 1971 and established uniform national standards of eligibility and work registration requirements; required that allotments be equivalent to the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet; limited households' purchase requirements to 30 percent of their income; instituted an outreach requirement; authorized the Department to pay 62.5 percent of specific administrative costs incurred by States; expanded the FSP to Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands of the United States; and provided $1.75 billion appropriations for Fiscal Year (FY) 1971.

    Make of that what you will.

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