Food Stamps News Brief - August 2008

August 1, 2008

Author: Barbara Weiner

OTDA Clarifies: "Fleeing" Means "Fleeing"

On June 20, 2008, OTDA issued a General Information System message informing local districts that it was resuming computer matching for "fleeing felons" and probation or parole violators.  Lists of "hits" between temporary assistance and food stamp applicants or recipients and criminal databases would again be supplied to the local districts after an almost 8 month hiatus. (See http://onlineresources.wnylc.net/pb/docs/08_ta_wms008.pdf .)  However, the policy governing the disqualification of "fleeing felons" has been radically restructured, with the result that very few individuals should be disqualified as "fleeing felons" in the future. 

In contrast with OTDA's former policy, a local district can no longer disqualify an individual from receiving temporary assistance or food stamps simply because a computer match reveals that an outstanding warrant exists against the applicant or recipient.  To establish that an individual against whom an outstanding warrant exists is a fleeing felon, the district must have evidence that the individual knew about the warrant and had in fact fled the issuing jurisdiction to avoid prosecution or confinement.  In addition, the warrant must be based on a determination by a court or tribunal that the person charged or convicted of a felony has fled.  The district is required to get a copy of the "flight" warrant or a written statement from the issuing agency on its letterhead containing essential information about the warrant.

Disqualification notices must contain specific information about the warrant-issuing jurisdiction, including how it can be contacted.  The GIS only suggests that the local district should confirm that the issuing jurisdiction is seeking the individual with the intent to prosecute.  However, a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill makes this mandatory.  It clarifies that in the case of food stamp applicants or recipients, a disqualification may not be imposed unless the person is actively being sought by law enforcement for the purpose of holding criminal proceedings against him or her. (See "No More Food Stamps – Now It's SNAP", this issue, page 36.)

Unfortunately the new policy does not require any change in the way that local districts process a disqualification based on a violation of probation or parole.  It does not require that the notice of such a disqualification contain specific facts, arguably leaving the notice open to challenge on due process grounds in a particular case.  However, the probation violation disqualification rule is in itself more detailed than the fleeing felon rule was.  It only permits the local district to find a person in violation of parole or probation if there is a warrant outstanding alleging that the individual is an absconder from probation or parole or if he or she has been found by judicial determination to have violated probation or by the division of parole to have violated parole.  In addition, once the individual is restored to probation or parole or the maximum period of imprisonment or supervision has expired, whichever comes first, the individual is no longer ineligible for assistance.  See Social Services Law §131(b).

HEAP Plan Revision: $1 of HEAP Equals More Food Stamps

Effective October 1, 2008, a little more than 114,000 households currently in receipt of food stamps will get a substantial, and automatic, boost in their food stamp grant…plus one dollar in HEAP benefits.  These are food stamp households that reside in public or subsidized housing with heat included in the rent and food stamp- eligible residents of drug or alcoholic treatment facilities, enriched housing, residential group living facilities, supervised or supportive living arrangements and community residences.  These households were previously ineligible for HEAP.

New York estimates that adding these households to the HEAP rolls will bring in about $150 million in additional food stamp benefits, going to the poorest and most vulnerable households.

Adoption Subsidies and Foster Care Payments Count as Income

At a loss of food stamp benefits to some food stamp households, OTDA has instructed the local districts that adoption subsidies and foster care payments must be counted as income when the food stamp budget is calculated. (See 08-ADM-04, available at www.otda.state.ny.us/main/directives/2008/ADM/08-ADM-04.pdf.)

Relying on the provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill, the State had been excluding such subsidies and payments as reimbursements and therefore not income.  The federal food stamp agency, the Food and Nutrition Service of USDA, told New York that these payments cannot be automatically excluded.  Basically, the system will go back to what it was before 2002.  Households with foster children can decide whether to include or exclude the foster child in the food stamp household.  If the child is included, the foster care payments are counted as income.  If the child is excluded, the payments do not count.  Families do not have the option of excluding adopted children so the adoption subsidy will count.

The changes to the budgets of current food stamp households must be made no later than the household's next recertification.  However, past or future reimbursable expenses separate from normal household expenses can still be excluded.  These expenses might include such items as school fees, music lessons, school uniforms or any other expenses that are not normal living expenses such as rent, utilities, clothes or food.