Welfare Reform And Subsequent Amendments
The mid-1990s was a period of welfare reform. Prior to 1996, the rules for the cash welfare program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children , were waived for many states. With the enactment of the 1996 welfare reform act, called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 , AFDC, an entitlement program, was replaced that with a new block grant to states called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families TANF.
Although the Food Stamp Program was reauthorized in the 1996 Farm Bill, the 1996 welfare reform made several changes to the program, including:
- denying eligibility for food stamps to most legal immigrants who had been in the country less than five years
- placing a time limit on food stamp receipt of three out of 36 months for Able-bodied Adults Without Dependents who are not working at least 20 hours a week or participating in a work program
- reducing the maximum allotments to 100 percent of the change in the Thrifty Food Plan from 103 percent of the change in the TFP
- freezing the standard deduction, the vehicle limit, and the minimum benefit
- setting the shelter cap at graduated specified levels up to $300 by fiscal year 2001, and allowing states to mandate the use of the standard utility allowance
- revising provisions for disqualification, including comparable disqualification with other means-tested programs and
- requiring states to implement EBT before October 1, 2002.
Apply For Food Stamps By Phone In Kentucky
The final option enrollees have for applying for food assistance in Kentucky is to call the Cabinet for Health and Family Services SNAP line directly at: 1-855-306-8959. As long as you can provide all of the necessary personal and household information, you will be able to apply for Food Stamps by phone.
Food Stamps Program Requirement Information
Eligibility for Food Stamps depends upon a number of factors. To qualify, applicants must meet personal and financial requirements specified by the program. Income guidelines allow the state to identify and offer benefits to households in need.
Eligibility for food stamps is reserved for individuals and families who are struggling to purchase nutritious food.
Learning who is eligible for benefits is the first step in the application process for food stamps.
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Learn About Kentucky Food Stamps Requirements
Your food stamps eligibility in Kentucky is based on factors such as your income, employment status, age, disability status and other circumstances. This benefit, which is also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , is available to essentially any group of residents that lives and eats together, while also meeting the income and resource requirements.
If your family meets the pre-determined food stamp qualifications, you may submit an application to the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services . Note that, once you start receiving these benefits, your eligibility will also be checked periodically to ensure that you are still able to participate in the program. Read below to learn how to qualify for food stamps in Kentucky and discover what factors may affect your eligibility now and in the future.
Maximum Monthly Amounts On Food Stamps
There is a maximum monthly allotment based on the size of the household. When determining your benefit allotment, they will take your net monthly income and multiply it by 30%. That number will then be subtracted from the maximum monthly allotment. The remaining amount is the total monthly allotment you will receive based on your application. This amount may change if your income or household size changes.
SNAP benefits are a specific money amount provided to recipients each month to go towards nutritional foods. Recipients are provided with an electronic benefits transfer card, and money is added to the card each month. You can check your balance by phone, and any unused funds at the end of the month remain on the card to be used to following month. Once allocated, benefits will not expire.
Benefits can be used to buy food and drinks at most grocery stores, convenient stores, gas stations, pharmacies that sell food, and farmers markets. Benefits cannot be used to buy alcohol, tobacco, medicine, hot food, food meant to be eaten in the store, or any non-food items.
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Applying For Food Stamp Or Snap Benefits
To apply for Food Stamp or SNAP benefits contact your local food stamp office office. Each State program has their own application form. If your States form is not on the web yet, you may need to contact your local food stamp office to request one.
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Food Stamps Program Updates & Requirements
Stimulus Package Update: The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture has announced more flexibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and removed some roadblocks that would typically exist within the process of attaining food assistance.
The waiver will help enable children, seniors and participants with disabilities to be able to get food during this global pandemic in an easier way.
The legislation, passed a few weeks ago, will allow SNAP participants to receive two supplemental payments of benefits during this time of quarantine if they do not currently receive the maximum amount of benefits each month.
Under the new waiver, the USDA is giving individual states the option to let parents/guardians acquire the food that they need for their families or children without the need for the children to be present. Typically, the children are required to be present to receive meals from the Child Nutrition Programs.
Since the USDA realized that this may not be feasible for most families during this pandemic, they have teamed up with local and state authorities to ensure program operators are continuing to feed the families in need. More flexibilities include:
Also Check: How Do You Get Food Stamps In Louisiana
Can I Get Food Stamps If I Am On The Gi Bill
Military veterans and others who are taking advantage of the GI Bill program are sometimes curious if GI Bill money or BAH income is counted towards the income requirements for SNAP. The answer is yes, BAH income is typically counted towards your gross income when determining if you are eligible for food stamps. As such, your GI Bill benefits do contribute to your income, even though that income is temporary and not taxed. Receiving BAH does not stop you from being eligible for food stamps outright, it is just included in the income calculation.
SNAP Overview
The federal food stamp program is now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program . SNAP is the largest domestic program available to nutritional assistance, and it is available for low-income individuals and families that meet the eligibility requirements. The federal food and nutrition service works with a wide range of other organizations including state agencies, nutrition educators, and neighborhood organizations to provide SNAP recipients with nutrition assistance and information.
The local agencies provide aid for people while they are going through the application process, and once people are approved, these agencies help them to access their benefits. The goal of this program is to provide monetary assistance with food while the members of the household are actively looking for work or working in positions that do not pay enough to cover food and living costs.
Benefits
Example of Benefits Allotment
Eligible Food Items Under Snap
As per USDA rules, households can use SNAP benefits to purchase:
- Foods for the household to eat, such as:
- fruits and vegetables
Soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers, and ice cream are classified as food items and are therefore eligible items. Seafood, steak, and bakery cakes are also food items and are therefore eligible items.
Energy drinks which have a nutrition facts label are eligible foods, but energy drinks which have a supplement facts label are classified by the FDA as supplements, and are therefore not eligible.
Live animals and birds may not be purchased but live fish and shellfish are eligible foods. Pumpkins are eligible, but inedible gourds and solely ornamental pumpkins are not.
Gift baskets containing both food and non-food items “are not eligible for purchase with SNAP benefits if the value of the non-food items exceeds 50 percent of the purchase price. Items such as birthday and other special occasion cakes are eligible as long as the value of non-edible decorations does not exceed 50 percent of the price.”
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Kentucky Food Stamp Eligibility Requirements
If you would like to apply for food stamps in Kentucky, you must first meet the eligibility requirements. Of all the requirements, the income limit is the biggest factor that determines whether you are approved for benefits. Make sure you review the Kentucky income limit to see if you are eligible before applying.
If your income does not meet the limit, you will not be eligible for Kentucky food stamp benefits. If you are not eligible, there may be other government or nutrition assistance programs you qualify for.
Here is the full list of Kentucky food stamps eligibility requirements:
1. Residency
To receive Kentucky food stamps, you must be a resident of the state of Kentucky.
2. Citizenship
Only United States citizens and certain categories of lawfully admitted non-citizens can apply for food stamps. If you are a non-citizen, see our detailed article on the topic here.
3. Income
If your income is less than or equal to the limit amount listed in the chart below, then you may be eligible for SNAP benefits.
To see if your income is eligible, you must calculate your households monthly total gross income and total net income.
Gross Income
Gross income is a households total, non-excluded income before any deductions have been made such as taxes or other withholdings.
Net Income
Net income is a households total gross income minus allowable deductions.
Allowable Deductions
The standard allowable deductions for food assistance benefits can include:
- Shelter costs
- Child support
How Can I Use The Ebt Kentucky Card And Snap Benefits
Once you are an ebt card Kentucky holder, you are allowed to use the benefits to buy cereals, groceries, snacks or even plants and seeds that can be later grown to produce food. And if you happen to exhaust your points, you will be required to wait until the next month before the food stamp benefits are replenished.
And this implies that you have to budget for your maximum allowed points at the beginning of the month just as you would do with your normal income.
That said, you cannot use your KY ebt balance to purchase alcohol or alcohol-based products, tobacco, supplements, vitamins, medication or any other non-food based household items. These points are strictly reserved for our household nourishment and it would be deemed illegal to try to use them for otherwise.
Most of the time, however, wic KY food packages will consist of juice, eggs, cereals, peanut butter, milk, canned fish, dried beans, fruits, vegetables, tofu, whole-wheat bread and the likes. Sometimes, the packages will include cheese and canned meat fillet for nursing moms and baby formula for young kids.
The State of Kentucky has more recently taken massive steps in helping beneficiaries of the snap benefits Kentucky spot the nearest farmers markets and participating stores that accept EBT points in exchange for foodstuff. This has been through handing out elaborate maps and apps that can guide you to the nearest retail store that has provisions for food stamp holders.
Also Check: Apply For Food Stamps Over The Phone
Pilot Food Stamp Program
The 18 years between the end of the first FSP and the inception of the next were filled with studies, reports, and legislative proposals. Prominent US senators actively associated with attempts to enact a food stamp program during this period included George Aiken, Robert M. La Follette Jr., Hubert Humphrey, Estes Kefauver, and Stuart Symington. From 1954 on, US RepresentativeLeonor Sullivan strove to pass food-stamp program legislation.
On September 21, 1959, P.L. 86-341 authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to operate a food-stamp system through January 31, 1962. The Eisenhower Administration never used the authority. However, in fulfillment of a campaign promise made in West Virginia, President John F. Kennedy‘s first Executive Order called for expanded food distribution and, on February 2, 1961, he announced that food stamp pilot programs would be initiated. The pilot programs would retain the requirement that the food stamps be purchased, but eliminated the concept of special stamps for surplus foods. A Department spokesman indicated the emphasis would be on increasing the consumption of perishables.
Of the program, US Representative Leonor K. Sullivan of Missouri asserted, “…the Department of Agriculture seemed bent on outlining a possible food stamp plan of such scope and magnitude, involving some 25 million persons, as to make the whole idea seem ridiculous and tear food stamp plans to smithereens.”
Kentucky Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , or the Food Stamps Program as it is known by the public, is a federal program that provides grants to the States for purpose of reducing hunger and malnutrition in all eligible households across the nation. SNAP helps provide healthy food to qualifying low-income families with children, elderly or disabled in each State of the USA, including Kentucky. Learn more about SNAP.
It is important to know that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is a federal entitlement program funded by U.S. Government grants. Any U.S. Citizen, even some legal alien residents, will get free food assistance as long as they meet the SNAP eligibility guidelines. In other words, there is enough Supplemental Nutrition Assistance for every American that qualifies.
In Kentucky, the SNAP is known as Kentucky Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and is administered by the Department for Community Based Services . The Federal Government pays 100% of Kentucky Food Stamp Benefits with federal grants appropriated for SNAP. The SNAP federal grants also pay a share of the Kentucky SNAP administrative cost.
According to the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services, The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program helps people with little or no money buy food for healthy meals at participating stores. SNAP benefits increase a households food buying power when added to the households money.
Recommended Reading: Food Stamp Office Bowling Green Ky
How To Use Your Snap Ky Benefits Heres What You Can And Cannot Buy Using Your Ebt Card
Once an application is approved, the qualifying household SNAP benefits are usually deposited into a corresponding Kentucky ebt account every month. The household then received a physical EBT card shipped via mail accompanied with the instructions on how to set a PIN and activate it. This way, the user can access their food benefit account whenever they are out shopping in any participating retail store in Kentucky.
Although you may have applied for the KY food stamps online, you will still be required to sign the back of the mailed EBT card as soon as you receive it. These SNAP benefits are used in exchange for almost any food item , with the exception of ready-to-eat snacks or hot foods.
You can also use your snap balance KY loaded onto your EBT card to purchase plants and seeds in participating horticultural farms to grow vegetables and fruits. You are, however, restricted from using your SNAP benefits to buy pet food, soap, household cleaning products, alcohol, tobacco or any other non-food item that is not within the description of the provisionary mandate of food stamps.
The same rules and guidelines outlined above also apply to Pandemic-EBT Kentucky benefits. You could, for instance, purchase household foodstuff at any Kentucky wic program authorized deal or participating retailer. Similarly, the same eligible foods outlined in the usage of regular EBT cards also apply to P-EBT.
