When do you need to recertify food stamps?

MILLION Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) need to know about the critical deadline for renewing benefits.

The continuing Covid crisis is causing delays in some cities and people are experiencing payment gaps.

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More than 41.5 million people across the US receive Benefits of SNAP, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

SNAP is the largest federal nutrition assistance program, and is also known as food stamps.

SNAP offers benefits to eligible low-income individuals and families through an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card.

This card can be used as a debit card to purchase eligible food in authorized retail food store.

Who is eligible?

To qualify for this benefit program, applicants must live in the state in which they are applying and meet certain bank balance limits.

Households with elderly (over 60) or disabled family members may have higher bank balance limits.

If your state agency determines that you are eligible for SNAP benefits, you will receive benefits back to the date you filed your application.

This is a directory of SNAP by state.

How long will it take for you to receive SNAP?

If you are deemed eligible, you will receive a notice telling you how long you will receive SNAP benefits.

This is called yours certification time.

Before your certification period ends, you will receive another notice that you must recertify to continue receiving benefits.

Your local SNAP office will give you information on how to recertify.

For example, in New York, two months before the end of the recertification period, you will receive a packet in the mail that includes your SNAP application and a scheduled interview appointment.

Meanwhile, one Florida woman started the process to recertify her SNAP benefits before the expiration date, just to avoid having to reload her EBT card.

The states that run SNAP programs, want to make sure you still need help and will many times ask for a paycheck or income statement.

If you do not recertify your food stamps on time but are still eligible, you risk having your benefits cut.

We explain how An increase in your Social Security COLA may affect your SNAP benefits.

In addition, we sketch how to get discount with EBT card.