More Households Receiving UIB Benefits Now Eligible for the Food Stamp Program

Good news! The $25 Unemployment Insurance Benefits (UIB) add-on no longer counts as income for food stamp purposes.The UIB add-on is an additional $25 weekly benefit provided to UIB recipients as part of the economic stimulus package – ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) of 2OO9 – enacted earlier this year. ARRA’s provisions allowed the $25 UIB add-on to be excluded for Medicaid but not for food stamps. In April some households lost their food stamp benefits due to these additional benefits.

Congress “fixed” this problem by adding a special provision into the UIB extension legislation signed into law by President Obama on November 6th. As of November 1, 2009, the $25 add-on is excluded as income for food stamp purposes.

This means that there are many UIB households who are now either (1) eligible for food stamps again or (2) eligible for the first time. These households will need to complete the FS application process.

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