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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Nutrition Consortium Praises New York State Assembly Social Services Committee for Continued Support of the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program

On December 15, 2009, the Nutrition Consortium of New York State testified at the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Social Services Hearing. The topic of the hearing was "The Impact of the 2009-2010 State Budget on the Programs and Services of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA)." The Nutrition Consortium spoke about the many benefits of OTDA's continued funding for the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program (NOEP) in 2009-2010. Here is an excerpt from the testimony:

"One of OTDA’s successful initiatives to increase access to nutrition assistance programs by eligible populations is the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program (NOEP). NOEP is funded by OTDA and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), and federally matched dollar for dollar by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Nutrition Consortium , as the statewide administrator of NOEP, would like to extend its most sincere thanks to the Assembly for its leadership in maintaining funding for this important program in the 2009-2010 budget, along with the Senate and Governor. In particular, we would like to thank Assemblyman Wright for his commitment to maintaining NOEP funding, despite a very difficult budget situation in the State..."

"By the end of 2009-2010, we project that NOEP will bring at least $70 million in federal food stamp benefits into the state. This is 35 times what the state will have invested in it. A program that returns 35 times what the state invests in it, improves public health, promotes self-sufficiency, helps people from all backgrounds, ethnic groups, ages, and geographic areas, is a wonderful example of good, sound public policy, and we commend the New York State Assembly for recognizing it as such, and maintaining its funding..."

Read the full testimony