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Combat Pay Exclusion - SNAP (Food Stamps)

This topic describes how certain types of additional pay received in a combat zone should be excluded when calculating countable income in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamp Program).

You may read this topic in sequence or jump directly to any of the specific sections listed below:

·           Background

·           Discussion

·           Procedure

·           Examples

·           Combat Zone Tax Exclusion Areas

·           Special and Incentive Pays

Background

The President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005, Public Law 108-447, on December 8, 2004. This Act included a SNAP (Food Stamp) household income exclusion provision for additional pay received by military personnel deployed to a combat zone. This means eligibility workers will exclude from the SNAP (Food Stamp) household's income, any additional pay received by a member of the United States Armed Forces deployed to a designated combat zone.

Discussion

Currently, the absent member would not be included as a household member for purposes of determining the SNAP (Food Stamp) benefit level. Workers only count money actually made available to the SNAP household by the absent family member as income for SNAP purposes.

Service personnel generally make money available to the SNAP household by direct deposit into a joint checking account. The direct deposit can be all or just a portion of the military person’s pay.

Sometimes funds are made available to the SNAP household via an allotment arrangement, in which the military person has a portion of his or her pay sent home to the SNAP household. Usually when a military person makes an allotment arrangement, he or she gets the allotment and sends the bigger portion of the pay home to the food stamp household. Only the portion of the pay made available to the SNAP household is counted when determining the household’s income for SNAP purposes.

Eligibility workers will be required to determine if any of the allotment made available to the household by an absent member deployed to a designated combat zone should be excluded when determining the household’s income for SNAP purposes.

See below for a listing of designated combat zones. Also below is a listing of special and incentive pays which may or may not be related to deployment to a combat zone. Incentive pay for hazardous duty and special pay for duty subject to hostile fire or imminent danger are related to deployment to a combat zone.

Procedure

Food and Nutrition Services has provided the following steps to take to determine what income to use or exclude based on this new law:

1.   Establish what amount of income was available to the household prior to the deployment of the military person to a designated combat zone.

2.   Determine the amount of military pay that the absent member deployed in a designated combat zone is making available to his or her family.

3.   If the amount the absent member is making available is equal to or less than the amount the household was receiving prior to deployment to a designated combat zone, all of the allotment would be counted as income to the household for SNAP purposes. (Example A)

4.   If the amount the absent member is making available is greater than the amount the household was receiving prior to deployment to a designated combat zone, exclude any portion that exceeds the previous amount when determining the household’s income for SNAP purposes. (Example B)

Examples:

Combat Zone Tax Exclusion Areas

Executive Order 12744 (effective 17 Jan 1991)

·                         Arabian Sea -- Portion that lies North of 10 degrees North Latitude and West Of 68 degrees East Longitude

·                         Bahrain

·                         Gulf of Aden

·                         Gulf of Oman

·                         Iraq

·                         Kuwait

·                         Persian Gulf

·                         Qatar

·                         Oman

·                         Red Sea

·                         Saudi Arabia

·                         United Arab Emirates

Direct Support of EO 12744

·                         Turkey effective 1 Jan 2003

·                         Jordan effective 19 Mar 2003

Executive Order 13239 (effective 19 Sep 2001)

·                         Afghanistan

Direct Support of EO 13239

·                         Pakistan effective 19 Sep 2001

·                         Tajikistan effective 19 Sep 2001

·                         Jordan effective 19 Sep 2001

·                         Incirlik AFB Turkey effective 21 Sep 2001

·                         Kyrgyzstan effective 1 Oct 2001

·                         Uzbekistan effective 1 Oct 2001

·                         Phillipines (only troops w/orders that reference OEF) effective 9 Jan 2002

·                         Yemen effective 10 Apr 2002

·                         Djibouti effective 1 Jul 2002

Executive Order 13119 (effective 24 Mar 1999)
Public Law 106-21 Establishing Kosovo as Qualified Hazardous Duty Area (24 Mar 1999)

·                         The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro)

·                         Albania

·                         The Adriatic Sea

·                         The Ionian Sea north of the 39th parallel

Public Law 104-117 Establishing a Qualified Hazardous Duty Area ( November 1995)

·                         Bosnia

·                         Herzegovina

·                         Croatia

·                         Macedonia

Special and Incentive Pays

Source

Some information for this topic was drawn from the USDA website at:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/rules/Memo/05/011405.htm

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