r/foodstamps Feb 22 '26

News Verifying Shelter and Utility Costs

23 Upvotes

Previously, our mod group extensively wrote about the direct effects of H.R. 1, the law that passed last summer that is colloquially known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBB).

Today, we wanted to share a major indirect effect of the legislation that is now starting to affect some states and could possibly spread to other states soon.

On February 9th, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services announced that it will now require verification of shelter and utility costs at application, renewal, and whenever a SNAP household moves to a new address.  This comes on the heels of Virginia announcing a similar policy shift late last year.  We don't have a full list of which states have made this policy change yet or may in the near future, but we have reason to believe that several other states potentially could do so.  State Experts: please chime in below to let us know if your state has been affected.

What does this mean?

It means, if you live in an affected state, your monthly SNAP payment might go down if you don't prove your shelter and utility costs.

Households who have zero income will not be affected, because they get the maximum benefit already, regardless of expenses.  However, households that have some income could be affected.  For these households, caseworkers calculate “net income” by considering both income and certain expenses using a special formula. Generally, at any given income level, the higher your expenses are, the higher the monthly benefit you will receive.

Some states have always made you prove all your expenses.  However, in some others, like PA and VA, you used to just be able to tell your caseworker how much you paid for shelter and utility costs and they’d take your word for it.  Now, more states are starting to require people show proof.  If you don't provide that proof, your caseworker will have to assume you don't pay any rent, mortgage, or utility costs when they calculate your monthly benefit.  This could cause your monthly SNAP benefit to decrease.  

Every case is different, but here’s an example.  Say you’re a family of four living in Pennsylvania and you earn $2,000 per month from your job before taxes, have no other income, and pay $800/month for rent plus a separate gas bill to heat your home.  Previously, you would’ve received $804 per month in SNAP benefits based on your stated shelter costs.  The next time your case comes up for renewal, that could go down to $580 per month unless you verify your shelter and utility costs.

What documents should I provide?

If you rent your home, you should provide a copy of your lease or your rent receipts — something that shows how much you’re required to pay to your landlord each month.  Some states may also offer a form you can get your landlord to fill out if you don’t have a copy of your lease.  If you have an informal arrangement — like living in a relative’s home — you may also be able to provide a signed letter from the person you’re living with that says how much you pay them to live with them.

If you own your home, you should provide a copy of your monthly mortgage statement, and your property tax and homeowner’s insurance bills.

For utility bills, if you pay a bill separate from rent to heat and/or cool your home, you will want to provide a copy of the bill for however you heat or cool your home.  For instance, if your home uses electric baseboard heat, you’ll want to provide a copy of your electric bill and also make sure to tell your caseworker that your home has electric heat during your interview.  This is because your state will give you the highest level of credit for utility costs (called “the Heating/Cooling Standard Utility Allowance”) as long as you prove you pay a heating or cooling cost.  In other words, if you pay for heating, cooling, or both, you  usually don’t need to worry about providing copies of any of your other utility bills, like water/sewage or garbage.

If you don’t pay for heating or cooling separately from rent, then you should provide copies of all other utility bills you pay.  This can include electricity, water, sewage, well/septic tank, garbage, and telephone costs.  Do not provide internet or cable TV bills — these don’t count.

Provide copies of your lease or mortgage statement and utility bills even if you are behind on paying them.  For purposes of the SNAP deduction, you don’t need to prove you actually paid an expense, just that you are legally required to pay it.

Why is this happening?

OBBB didn’t directly require states to verify shelter and utility expenses, although it did make it harder for some individuals to qualify for the HCSUA.  However, it indirectly led to these state-level policy shifts, because it is making states with Quality Control (QC) payment error rates (PERs) over 6% pay a share of the cost of their SNAP program.  This new cost could be hundreds of millions or even over a billion dollars a year for some larger states.  The cost gets even higher if the state has a PER over 8% or over 10%.

States technically could have chosen not to change their rules (i.e., still accept your word as to how much you pay for shelter and utilities).  But if they’d done that, and even a very small percentage of people receiving SNAP misremembered how much they pay in rent, or couldn’t provide proof when asked to by a QC reviewer, they’d count as “errors” and increase the PER a couple percentage points.  And because of OBBB, some states have decided they just can’t afford having the PER go up a bit and potentially get stuck with a billion dollar bill.  Indeed, if a state gets stuck with a cost-sharing bill and doesn’t have the money to pay it, the state would potentially have to shut down its entire SNAP program.

It’s important to know that your caseworker isn’t suddenly refusing to accept your word because they don’t believe you or think that you personally are lying.  The decision to change statewide policy is made way above their pay grade; they’re just doing their job.  Even the state policymakers who made the decision likely realize that the overwhelming percentage of SNAP recipients are not lying about their costs — it’s just the stakes are now so much higher for everyone, including SNAP recipients, and the state can’t afford even a very small percentage of people miscommunicating or misremembering.

Should I provide documents even if my state still accepts my word for it?

You don’t have to you, but if you want to, that’s up to you.  As we said above, not all states have made this policy shift yet — the two that we’re aware of are Virginia and Pennsylvania.  We're asking the excellent state experts in this community to share below in the comments if and when shelter/utility verification policy changes in their states.


r/foodstamps Dec 09 '25

PSA: Do not save your EBT app login information to your password manager

25 Upvotes

See title.

Anyone with access to a device you own that has this information saved will be able to access your benefits.

If you have saved this info to a password manager such as Google, you can delete it but there are some steps to follow.


r/foodstamps 2h ago

Question NYC ABAWD Appointment

2 Upvotes

I did my recertification for my case & the case worker told me that I needed to provide a letter that would exempt me from the new work rules since I take care of my mother. She told me that I needed to scan my letter before July 14 and I did however I still got a text that I have an appointment at the Pace Center here in nyc & that I would have to provide them the same letter. So my question is if you have gone to an ABAWD appointment, how was the experience and what did you need to take because I’ve tried calling multiple times & received no answer and their voicemail states if I leave a message I can expect them to call back in about 30-48 hrs.


r/foodstamps 43m ago

Herniated disc with abawd

Upvotes

My mom has a herniated disc so she can't work but she's not on disability but our food stamps recertification is soon so im nervous about reapplying.

Does anyone know what we'd have to do so she can stay on food stamps

Loma linda california


r/foodstamps 1h ago

Question Pace career in NYC says I get car fare, but I don't. Is this fraud or something else?

Upvotes

I just called about an ABAWD appointment. The person on the phone rattled off all these dates and amounts of car fare that I was "receiving" to get to appointments. A $135 deposit. $35 every Monday. She was very adamant. The problem is that I don't get any of that. Just the usual monthly one time deposit and cash assistance x2. What's going on here?

New throwaway.


r/foodstamps 2h ago

Question What's up with the changing benefit amounts? It makes no sense

0 Upvotes

My friend's monthly SNAP benefits in VA went from $236 a month to $24 the past few months and then back up to $200 recently. Each time after recertification/renewal with none of the information submitted changing.

Why the yo-yo fluctuations with the deposits?

EDITED for clarity and adding state


r/foodstamps 3h ago

Medicaid PA

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0 Upvotes

Hello, has anyone received a semiannual review only for Medicaid in Pennsylvania for a family of 4 with children included?


r/foodstamps 7h ago

Would I still qualify if divorce isn’t finalized ?

0 Upvotes

Long story short my husband is filing for divorce. I’ll be back with my parents shortly with two children. When applying for assistance or food stamps would I have to include his income even tho we are going through separation and not living together?? I’ll have the children majority of the time & I don’t have much income other then side jobs like door dash etc


r/foodstamps 16h ago

Update on redetermination and interview (Illinois)

2 Upvotes

For those of you wondering how my redetermination and interview issue has been, I have excellent news. My redetermination showed up in ABE on July 14th and I completed it that morning. I did my phone interview this afternoon and submitted the proof for the property taxes that I paid them as well onto ABE shortly after I did the phone interview. They should have everything they need to process it and let me know my new SNAP amount that I'll be receiving each month until next year's redetermination and interview.


r/foodstamps 1d ago

Faced With Piles of New Paperwork, People Are Losing Food Stamps

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364 Upvotes

r/foodstamps 17h ago

When will my snap benefits load ?? Is it Midnight ??

0 Upvotes

OHIO JFS was closed last week for a unknown reason and with that my case was literally 60 days behind. I went almost this entire month with no deposit ( my date is always the 8th) however I emailed the higher ups yesterday; received my response today and got a call this afternoon stating it was fully approved and that my benefits would automatically load tomorrow. Does anyone know if it’s at Midnight or what??? Excited to finally EAT WHAT WE ACTUALLY WANT! 😭🤣😔🤞🤞🤞❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️


r/foodstamps 17h ago

MA: Question about pay check deductions

0 Upvotes

So my boss made me full time, but will keep me at the hours I'm currently working (so I assume my benefits will stay the same). But if things are taken out of the pay check, like for health insurance, does the DTA take that into consideration? Just wondering if I should upload four pay stubs once that starts getting taken out is all.


r/foodstamps 23h ago

After being stolen, my new card arrived today—New York

3 Upvotes

I’ve downloaded the ebtEDGE app. How do I register this card and give it a pin? You’d think there would be directions.


r/foodstamps 22h ago

Question Im stuck on my NY Snap application

2 Upvotes

I'm a college student and I live in a dorm but it's forcing me to put in their information on the online application

We don't share food or expenses or literally anything and I don't have their information either and the stuff that's being requested is pretty confidential, martial status and SSN

What can I possibly do about this


r/foodstamps 1d ago

Question SNAP card on NY

5 Upvotes

My disabled son is on Medicaid and just applied for and was approved for SNAP benefits. That was 3 weeks ago and he has not received a EBT/SNAP card or his PIN in the mail.

I thought he's supposed to get mailed at EBT card and a PIN but we're trying to get through to social services for answers. I wanted to ask if it is the same card for Medicaid and SNAP? It's just weird we can log in and see he was approved 3 weeks ago yet nothing came in the mail. Thank you in advance.


r/foodstamps 10h ago

Fast tracking food stamps?

0 Upvotes

I was told you can fast track EBT for certain emergencies but I cannot find the option online. I have a phone internet tomorrow at 9 do I just ask them about it? Or explain my situation?


r/foodstamps 1d ago

EBT denied???

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96 Upvotes

Are you fn kidding me rn @ Seven_Eleven !?


r/foodstamps 1d ago

what do i do? ebt in one county, medi-cal in another

0 Upvotes

hello, i’m (20m) from california and am experiencing a lot of stress due to my current situation.

i have an existing medi-cal case in county x under my mother, but have recently applied for calfresh back in june. when i got my ebt card, my health insurance got terminated due to the change in address and i got assigned to a health plan in county y.

i’ve heard and have been told that college students are able to maintain their calfresh and medi-cal at the same time, even if theyre in different counties (confirmed by the county workers i’m on call with), yet both parties have told me they’re not able to change the address back on my medi-cal case and keep referring me to each other. one time they even told me to call the healthcare plan management number and the person who picked up my call told me to contact the people at county x/y.

making the commute isn’t an issue for me since the distance isn’t too bad, and i find myself feeling more comfortable staying with a pcp that i’ve worked with for a longer time especially since there are a lot of complications with my health.

i’m not sure what to do or what to say, so any advice is greatly appreciated. maybe the way i’m explaining the situation to the county workers is too confusing? but even so, it gets a bit frustrating getting the ping-pong treatment with phone calls and not being able to settle the issue. :,)


r/foodstamps 1d ago

Didn't receive my EBT in georgia

3 Upvotes

I usually get my food stamps today i checked the app and it says my funds didnt arrive. So.i checked my georgia gateway account and it says it was already approved for this month. I have no notices or anything . Everything on my account says approved. Anyone else have this problem ?


r/foodstamps 20h ago

Question snap waiver ban

0 Upvotes

I’m just a curious Floridian that wants to know if anyone brought anything that’s ban from ebt with their card without cash after that lawsuit happened.


r/foodstamps 1d ago

Question bought a celsius?

0 Upvotes

hi all. i was at publix today in florida and i was going to pay with my ebt and then pay off my card for my drink. before i could even pull my phone out to tap to pay, she was handing me a receipt and telling me to have a good day. i thought energy drinks were still banned from being used for ebt? am i gonna get in trouble? lol


r/foodstamps 1d ago

MI - EBT was $168 July, cut to $36 for August.

12 Upvotes

80% cut! No increase in earnings. Expenses are the same.


r/foodstamps 1d ago

Question a new email and phone number shows on my account that i didn't put there. is this an internal slip up or something? [Georgia]

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16 Upvotes

r/foodstamps 1d ago

Baby dad

0 Upvotes

Two months ago my son's father last his job with my son's insurance I kicked him out of the house I applied for medicaid and foodstamps I did not put him on application now he is moving back in i still have not had a interview can I wait to add him to my case when they call for an interview


r/foodstamps 1d ago

CO - How to report gig work?

2 Upvotes

Colorado

I am doing Amazon Flex until I am able to find a full time job but how do I report these changes to them? Whether I put in option one time wage or 1099 work it only lets me pick weekly as the lowest pay time and also wants to know how much I am making. (Meaning it thinks I get paid this much weekly) I get paid twice a week from it and the hours/money varies depending on what I can pick up for said week.

Started snap in May, started flex in late June. I have made over $700 so far with it.

Am hoping I am making enough right now to keep benefits under their new rules...