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  1. #1
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    NC: Change Closes Food Stamps Loophole

    Change closes food stamps loophole

    March 11, 2009 - 7:09 PM
    By Robert Boyer / Times-News

    State officials recently closed a policy loophole that allowed the U.S.-born children of some undocumented immigrants to get food stamps while denying help to the children of some U.S. citizens.

    The new policy will affect at least 100 Alamance County families and possibly more, officials at the county Department of Social Services say.

    According to an earlier Times-News story, 284 people in families with at least one illegal immigrant received food stamps in May 2007.

    On Feb. 16, the state Department of Health and Human Services instructed county DSS offices to begin counting the full gross income of illegal immigrants who apply for food stamp benefits if they are higher than federal income eligibility guidelines.

    While such immigrants aren't eligible to receive benefits, under the old policy, their U.S.-born children might qualify if the prorated income of the undocumented parents fell below federal income guidelines, even if parents' gross income was higher than the gross income guidelines.

    "Originally, the state did not want to count your money if you were not eligible," said Shelia Porterfield, the food and nutrition service supervisor at the county DSS.

    State officials have given no explanation for the policy change, Porterfield said.

    With the change, the income of undocumented immigrants is now treated the same way as the earnings of citizens and legal immigrants.

    (Unlike U.S. citizens, though, legal immigrants must work and live five years in the U.S. before they can apply for food stamp benefits.)

    Dean Simpson, the chief of the state division of Economic and Family Services, gave two examples to underscore the change.

    In the first example, an undocumented immigrant in a family of four who earns $2,400 a month applies for benefits for his children. The maximum allowable gross income for a family of four to receive benefits is $2,297. Since the earnings are above the threshold, DSS workers would have to deny or terminate assistance, Simpson says.

    Under the old policy, to calculate food stamp benefits for the citizen children of undocumented immigrants, gross income was divided by the number of family members, but counted only for each legal resident of the household.

    That means that under the old policy, if both parents in the first example were undocumented immigrants with two U.S. born children, only half, or $1,200 of that undocumented immigrant's $2,400 monthly income would count and the children would receive food stamp benefits.

    In Simpson's second example, an immigrant here on a student visa makes $1,500 a month and is part of a family of three. Since those earnings fall below the federal earning threshold of $1,907 a month, the income is divided by the three family members but multiplied only by the two household members eligible to receive food stamp benefits. That means only $1,000 of the student's income counts in the benefit calculations.

    http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/income ... rants.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member vmonkey56's Avatar
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    In the first example, an undocumented immigrant in a family of four who earns $2,400 a month applies for benefits for his children. The maximum allowable gross income for a family of four to receive benefits is $2,297. Since the earnings are above the threshold, DSS workers would have to deny or terminate assistance, Simpson says.
    Our government has been denying Americans so they could help undocumented immigrants. Crooks and why isn't ICE being called, too?
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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