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Does SNAP check and verify income and asset test limits? If so, how? What if someone has no job, no income but has a $1M in the bank? Does the IRS provide income data for both W2 income and other forms of income? Do they check bank account balances? If so, how? I've never gotten SNAP benefits nor any other kind of benefit but I sure know plenty of people who are better off than I am, have a lot in savings, make way more money than me and who somehow are getting SNAP. Are they just lucky they haven't been caught or am I stupid for thinking they verify and check stuff like that? I've heard all sorts of conflicting stories about whether they really check anything other than if you have income from a job that gets reported. It doesn't seem like they do.
Yeah, none of the official sites anywhere explain the answer. What is listed as eligibility and what gets verified or checked are not the same thing, apparently.
There is data sharing among the IRS, Social Security, and state social service administrative entities.
Yes, they check assets. In your example of someone who has no job, no income and $1 Million in the bank, the IRS knows and shares that information and a SNAP applicant ultimately would be denied the benefit. Someone who is already a SNAP recipient would be cut off.
Last edited by moguldreamer; 02-18-2024 at 08:53 AM..
There is data sharing among the IRS, Social Security, and state administrative entities.
Yes, they check assets. In your example of someone who has no job, no income and $1 Million in the bank, the IRS knows and shares that information and a SNAP applicant ultimately would be denied the benefit. Someone who is already a SNAP recipient would be cut off.
Playing devils advocate here…….
If one had $1 million in the bank, but it was in a checking account that paid no interest, how would the IRS or the State know? Are banks routinely providing account balance info to the IRS?
There is data sharing among the IRS, Social Security, and state administrative entities.
Yes, they check assets. In your example of someone who has no job, no income and $1 Million in the bank, the IRS knows and shares that information and a SNAP applicant ultimately would be denied the benefit. Someone who is already a SNAP recipient would be cut off.
That's how I thought it worked, but apparently not. I've been told they just take people's word for it and don't check anything that isn't earned wages from a job. And as far as bank accounts go, I've also been told if you just say you don't have any bank accounts and/or don't mention a bank account with a lot of cash or only show one with very little, they'll not check that either. But I have no idea.
If one had $1 million in the bank, but it was in a checking account that paid no interest, how would the IRS or the State know? Are banks routinely providing account balance info to the IRS?
That's really my question. There's the income question and the asset (bank account balance) question. If Mr. $1M was earning interest, he'd have to hope they didn't check both. But if he was dumb enough to have all that in a non-interest-bearing account of some kind (and he had no other sources of income), then he'd have to hope they didn't verify bank account balances. I really assumed that all the "official" rules and regs you read about on state and federal SNAP-related websites was actually how it worked. Then I happened to have some conversations with people who have experience with it (which I don't) and they almost all said it was just an "honor" system and they just take everyone's word for it on the applications.
Both things can be true. This is administered at the State level, so there can be different methods. But the applicant's Social Security number is associated with the bank account and hence all financial informaiton is reported to the IRS. The State might approve SNAP but upon further review several months later (perhaps a year or more) then the State might get around to noticing that the SNAP recipient has money in the bank, and start the process of recouping the benefit.
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