You can apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP):

• Your citizenship status
• Where you live
• Social Security numbers for everyone on your application
• Your disability
• Your income
• Your resources
• Your medical expenses, and
• Housing or shelter costs.

After submitting an application for SNAP, you will get a notice to schedule an interview within 14 days (two weeks) of submitting an application. If approved, your benefits start within 30 days. If you qualify for expedited/emergency benefits you will be interviewed that day or the next day, and if you are approved, your benefits start within five days.

During your eligibility interview, the caseworker asks questions about your household situation to figure out if you qualify for benefits, and makes sure that they have all the required information and documents.

After your interview, SNAP sends you a letter saying whether your application is approved or denied. If you are approved, the letter tells you the amount of monthly SNAP benefits you will receive.

Learn more about who can get SNAP and how SNAP benefits are calculated.

Appeals

If your application is denied or you do not agree with a decision that was made, you can contact your DHS Family Community Resource Center. They might just need more information from you. If you cannot resolve the issue, you can file an appeal with the Illinois Department of Human Services.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a program that helps people pay for their food, if they meet income limits and other requirements. When you apply for SNAP, you need to give details about how much money everyone in your household makes. If you make more money than the program allows, you don't qualify for SNAP.

The most important factors to decide if you can get SNAP, and how much you get, are:

• The number of people who live and eat together (called a SNAP household or “unit”)
• Income and expenses

Whether you can get SNAP benefits may also depend on things like if you (or someone in your household) has a disability, or is 60 years old or older. This article focuses on the rules for people with disabilities.

Your SNAP “Unit” or Household

When you apply, the first thing SNAP does is to decide who is in your household unit. A SNAP unit is typically a family, but not always. A unit can also be an individual living alone, or any group of people who live together and buy and make their food together.

The rules say that some people must be counted as part of your unit if they are:

• Your spouse who lives with you
• Any child under 18 who depends financially on you or any adult member of your unit, or
• Your own child under age 22 who lives with you (If you care for foster children, you can choose to include them in your unit, but it's not required).

Others are typically not included as part of your SNAP unit if they are:

• A roomer: someone who lives with you and pays for lodging (a place to stay), but not for their meals.
• A boarder: a person who pays you a reasonable monthly amount for both their lodging (a place to stay) and their meals. If a boarder is not paying a reasonable amount, they must be included in your SNAP unit. Learn more about boarders and SNAP, including who cannot be considered a boarder.
• A live-in-attendant: someone who lives with you in order to provide personal services like medical, housekeeping, or child care. Your spouse, your child under 22, or a child under 18 (who is under your parental care and control) cannot be considered a live-in-attendant.)
• A student attending college, vocational training, or other higher education who doesn't meet at least one of the requirements to be included in the SNAP unit.
• Someone who lives with you, but does not usually buy and prepare food with you.

It is possible to have two SNAP units living in the same house, especially if a member of one of the units has a disability or is blind, or if you are not related and you buy and prepare your food separately. For example, if you and your spouse live with another couple who are not related to you and each couple buys and prepares their own separate meals, you can be counted as separate SNAP units.

Once SNAP decides who counts as part of your household unit, they look at your household income. To keep things simple, this article calls a SNAP unit a household.

Income and Resources

If you have a disability or are 60 years old or older, the state looks at your income and resources to decide if you qualify for SNAP.

The Resource Limit

Resources are things you own, like a car, home, or money in the bank. To get SNAP, you must stay below the resource limit by having a limited number of resources. In general, the resource limit for people with disabilities is $4,500. The home you live in and one vehicle are not counted as resources.

Note: If your disability started before you turned 26, you can open an ABLE account where you can save up to $19,000 each year and that money will not be counted as resources by SNAP. Learn more about ABLE accounts.

Gross and Net Income Limits

The SNAP income limits depend on the size of your household. There are two limits and if your household income is below one of them, you may qualify for benefits:

• The gross income limit is 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (FPG). Gross income includes all of your household income, before taxes and deductions.
• The net income limit is 100% of FPG. Net income is your gross income minus the allowable deductions described below.

The Illinois Department of Human Services provides a chart of SNAP Maximum Monthly Income Guidelines (also available in Spanish).

Deductions

To figure out your net income for SNAP, take your gross household income and subtract the following deductions if they apply to your household:

• 20% of your earned income
• A standard deduction of $205 if three or fewer people live in your home, or $219 if four or more people live in your home
• A dependent care deduction, when you need dependent care to be able to work, or get training or education
• The cost of medical expenses for elderly or disabled members of the household, if the cost is more than $35 for the month and is not paid by insurance or someone else.
• Legally owed child support payments
• Depending on your income, you may also deduct utilities, rent, or mortgage payments and interest, and taxes on your home

See the full list of possible deductions.

SNAP Income and Benefits Guidelines

Number of people in your household:	12345678
SNAP guidelines for your household:
	$15,650
	$5,500
	$298
	$546
	$785
	$994
	$1,183
	$1,421
	$1,571
	$1,789
Gross income limit per month (200% FPG)
Net income limit per month (100% FPG)
Maximum monthly benefit

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The Illinois Department of Human Services has an online SNAP Eligibility Calculator. Enter details about your household size, income, assets, and expenses, and the calculator says if you might qualify for SNAP benefits. (You still need to apply separately.)

Learn more about monthly benefit amounts and how they are paid.

The Benefit Amount

If you qualify for benefits, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) calculates how much you get in benefits each month by looking at the maximum benefit for a household of your size, your household’s net income, and other factors. Read Who Can Get SNAP to understand how SNAP looks at your household, and who is included.

If your household has no monthly net income, SNAP may give you the maximum benefit amount for a household of your size. The Illinois Department of Human Services lists the Maximum Monthly SNAP Amounts (also available in Spanish).

If you do have net income, SNAP expects you to spend 30% of it on food. This means that for every $100 in net income, SNAP expects you to spend $30 on food.

For your monthly benefit, SNAP gives you the maximum monthly benefit for your size of household minus the amount that they expect you to spend on food (30% of your net income).

Formula for Monthly Benefit Amount:

Maximum amount from the guidelines

Minus your net income x 0.3

= Your SNAP benefit amount

Tim lives alone and gets income from Social Security benefits and work. His net income is $500. After he deducts his medical expenses and shelter allowance, his benefits amount is calculated like this:

Tim's SNAP benefit calculation:

Maximum benefit amount from the guidelines	$298
Earned income	500.00
Minus (0.3 x $500)	-
Tim's Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) food benefit

Getting Your Benefits

When you get SNAP, you get an Illinois Link Card, which is a plastic card that looks and works like a debit card. Illinois puts money on the Link Card each month and you use the card to pay for food. Learn more about how to use your SNAP benefits on your Link Card.

Reporting Changes

You must tell SNAP when your income, resources, or living situation changes. Always report these changes within 10 days after the change happens, so that you don’t run into problems with your SNAP benefits. If your income changes, report it within 10 days of getting your first paycheck at the new income amount.

You can report changes:

• At your local DHS Family Community Resource Center.
• Online at ABE Manage My Case. (If you only need to change your address, you can do that online using your Illinois Link Card account.)
• By calling the Illinois Department of Human Services Help Line at 1-800-843-6154 or 1-866-324-5553 (TTY).

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) puts your monthly benefit on the Illinois Link Card, a plastic card that looks and works like a debit card. Once you are approved for SNAP benefits, it can take up to seven days for the card to be mailed to the address on your application. Learn more about the Link Card and how to manage your Link Card account.

You can use your Illinois Link Card to buy food:

• At grocery stores. Look for an Illinois Link sign or a sign that says "Link accepted here" in the windows or on the doors to be sure the store accepts the Link Card before you start shopping.
• At many farmers markets. Some even offer a matching program that doubles the amount spent using a Link Card, for up to a certain amount each week. For example, if you spend $10 at a market using your Link card, you'll get coupons or tokens worth another $10 at that market.
• Online, from retailers like Aldi, Amazon, and Walmart. Learn more about buying online with Link.

You can use SNAP benefits on your Link Card to buy:

• Foods for the household to eat, such as:
  • Breads and cereals
  • Fruits and vegetables
  • Meats, fish, and poultry
  • Dairy products, and
• Seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat.

SNAP benefits cannot be used to buy:

• Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco
• Any nonfood items, such as:
  • Pet foods
  • Soaps
  • Paper products
  • Household supplies
• Vitamins and medicines
• Food to be eaten in the store or hot foods, or
• Food in a restaurant, except in certain circumstances (see Restaurants Meals Program below).

Get more details about using the Illinois Link Card.

Emergency Food Program

The Emergency Food Program gives free food to people with low income, through soup kitchens or food banks. This federal program (The Emergency Food Assistance Program or TEFAP) means you may be able to get an extra food box, on top of your SNAP benefits. To get food from this program in Illinois, your total income must be under the income limits, based on the size of your household.

Get more info:

• The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a TEFAP website.
• The Illinois Department of Human Services explains its Emergency Food Program and has a list of food banks and soup kitchens that provide food in Illinois, with links to other resources.

Marcela's Story

Marcela lives with her husband, brother, and two children. She works part-time for a local community center. Her brother was in a car accident several years back and since then injuries from the accident have limited him to working just a few hours per week.

Even so, Marcela’s family never had trouble making ends meet until Marcela’s husband was laid off from his job. They were still able to pay for rent, but money got tight. Marcela decided that they needed help paying for food.

Her first step was to learn about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS). Next, she called the IDHS help line at 1-800-843-6154 to get more info about SNAP.

Applying for SNAP

Marcela applied for SNAP online using the Illinois Application for Benefits Eligibility. On the application, she stated her family’s income, resources, and living situation. The website also listed the information she may need to give the DHS Family Community Resource Center, so Marcela gathered her pay stubs, bank records, and other proof of her family’s income and situation in case they needed it.

About a week after turning in the application, Marcela got a notice from her DHS Family Community Resource Center saying that she may qualify for SNAP, but she needed to schedule an interview first. During the interview, they discussed Marcela’s brother’s disability. When SNAP figured how much Marcela’s family should get in benefits, they deducted the money Marcela’s family spent on medical care for her brother from their family income. That meant they’d get more SNAP than they otherwise would.

Using SNAP

About two weeks after her phone interview, Marcela got a notice that her family had been approved for $400 a month in SNAP benefits. This was the maximum benefit amount for households of five ($1,183), minus the net income that Marcela had from her job. She also got her Illinois Link Card in the mail, along with instructions about how to use it.

Before she went to the store, Marcela used the Illinois Link Card website to see how much she had in SNAP benefits on her Link card. That way, she knew how much she could spend on food at the store.

The first time she went to the store, Marcela looked in the window to make sure it had the “Illinois Link” sign, so she knew her Link Card would work. She picked up some groceries and when she reached the cashier, she pulled out her Link Card and paid for her food items with her SNAP benefits without any problems.

Then, she went to a nearby farmers market that accepts the Link Card. The market also participated in the Link at the Market program, which meant she could get a great deal on fruits and veggies. She knew it was apple season and some ripe apples would go great with breakfast.