If you are a college student having financial difficulty getting food, see if you are eligible for SNAP benefit payments. Not all students are qualified, but some lose out on Food Stamp payments worth up to $292.
In general, students who attend a technical school, trade school, university, or college full-time are only eligible for SNAP provided they meet an exemption. So, if you are in this circumstance, you should look into how you might seek an exception.
Keep in mind that the higher education institution determines what “half-time” enrollment means. Of course, regular Food Stamp rules apply to college students.
SNAP exemptions for college students
Once you have checked that you meet the SNAP eligibility requirements, you should go through the possible exemptions:
- Are age 50 or older
- Are under 18
- Have a mental or physical disability
- Take part in a federally financed work study program
- Take part in a State financed work study program
- Work for a minimum of 20 hours (paid employment)
- Self-employed workers must also work for 20 hours per week, but they must get “weekly earnings at least equal to the federal minimum wage multiplied by 20 hours”.
- Take part in an on-the-job training program
- Look after a kid younger than 6
- Be a single parent who is enrolled full-time in college and looking after a child younger than 12
- Take care of a kid aged 6-11 and lack the necessary child care enabling you to attend school and work twenty hours per week or take part in work-study
- Be receiving TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families )
- Be assigned to a higher education institution through:
- SNAP E&T program
- State or local government-eligible E&T programs
- “A program under Title I of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (WIOA)”
- A Trade Adjustment Assistance Program under Section 236 of the Trade Act of 1974