[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/ID\/63\/food-stamps-loophole-should-it-be-closed#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/ID\/63\/food-stamps-loophole-should-it-be-closed","headline":"Food Stamps Loophole: Should It Be Closed?","name":"Food Stamps Loophole: Should It Be Closed?","description":"The SNAP program right now has a major loophole that has been dubbed \u201cheat and eat.\u201d Food stamps users get their monthly allotment calculated in a number of ways, one of which is how much they pay for utilities like heating.","datePublished":"2018-07-06","dateModified":"2018-07-30","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/author\/admin#Person","name":"admin","url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/author\/admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26111862ca029071a00a76fae48c51b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26111862ca029071a00a76fae48c51b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"FoodStamps.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FS_Logo-2.png","width":100,"height":100},"url":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/ID\/63\/food-stamps-loophole-should-it-be-closed","about":["News"],"wordCount":392,"keywords":["63"],"articleBody":"The SNAP program right now has a\u00a0major loophole\u00a0that has been dubbed \u201cheat and eat.\u201d Food stamps users get their monthly allotment calculated in a number of ways, one of which is how much they pay for utilities like heating. However, some recipients don\u2019t actually pay for utilities, as their rent bundles them. To amend that, SNAP rules have allowed for those people to use a payment from the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) instead of writing in a figure where the utility bill usually goes.Two things jump out right away, depending on which way you look at it. For food stamps recipients\u2014especially those who don\u2019t pay extra for utilities\u2014it\u2019s a fantastic way for them to both save their own money and get extra federal income for food.But for opponents to the SNAP program, it\u2019s a loophole that needs to be closed because it creates a imbalance between food stamps users. If two people are earning $1,000\/month and each pays $500 for rent but one has to pay $50\/month for utilities and the other doesn\u2019t, the second person has an \u201cextra\u201d $50 in their pocket to put towards getting ahead.One solution\u00a0has been proposed in Congress. With up to 16 states using the \u201cheat and eat\u201d policy, residents, in turn, pay $1 that boosts SNAP benefits. A house bill made the baseline $20 instead of $1, covering the cost to the tune of an $8.7 billion in savings. This way, people who don\u2019t qualify for \u201cheat and eat\u201d\u2014and have to pay for utilities out of their own pocket\u2014won\u2019t be excluded from qualifying for SNAP. And to cut off the loophole, they\u2019d have to meet the new LIHEAP thresholds to qualify for more benefits than constitute the baseline.While food stamps users who qualify for \u201cheat and eat\u201d can understandably not be very pleased with this new proposal, it does seem like a solution that only adds and doesn\u2019t cancel.\u00a0No\u00a0families would lose basic eligibility, and only 4% of\u00a0all\u00a0SNAP families would see a benefit reduction.And despite this not being an ideal solution, it is one that thinks long-term and funnels more money towards low-income programs."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ID","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/\/ID\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"63","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/\/ID\/\/63\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Food Stamps Loophole: Should It Be Closed?","item":"https:\/\/foodstamps.org\/Blog\/ID\/63\/food-stamps-loophole-should-it-be-closed#breadcrumbitem"}]}]