If you are a college student having trouble paying for food, check to see if you can get SNAP benefits. Some students miss out on Food Stamp payments worth up to $292 because they are not eligible.
Most of the time, full-time students at a technical school, trade school, university, or college can only get SNAP if they meet certain requirements. If this sounds like you, you should think about how you could make an exception.
Remember that the college or university decides what “half-time” enrollment means. College students must follow the same rules for Food Stamps as everyone else.
SNAP Exemptions for College Students
Once you know for sure that you meet the SNAP requirements, you should look into 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
