SNAP fair hearing question

[TheNJBen]

What is the name of your state? NJ

I have been received SNAP benedits for a few years and despite my local agency making mistakes every year I’ve always gotten them. This year I was denied because my income was too high. That simply is not true, the (rude) case worker told me that mileage and commissions are not deductible from gross business income when determining benefits which added 30k to my income. I read state law and federal guidelines for SNAP And both say that cost of doing business is excluded income for self employment when determining SNAP elegibility. Am I wrong? I don’t see Jack I am when they’ve deducted that every year and went by profit not gross business income and if I am right why won’t they just fix their error?

 

[Shadowbunny]

What is the name of your state? NJ

I have been received SNAP benedits for a few years and despite my local agency making mistakes every year I’ve always gotten them. This year I was denied because my income was too high. That simply is not true, the (rude) case worker told me that mileage and commissions are not deductible from gross business income when determining benefits which added 30k to my income. I read state law and federal guidelines for SNAP And both say that cost of doing business is excluded income for self employment when determining SNAP elegibility. Am I wrong? I don’t see Jack I am when they’ve deducted that every year and went by profit not gross business income and if I am right why won’t they just fix their error?

Commissions are income. Are you receiving commissions or paying commissions to someone else?

 

[TheNJBen]

Paying commisoms, I know receiving them is income. Commissions include money collected by Uber and eBay and PayPal and mileage is from Uber, all legitimate and legal costs of doing business

 

[LdiJ]

Paying commisoms, I know receiving them is income. Commissions include money collected by Uber and eBay and PayPal and mileage is from Uber, all legitimate and legal costs of doing business

There should be some sort of appeals process that you can follow to try to get them to treat the mileage and "commissions" as valid business expenses, however, I do believe that you are using poor wording to call the fees from Uber and Ebay and PayPal, commissions.

What Uber keeps from the fares is not income to you in the first place, and therefore should not be included in your income. Uber gets paid and then Uber pays you your share. The fees from Ebay and Paypay are just that, fees for the use of the services.

 

[TheNJBen]

eBay is a 9% commission and PayPal is a 3.5% processing fee but they are all one line item on a schedule C. As for Uber, it is correct that we never receive them but they are counted as paid to us on a 1099 and taken as a fee. Technically, at least on paper, the driver pays the Uber fees and the passenger pays the driver.

 

[Taxing Matters]

What is the name of your state? NJ

I have been received SNAP benedits for a few years and despite my local agency making mistakes every year I’ve always gotten them. This year I was denied because my income was too high. That simply is not true, the (rude) case worker told me that mileage and commissions are not deductible from gross business income when determining benefits which added 30k to my income. I read state law and federal guidelines for SNAP And both say that cost of doing business is excluded income for self employment when determining SNAP elegibility. Am I wrong? I don’t see Jack I am when they’ve deducted that every year and went by profit not gross business income and if I am right why won’t they just fix their error?

There are several layers of appeal possible. A brochure from Hawaii Legal Aid has helpful information on that. While you are not in Hawaii, since SNAP is a federal program the process is the same no matter in what state you are located.

 

[NeilTheCop]

"(rude) case worker"
Why rude? Perhaps you didn't look hungry enough, and the case worker was doing his/her job by making sure you were really in need of nutritious food paid for by the taxpayer and not someone working the system.

 

[commentator]

Caseworkers are generally trained and most are experienced enough not to be rude. The ideal is to be formal and businesslike. One soon learns not to get personally involved when dealing with clients. It is just too tiresome and non-productive. They are human, though, and sometimes make wrong decisions and mistakes about their program. Sometimes they are not experienced enough or are not well trained. It is not your job to educate them. It does not pay to argue about whether you are eligible or not. They can't just 'fix their errors" because you tell them to. There is a legal process set up by federal requirements.

They also don't get to make subjective decisions about whether or not a person looks hungry enough or seems needy enough. They don't get to deny you just because you are an unpleasant person, or argumentative jerk. They are just supposed to apply the regulations based on the information they have obtained about your eligibility. Apparently, you have been determined to be ineligible at a first level. There is a clear cut appeal process for dealing with a denial at every step. You need to request an appeal of this caseworker's decision. Perhaps you can speak with someone in Legal Aid who will be able to assist you with such an appeal. They do a lot of this.

But it sounds as if you were denied, and told why you were denied, and you want to argue about it, both there with the caseworker and now here. That accomplishes nothing. No one here on line can tell you why you were not approved this year, since we do not have the necessary information and the ability to make such decisions. So file the appeal and see if someone at another level in the program agrees with you.

 

[TheNJBen]

No she was literally rude as she literally yelled at me for having the audacity to speak to her. Yes there is an appeal process which takes 5 months from denial to resolution and if you rely on that money it’s way too long. And yes they can just correct it as they have just sbout every other year. And they are not highly trained, it took them 3 years to correct my SS number, I’m going on 5 years where they still have me as electric heat. And every time you call you literally get talked like you’re a piece of dirt. And I ask questions here because this is what this site exists for do I don’t appreciate your sactimonious attitude or innuendo that I’m gaming the system. I did not ask about by case but about the law regarding excluded income

 

[commentator]

How would your having knowledge of the law regarding excluded income make any difference? Do you think you can call them up and tell them what to do if you cite a law to them? I suspect that your argumentative behavior and refusal to accept the way the system operates has hurt you much more than it has helped you in the last five years. I'm sure they're delighted when they pick up the phone and find it is you and you now have all the answers. As a government system, they have procedures they must follow to change, approve, deny or provide aid to anyone.

You are very right about one thing. The philosophy of the public assistance community is not one of warm customer service and being nice to people, making people feel good about themselves, giving good customer service is not encouraged. They have to give you the assistance if you qualify, but they certainly do not have to be nice to you about it while they're doing it. As someone said about the old Food Stamp office, "If you don't like the way they treat you, why don't you take your business elsewhere?" And of course if you are asking for SNAP, there's nowhere else to take your business.