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PolicyEngine / policyengine-us

The PolicyEngine US Python package contains a rules engine of the US tax-benefit system, and microdata generation for microsimulation analysis.
https://policyengine.org/us
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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SNAP Standard Medical Deduction Offset #5139

Closed vrathi101 closed 1 month ago

vrathi101 commented 1 month ago

https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility/deduction/standard-utility-allowances

MaxGhenis commented 1 month ago

Can you elaborate on what we're missing? We have the medical deduction and SUA

vrathi101 commented 1 month ago

Sorry maybe I missed something, do we model the offset amount, it's the last column in the Excel sheet

MaxGhenis commented 1 month ago

How does it work? ChatGPT wasn't very clear and it's not in snapscreener.com as far as I could tell.

vrathi101 commented 1 month ago

Yeah I'm not sure either, I was trying to find resources to explain it but there doesn't seem to be any, Perplexity didn't explain well either the footnote at the end of the file mentions "Note: SMD offsets have been taken out of the HCSUA amount shown in column B."

MaxGhenis commented 1 month ago

@benmolin do you know how the SMD offset works?

benmolin commented 1 month ago

Another area of concern for some states is that they must show that the waiver will not increase federal costs. FNS has worked with states to calculate the required savings to ensure cost neutrality. Most states offset the waiver’s cost by reducing their standard utility allowance63 (SUA) or forgoing a small cost-of-living increase in the SUA. This is an important policy decision, as it means cutting benefits to some SNAP recipients (individuals with out-of-pocket utility costs) to benefit others (individuals with medical expenses).

From https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/8-20-14fa.pdf#page=29

The offset amount wouldn't be part of the equation when calculating a household's SNAP benefit.

Also see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37549333/

MaxGhenis commented 1 month ago

Thank you @benmolin!