By Alfred Acenas
EBC Hawaii Bureau

HONOLULU (Eagle News) – The Hawaii Department of Human Services (DHS) received approval this week to provide three months of emergency supplements to address temporary food needs for qualified families. Since March, Hawaii residents who received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits have been eligible to receive an additional amount of SNAP benefits if they did not receive the maximum amount for their household size.

DHS designed this emergency SNAP supplement to bring all households up to the maximum benefit amount, in accordance with household size and regardless of income. SNAP-qualified families who already received the maximum benefit amount will not receive an emergency supplement. There is no action needed from customers to receive these payments. Emergency supplements will be automatically issued to the SNAP household’s electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card.

The maximum monthly SNAP allotments by household size are as follows:

Size (maximum amount)

• 1 ($356)
• 2 ($654)
• 3 ($936)
• 4 ($1,139)
• 5 ($1,412)
• 6 ($1,695)
• 7 ($1,873)
• 8 ($2,141)
• Over 8 for each additional person ($268)

The emergency supplements are scheduled to be available in each client’s EBT account by the following:

1. SNAP recipients who already received a benefit for March 2020 will receive an additional supplement on their EBT card on May 12.
2. SNAP recipients who already received a benefit for April 2020 will receive an additional supplement on their EBT card on May 19.
3. Additional issuance periods for the emergency supplements will be done on May 22 and June 8 for SNAP recipients who received a benefit for March and/or April but did not receive their additional supplement on either of the earlier May dates. Availability of EBT benefit for this period would be the next business day after the issuance period.
4. SNAP recipients who already received a benefit for May will receive an additional supplement on their EBT card on June 16.
5. SNAP recipients that were missed during the previous periods will receive all additional supplements on their EBT card on July 9.

 

The emergency supplement will be issued separately from a person’s regular monthly benefit.

Emergency supplements will affect an estimated 60,000 households (about 75% of the total households currently receiving SNAP) and will bring more than $13 million per month in federal food assistance into the Aloha State.

Signed into law on March 18, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) authorized funding to allow for SNAP recipients to receive an emergency allotment of benefits so that a household receives the maximum monthly SNAP benefit amount appropriate for their household size.

(Eagle News Service)