California Department of Social Services - State Hearings Division
Notes from the Training Bureau - December 15,  1999

Item 99-12-02G
Vehicle Used to Transport Disabled SSI Recipient Excluded as a Resource for Food Stamp Purposes

Vehicle Used to Transport Disabled SSI Recipient Excluded as a Resource for Food Stamp Purposes

In several state hearings, a county has denied or discontinued food stamp benefits to the household because the value of the vehicle exceeds the food stamp resource limit, even when the vehicle was used to transport a disabled SSI recipient. The CDSS policy has been that because the SSI recipient is not a household member, the SSI recipient's income and resources were not available to the household, and therefore the vehicle could not be excluded.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has concluded that the Food Stamp Act mandates, and the rules must be interpreted as, excluding from household resources any vehicle needed to transport a physically disabled household member. This includes California SSI recipients. The SSI recipient is treated as an ineligible household member, and if a vehicle is needed to transport the SSI recipient, it is excluded as a resource.

In light of the USDA interpretation, the CDSS will instruct counties to exclude such vehicles.