New Jersey SNAP Recipients Getting Extra Benefits
Published on April 14, 2021
Morris County residents participating in New Jersey’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be among 231,000 New Jersey households receiving extra benefits this month.
Under a recent policy change at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 137,000 New Jersey households that were already receiving the maximum available SNAP benefit became eligible for and have now received a $95 supplement for the month of April. Additionally, 94,000 New Jersey households that were receiving less than $95 in monthly supplemental benefits also became eligible for extra help. This month, those households received added assistance that brought their monthly benefit up to $95 for April.
The increased benefits were directly credited to SNAP recipients’ Families First EBT cards.
Benefit levels remained unchanged for households that have been receiving increased payments of at least $95 per month. They received their monthly benefits in early April.
Also, a 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits that began in January remains in effect through September.
With the new April extra payments included, the New Jersey Department of Human Services now has distributed $620.2 million in supplemental monthly SNAP payments since March 2020 to New Jersey residents.
The SNAP program provides food assistance to families with low incomes to help them buy groceries through a benefit card accepted in most food retail stores and farmers’ markets. Families also may use their cards online through Amazon and participating locations of Aldi, ShopRite, The Fresh Grocer and Walmart.
The monthly supplemental payments are contingent upon month-to-month USDA approval. The USDA can approve supplemental SNAP payments for states as long as the federal government has declared a public health emergency and the state has issued an emergency declaration. The new USDA policy also puts in place a phase-out period that allows a state to provide supplemental allotments for the month following the expiration of the state’s public health emergency.
SNAP serves about 822,600 people in New Jersey in about 423,000 households, with the monthly SNAP benefit based on household size and income.
Individuals can visit njhelps.org to see if they are eligible for SNAP and apply.