Food stamps (SNAP) in
Delaware.

Delaware's higher income ceiling rests on an unusual notice. Each SNAP application includes an authorization to receive pregnancy prevention information, with hotline numbers, and that TANF-funded service makes the household categorically eligible under DSSM 9042.

USDA's chart of state BBCE choices sums it up the same way: all households are eligible, with no limit on assets and a 200% gross income ceiling. You do not have to call the hotline or use the service for the higher limit to apply.

Categorical eligibility lifts the gross test, the net test and the asset test. It does not change how the benefit is figured, and it does not override student, work, noncitizen or disqualification rules for the person they apply to.

Normally everyone who buys and prepares food together is one household. DSSM 9013 makes an exception for a person 60 or older who cannot shop or cook because of a permanent, severe disability: that person can be a separate SNAP household from the relatives they live with.

The catch is the others' income. Not counting the older person's spouse, the rest of the home must have income at or under 165% of poverty, $3,757 a month for three or $4,538 for four, the figures in DSS's 165% column.

Someone who already buys and fixes meals apart from the family, or who has a paid or unpaid helper do it for them, is treated as a separate household anyway, and the 165% test does not apply.

Most cases are approved for 12 months, with an interim report due in the sixth month. Homes where every member is elderly or disabled and nobody has earnings get 24 months, with the report in month 12. DSS closes a case whose interim report never comes back.

Between reports, Delaware's simplified reporting asks for one thing: tell DSS when monthly income goes over 130% of poverty for your household size, within 10 days after the month it happens. Moves, rent changes and new members do not have to be reported mid-period.

One more rule applies to adults on SNAP because they work over 20 hours a week: report when your hours drop below 20 a week. DSS asks for that call within 10 days.

Before your final month, DSS mails a notice of expiration. An application filed by the 15th of the last month counts as timely, and if you then attend the interview and send proof within 10 days, the next month's benefits arrive on your usual day.

Miss that window but file within 30 days after the period ends, and DSS still treats it as a renewal, though benefits are prorated from the date you apply. After that, you start over with a new application.

Send a hearing request to the DSS office that acted on your case, or by email to DHSS_DSS_FHRequest@delaware.gov. For SNAP, DSSM 5304 lets you ask out loud, and staff must offer to help put it in writing. Copies of your case records are free.

You have 90 days from the date the action takes effect. A request made inside the 10-day notice period keeps benefits at the old amount until the decision, though DSS can recover them if it wins. You can also contest your current benefit level at any point in your certification period.

For SNAP, the hearing must be held and decided within 60 days of your request, and you can push the date back up to 30 days. If you win more benefits, DSS has 10 days to issue them. A denial of expedited service gets a conference within 2 working days.

DSS says federal rules do not let Delaware replace food benefits stolen from an EBT card. Its advice is to lock the card until you shop, using Lock my Card Everywhere in the ConnectEBT app or website, and relock it after each purchase.

Change your PIN each month right before your deposit day, skip PINs like 1234 or a birth date, and look for skimmers. If money disappears, call 800-526-9099 for a new card, report it to police, and send DSS its SNAP Stolen Benefits Form.

Ordering 4 or more replacement cards in a year can bring a warning letter and closer review of your transactions. Food you bought and then lost in a fire or other household disaster is different: DSS can replace that, up to one month's benefit.