Food stamps (SNAP) in
New York.

New York grants categorical eligibility through its Helping Hands brochure, mailed to households every year. FNA's chart shows it reaching households with dependent care costs at 200% of poverty and households with earned income at 150%. Everyone else uses the federal 130% test.

OTDA's October 2026 standards add the elderly and disabled to the 200% group. For a household of four, that is $3,575 a month with no earnings, $4,125 with wages, and $5,500 when someone is 60 or older, disabled, or the household pays for dependent care.

Someone 60 or older who cannot buy or prepare meals because of a disability may apply as a separate unit with a spouse, if the others in the home have income at or under 165% of poverty. OTDA lists that line as $2,976 a month for two people.

New York City SNAP is run by the Human Resources Administration. You apply and manage the case on ACCESS HRA, interview by phone through On Demand, and can walk into any SNAP Center. If everyone in the home gets or is applying for SSI, HRA lets you apply at a Social Security office instead.

In the other 57 counties, your local Department of Social Services handles the case and myBenefits.ny.gov is the online door. The OTDA hotline, 1-800-342-3009, gives the address and phone number of the office for where you live.

OTDA does not use your real bills in the shelter deduction. It uses a set allowance that depends on where you live. The heating and air conditioning allowance is $1,100 in New York City, $1,023 in Nassau and Suffolk and $908 everywhere else, from October 1, 2026.

Without a heating or cooling cost, the utility allowance is $434, $402 or $368 by the same regions, and phone-only households get $33. Water, sewer and trash are already folded into the amounts. The excess shelter deduction tops out at $769, and the homeless shelter deduction is $205.66.

Under the New York State Combined Application Project, a single person in active receipt of SSI whom Social Security codes as living independently gets a SNAP case opened automatically, with no application. NYSCAP replaced the older NYSNIP program, which ended November 30, 2024.

The case opens at no less than the minimum benefit, budgeting your SSI and the standard deduction only. A form called LDSS-4841 comes with the opening letter so you can report rent, utilities and medical costs for a larger amount; returning it is optional and never counts against you.

Use the benefit within 90 days of the case opening or it closes and the money is removed. Approval lasts 36 months, with one interim report at month 18.

Until February 28, 2026, the time limit was waived in every county except Saratoga. Since March 1, 2026 it applies statewide, and USDA approved a waiver only for the Tuscarora Nation and Poospatuck reservations, running through February 28, 2027.

The 3-year clock reset on October 1, 2026. If you lost SNAP between June 1 and September 30, 2026 for missing the work rules, you can reapply on myBenefits.ny.gov or, in NYC, on ACCESS HRA.

Volunteering counts by a formula: your monthly SNAP divided by the state minimum wage for your area. With $300 in SNAP and a $16 minimum wage, that is 18 hours a month. Tell your district within 10 days after a month ends if your hours fell below 80.

People 60 to 64 are excused from the general work rules but can still face the ABAWD limit. You are also excused if a household member is under 14, you are pregnant, you get disability benefits, or you earn $217.50 a week or more.

If you skip an assigned activity or quit a job without good cause, the district first sends a Conciliation Notification and offers a meeting. Contact it by the date on the notice; with good cause, your SNAP stays the same, and otherwise you get a chance to finish the activity.

Penalties grow with each instance: one month without SNAP the first time, three months the second, and six months for the third and every one after. Proving you should have been excused lets benefits restart before the period ends.

Children 6 to 16 whose households get SNAP, cash assistance or Medicaid are enrolled automatically, and so are children their school directly certifies for free or reduced-price lunch. Other families could apply by September 8, 2026; later applications roll into Summer 2027.

Each child gets one $120 payment. Issuance began June 16, 2026, and the money expires 122 days after it lands, so spend it soon. The helpline is 1-833-452-0096.

Ask online, by phone at 1-800-342-3334, in person at 5 Beaver Street in Manhattan or 40 North Pearl Street in Albany, or by mailing the request form to the Office of Administrative Hearings, P.O. Box 1930, Albany, NY 12201-1930. The fax is 518-473-6735.

To keep aid continuing while you wait, fax or postmark the request by the date on your notice of intent. OTDA mails an acknowledgment, form OAH-4420, once it logs the request. In NYC, emergencies go to 1-800-205-0110.