ALBANY, NY – The State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance announced Friday that New Yorkers participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will receive a 15% increase in their monthly food benefits from January through June.
All households also receive the maximum monthly benefit for January as part of the food aid granted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of last year.
For January, SNAP recipients will receive the additional 15% as a separate issue that will be distributed from mid-January and last until the end of the month. The federal law approving the increase was not approved in time to include the additional amount as part of the regular benefits for SNAP administered by the state’s Office for Temporary Disability Assistance.
Emergency assistance is also provided to any SNAP household that is not typically receiving the maximum allowable monthly benefit, which is $ 234 for an individual and $ 782 for a family of four over the next six months.
The emergency aid surcharge is distributed along with the additional 15% for those entitled. Approximately half of all households in New York who receive SNAP will receive January emergency benefits.
As in the previous months, the payments are delivered directly to the recipients’ existing electronic performance transfer accounts and can be accessed with their existing EBT cards. As with the regular SNAP perks, the additional perks can be used to purchase groceries at authorized grocery stores. Unused SNAP benefits are automatically carried over to the following month.
