Background: On March 8, 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service issued a memorandum offering states the opportunity to participate in a demonstration project to exclude earned income from temporary employment in the 2020 Census. For States that choose to participate, earned income from temporary Census employment will be excluded for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits through September 30, 2020.

Current Policy: The census income is currently considered countable income in the SNAP budget.

New Policy: On April 1, 2019, Ohio applied for and was approved to participate in the 2020 Census Income Demonstration Project. Effective immediately, any income received from temporary employment in the 2020 Census is excluded from the SNAP budget. Participation in this demonstration project helps to further align policy among the SNAP, cash assistance and Medicaid programs.

Implementation: Ohio Benefits (OB) functionality excludes Census income from both cash and SNAP budgets. Workers should enter Census income in OB by completing the following steps:

1.From the Eligibility tab, select Customer Information and access the Employment Screen.

2.Create a Census employment record for the customer.

3.Once the screen is complete, select “Save and Return” to save the employment record.

4.From the Eligibility tab, select Customer Information and access the Income Screen.

5.Enter “Earnings” as the Income Category and select “Add” to add the income record on the Income Detail Screen.

6.On the Income Detail Screen, enter the Type as “Census Earnings – Decennial, Temporary.”

7.For Employment, select and link the Census employment record.

8.Once the Income Detail Screen is complete, select “Save and Return” to save the income record.