Background: Currently the food assistance resource limit is $2000 for most assistance groups and $3000 for assistance groups with an elderly or disabled member. With the enactment of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 the resource limits are indexed annually to inflation and rounded down to the nearest $250 increment. Adjustments to the asset limit reflect changes for the 12-month period ending the preceding June in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Urban Consumers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each adjustment is based on the unrounded amount for the prior 12-month period. The CPI increased by 3.6 percent for the 12 month period ending in June 2011, which caused the asset limit for assistance groups containing an elderly or disabled member to rise.

New Policy: Effective October 1, 2011 the new resource limit for an assistance group containing an elderly or disabled member will be $3,250. The resource limit for all other assistance groups will remain $2,000.

Because the resource limits could change every year, these limits are being removed from rule 5101:4-4-01. Future adjustment to the resource limits will be issued by a Food Assistance Change Transmittal.

Implementation: This policy will affect applications that occur on or after October 1, 2011. Applications prior to this date should not be reevaluated. CRIS-E table TFEP has been updated to reflect this policy change.