Add a New Person as a SNAP Household Member

Change Resulting in a Benefit Increase

In accordance with 106 CMR 366.120, when a change results in an increase in SNAP benefits due to the addition of a new household member who is not a member of another certified household, or due to a decrease of $50 or more in the household's gross monthly income, DTA will make the change effective not later than the first allotment issued 10 days after the date the change was reported. But in no event shall the change take effect any later than the month following the month of the reported change.

When a household reports the addition of a new member, you must make the change effective for the cyclical month following the cyclical month the change was reported.

If the change was reported too late in the month to adjust the benefits for the following month, you must issue a related benefit. For more information on issuing related benefits, see Related Benefit.

A Social Security Number (SSN) must be provided orally or in writing for any household member applying for SNAP benefits. For more information, see Social Security Number Requirements.

Reminder: Once the SSN has been entered into BEACON, it must be verified through the State Verification and Exchange System (SVES). The worker must not approve any household member for ongoing benefits unless a SVES inquiry returns a verified status, indicated by a “V” in the Verification Code field.

Examples of Adding a New Household Member

Example 1: Jessica (she/her) reports on October 10 that the father of her child just moved in with her. Jessica’s SSN ends in 2. Her next SNAP allotment will be issued on November 4. Therefore, the new household member will be added to the case for November, and no related benefit will be owed.

Example 2: Karine (she/her) reports on October 30 that she had a baby. Karine’s SSN ends in 1. Due to October 30 occurring after the BEACON release date, BEACON will not make the change effective until December 2. Therefore, a related benefit must be issued for November.

Note: For SNAP purposes, the SSN verification requirement is distinct from the identity verification requirement (although SSN verification can be used to verify identity). The identity requirement only applies to grantees. Proof of identity must NOT be requested for any other household member.

Adding a Newborn Child to the Household

SNAP recipients who give birth or adopt a newborn child must add the newborn to the SNAP household. The newborn must be added to the SNAP household based on the Parent/Child or Parental Control Rule (see Household Composition – SNAP).

The rules of adding a member to a SNAP household apply to the addition of newborn children. When adding a newborn to a SNAP case, the household must provide at least an oral or written self-declaration of:

the newborn’s date of birth, and
the newborn’s SSN

Reminder: The effective date of a newborn child’s inclusion in the household is NOT based on the child’s date of birth. It is based on the date that the child’s birth or adoption was reported.

Verifying SSNs for Newborn Children

In many cases, a newborn child will not have an SSN when the household reports that they were born or adopted. The household may submit verification that an SSN application has been filed on the newborn’s behalf through SSA, typically a hospital birth record.

However, if the household can neither self-declare nor provide proof of application for the newborn’s SSN when their presence in the home is first reported, the newborn shall be eligible to receive SNAP benefits until the household’s next recertification or the sixth month following the month in which they were born, whichever is later.

Reminder: Until the household can provide an SSN, the newborn must be issued a Systems Generated SSN. When doing this, do not check “unable to obtain” on the Assessed Person page. You must enter the child’s date of birth in the “SSN appl.” field. This will allow the Batch update from SSA to occur. For more information, see Alternate Identifier.

If, by either of these times, the Department still has not received verification of SSN or SSN application, you must determine if the household has good cause for not complying with the Department’s SSN requirement.

If good cause cannot be established (see Social Security Number Requirements for good cause criteria), the newborn must be disqualified and removed from the household.

Note: The six-month period of presumptive eligibility only applies to newborns. If the new household member is not a newborn, then they cannot be added to the household until their SSN is provided orally or in writing, or we receive verification of their SSN application.

Examples of Verifying a Newborn Child’s SSN

Example 1: Carolyn (she/her) reports on October 10 that she gave birth on October 3, but is unable to provide verification that she filed an SSN application for her child. Carolyn’s certification period does not end until June 30. The sixth month following the child’s birth month is April. Since the certification period ends later than April, Carolyn’s child can continue receiving SNAP benefits until June 30 before Carolyn has to verify her child’s SSN or SSN application.

Example 2: Heather (she/her) reports on November 20 that she gave birth on November 17, but is unable to provide verification that she filed an SSN application for her child. Heather’s certification period ends on December 31. The sixth month following the child’s birth month is May. Because the sixth month is later than the certification end date, Heather’s child can continue receiving SNAP benefits until May 31 before Heather must verify her child’s SSN or SSN application.

Important: When a newborn is assigned a Systems Generated SSN, SSA may automatically verify and correct their SSN through the SVES Batch Process by matching the reported name, date of birth, and gender. For more information, see Verifying Social Security Numbers.

Change Resulting in a Benefit Decrease

If a household’s benefit level decreases or the household becomes ineligible due to the addition of a new household member (e.g., the new household member has income that prevents the benefits from increasing), the Department will send a notification of the negative action within 10 days of the date the change was reported.

The negative action must be effective no later than the issuance for month following the month in which the notification period has expired (provided that a fair hearing and continuation of benefits have not been requested).

Entering a New Person into BEACON

Access the Household page.
To check whether the person you are entering was previously associated with the Primary Applicant, click Query List. Any person with the same Current Residence address who was matched on the Address page will be automatically pre-selected.
Select the person from the list, if they appear. Click Select. The Household page displays.
If you did not select a person from the Query List, the Household page fields will be cleared and enabled. To enter a new Basic Person, enter the Last, First, and Middle names. The first and last names are mandatory.
For Suffix, select a suffix for the member's name, if applicable. For example, Jr.
For Birth date, enter the member's birth date. You can select a date from the popup calendar.
For Gender, select the member's gender.
For Relationship, select the member's relationship to the Primary Applicant.
If the member purchases and prepares food with the Grantee, for Purchase and Prepare (P&P), select Yes. Otherwise, select No. Whenever you select someone from the Query List, you must re-select Yes or No for Purchase and Prepare (P&P).
For Status in HH, select the member's current status in the household. The status defaults to Present. If for Status in HH you selected Duplicate, click the Duplicate popup icon and select the duplicated member from the displayed list.
Click Save.
Click Next to save your entries or changes and go to the next page in the workflow, or
Click Finish to save your entries or changes and to exit the page and the workflow.