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Information Collection: How States Safeguard SNAP Participant Personally Identifiable Information

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This is a new information collection.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest domestic nutrition assistance program in the United States, having served approximately 20.1 million low-income households in 2018, with $60.1 billion in benefits provided during that time. Section 11(e)(8) of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 requires that these millions of households must submit personally identifiable information (PII) in order to receive SNAP benefits.

PII includes information that directly identifies individuals, such as individuals' names and Social Security numbers, as well as information like home addresses, which can be used to deduce the identity of an individual. While State agencies (SAs) implement policies to safeguard SNAP PII, little is systematically known about the policies and practices that SAs have in place. Accordingly, FNS wants to assess the ways that States safeguard SNAP PII and identify best practices to protect such information.

Page updated: July 15, 2020