FNS Documents & Resources

The categories of noncitizens eligible to participate in the Food Stamp Program under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 have been expanded to include the minor children, spouses and in some cases the parents and siblings of victims of severe trafficking.

This memorandum is to reiterate and clarify current policy governing intentional program violations as set forth in the Food Stamp Program regulations.

The following memo represents our position on the question of whether the head of household may be held responsible for an IPV when the household member that committed the IPV cannot be determined.

The head of household may not be held "automatically" responsible for trafficking the household's benefits if there is no direct evidence identifying him/her as the guilty party. However, OGC was also supportive of holding the head of household responsible when there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to show his/her complicity in the violative act.