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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A proposed change to Utah's food stamp rules would count income made by a household's undocumented members, meaning some families could get less help to buy food or none at all.
Until now, income made by undocumented members of a household hasn't been fully counted.
In the past, the Department of Workforce Services used a pro-rated estimate to determine the income of a family with mixed immigration status. That means a house with undocumented immigrant members might qualify for food stamps while a house with the same income and all U.S. citizens might not.
DWS Spokesman Curt Stewart says the new rule would make them look at the family's actual income, as they do with legal citizens.
"We are treating every household the same," Stewart said.
The practice of not fully counting undocumented household members' income "was the most simple and least error-prone to implement," Kathy Link, who oversees Utah's administration of its food stamp program, wrote in a memo.
The proposed change to fully count such earnings could affect nearly 8,000 households with undocumented members.
Some are questioning why two systems have been in place.
"This is a mystery to me and I am still in shock," said Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake City. "I want to do more review."
Officials with the Utah Department of Workforce Services said the system was developed because of a complicated process to determine eligibility for households with non-citizens that was required by an old computer system. They say a new computer-based eligibility system is coming online July 1.
The food stamp system provides low-income families with supplemental money each month for food in the form of federal dollars. Families qualify based on how much income they make.
The number of Utah households relying on food stamps reached a record high of nearly 100,000 in April.
Some advocates say now is not the time to cut benefits to needy families.
"So you're cutting benefits for thousands of families so you can cut off one or two who you feel are getting an unfair advantage?" asked Bill Tibbitts, of Crossroads Urban Center. "It's the old doing surgery with a chain saw."
Officials from the nonprofit Utahns Against Hunger plan to meet with state officials to review food stamp eligibility.
"Why is this the first food stamp policy change they choose to implement when there are other (options) that would help families qualify instead of make families ineligible?" said Gina Cornia, executive director of Utahns Against Hunger.
------ Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
