Notification of Acceptance or Denial
Whether a SNAP application is accepted or denied, the SNAP office must send a notice informing the applicant of its decision within 30 calendar days of the application filing date.
If the SNAP office decides that the applicant qualifies for SNAP, the notice of acceptance must:
- State how much the household’s SNAP benefit will be
- Include the start and end dates of the certification period
If the SNAP office denies the application, the notice of denial must explain the reason for the denial.
All notices must also include the following information:
- Phone number of the SNAP office
- The name of someone at the SNAP office the applicant can call with questions, if possible
- Information about the right to a conference and/or a fair hearing
- How to get free legal aid
New York State uses an automated computer notice system for most notices. These notices include information about how the budget was calculated, so if there are any mistakes, they can be identified and mediated with the SNAP office.
Reference Documents
Notice of Pending Application
When an application is delayed beyond 30 days and the fault lies with the SNAP office, a “Notice of Pending Application” will be created and sent to inform applicants that there has been a delay in application processing and that the application is still pending. Applications cannot be denied when the pending application is beyond 30 days and it is due to the fault of the SNAP office.
See Timeliness earlier in this section for further details.
