You may be wondering if Social Security recipients or SNAP benefits qualify for the Prime Day deals. Amazon Prime does offer discounts if you are receiving SNAP/EBT benefits.
What are EBT/SNAP Benefits?
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest federal nutrition assistance program in the country. SNAP provides benefits to low-income individuals and families who are eligible via an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. This card can be used like a debit card to buy eligible food from authorized retail food stores.
How Do You Qualify For SNAP?
To qualify for SNAP benefits a household’s income and assets must meet certain criteria. The gross monthly income, which is the household income before any of the program’s deductions are applied, must be generally below 130 percent of the poverty line. For a family of three, the poverty line that is used to calculate SNAP benefits in the federal fiscal year of 2022 is $1,830 a month. This means 130% of the poverty line for a family of 3 is $2,379 a month, or around $28,550 a year.
The poverty level is higher for larger families and lower for smaller families. Assets need to be below certain limits so those households who don’t have a member who is elderly which is age 60 years or older or who has a disability are allowed to have assets of $2,500 or less, while households with such a member are allowed assets of $3,750 or less. To qualify for SNAP the calculation considers cash income from all sources which includes any earned income before the deduction of payroll taxes and unearned income, like cash assistance, Social Security, child support payments and unemployment insurance.
Assets are resources that a household could use to buy food, such as money available in bank accounts. Items that are not counted include the household’s home, personal property and retirement savings. Most autos aren’t counted either depending on the state.
If you are getting SNAP it could affect other benefits you may be receiving from the Social Security Administration (SSA). However, it is possible to qualify for SSI or SSDI while receiving SNAP benefits. In some states, an SSI application can also be an application for SNAP if the individual applicant is living alone.
Discounted Prime for Those on SNAP
Those who qualify for SNAP get 50% off Amazon Prime membership fees, which comes to $6.99 per month versus $14.99 per month.
What Does Prime Get You?
An Amazon Prime member gets some useful perks, such as either two-day, one-day, or same-day free delivery, as well as streaming, shopping and reading benefits. With an Amazon Prime Membership, you can get access to Amazon Prime Day Deals.
Prime members are also permitted to share their Prime benefits with one other adult at no extra cost, including free Amazon delivery, streaming access, free shipping at Shopbop and free upgraded shipping at Zappos. As well as shopping on Amazon, Prime members may buy groceries from Whole Foods, listen to audiobooks with Audible, subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, watch Amazon Video and use Amazon Echo speakers.
How to Sign Up For SNAP
- You should make sure you are signed in to your Amazon account or create one.
- Click here and “Add your SNAP EBT card”.
- You will be prompted to add your EBT card number.
- Click ‘continue’ and follow the instructions.
- Make sure you select your EBT as your method of payment for SNAP eligible items.
If you are receiving Social Security benefits, these Amazon discounts may help you to save time and money.
