WAC 388-412-0015 General information about your Basic Food allotments.

1. Your monthly Basic Food benefit is called an allotment. An allotment is the total dollar value of benefits your eligible assistance unit (AU) gets for a calendar month. 

2. You cannot receive the same type of benefits in:

   1. Two states in the same month;

   2. Two AUs in the same month; unless,

   3. You left the AU to live in a shelter for battered women and children. See WAC 388-408-0045.

3. If your AU does not have any countable net income, you get the maximum allotment for the number of eligible people in your AU.  See WAC 388-478-0060 for the maximum allotments.

4. If your AU has countable net income under WAC 388-450-0162, we calculate your allotment by:

   1. Multiplying your AU's countable net monthly income by thirty percent;

   2. Rounding this amount up to the next whole dollar; and

   3. Subtracting the results from the maximum allotment.

5. If we determine you are eligible for Basic Food, your first month’s benefits are from the date you applied for benefits through the end of the month of your application.  If there was a delay in processing your application, we determine when your benefits start under WAC 388-406-0055. This is called proration and is based on a thirty-day month.

6. If you apply for benefits on or after the sixteenth of the month, and we determine you are eligible for Basic Food, we issue both your first and second months benefits in one allotment  if you are eligible for both months.

7. If your prorated benefits for the first month are under ten dollars, you will not receive an allotment for the first month.

8. If your AU has one or two members, your monthly allotment will be at least ten dollars unless:

   1. It is the first month of your certification period;

   2. Your AU is eligible for only a partial month; and

   3. We reduced your first month’s allotment below ten dollars based on the date you became eligible for Basic Food under WAC 388-406-0055.