Benefit Food stamp households with an elderly or disabled member only have to pass the net income test By Daniel Harper, A food-stamp household with someone who is elderly or disabled clears eligibility under a shorter income test than everyone else who applies: only the net income limit, not the gross-and-net combination most applicants must pass, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s SNAP eligibility page, last updated August 28, 2026. The distinction is not new, but it anchors several other differences in the same program, from a larger asset limit to a medical-expense deduction unavailable to any other household type, each tied to the same age-or-disability status. One income test, not two Most SNAP applicants must satisfy both a gross income limit, set at 130 percent of the federal poverty line, and a stricter net income limit, set at 100 percent, calculated after deductions. The USDA’s eligibility page states plainly that “a household with an elderly or disabled person only has to meet the net income limit,” skipping the gross test entirely regardless of how much the household earns before deductions. The distinction matters most for households with income concentrated before deductions apply. A household that would fail the 130 percent gross test on paper can still qualify once medical expenses, shelter costs and other deductions bring its net figure under the 100 percent line, an outcome only available to a household that does not have to clear the gross hurdle at all. A household without an elderly or disabled member facing the identical net figure would still be screened out at the gross-income step, before any deduction is even calculated.