Loans
Information on this page refers to the Nutrition Assistance program Information on this page refers to the Cash Assistance program
This section is about personal loans and commercial loans.
Policy
Loans from private persons and commercial institutions are considered unearned income and are not countable. Loans are not required to be legally binding agreements.
NOTE For educational loans, see Educational Income for the correct policy.
Loan payments received to pay off a loan previously provided by the budgetary unit are considered a resource. See Loan – Resources for more information about loan payments are considered a resource.
Any portion of a loan payment received by the budgetary unit is considered an interest payment. For more information, See Interest Payments.
Countable income is used to determine an income budget. (See Income Budgeting to see how FAA determines the income budget.) FAA needs to know about income that is both countable and not countable to determine whether a budgetary unit’s income is exceeding their expenses. (See Income Eligibility for more information about how FAA uses countable and not countable income.)
Verification
The participant has the primary responsibility for providing verification. (See Participant Responsibilities – Providing Verification for additional policy.)
For NA, all of the following income is required to be verified before eligibility is determined:
Reported on a new application, during the interview of a new application, or changes reported before the eligibility determination of a new application.
Changes after an eligibility determination of a new application (e.g., a renewal application, mid approval contact, etc.) and any of the following apply:
The source of the income has changed.
The income is questionable(g) or unclear(g).
The reported income amount has changed by $51 or more.
The previous verification in the case file is more than 59 calendar days old.
For CA, all income is required to be verified before determining eligibility.
Examples of verification that can be used for loans include, and are not limited to, any of the following:
The lender
Bank records
Court records or court orders
Federal or state tax forms
Contracts
Statement from the agency or payer providing the income
Participant statement verification can be used when obtaining documented or collateral contact verification may cause harm or undue hardship(g) for the participant or when all of the following occur:
Attempts to obtain the verification from an acceptable source are unsuccessful. This includes documented and collateral contact verification.
The participant’s statement is not questionable(g).
Legal Authorities
last revised 10/02/2023