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Exclude the value of ABLE accounts.

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Exclude Agent Orange payments to veterans and their dependents.

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Exclude AmeriCorps VISTA (formerly known as VISTA) payments to volunteers (not permanent staff salaries) if the volunteers were MFIP, SSI, or SNAP participants before they joined VISTA.

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Exclude any assets which if sold would have a profit of $1,500 or less. This exclusion does not apply to liquid assets, stocks, bonds or other money exchange accounts.

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Exclude payments from a crime victim compensation program that is funded under the Victims of Crime Act of 1984.

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Exclude any governmental payment designated to restore a home damaged in a disaster if the SNAP unit is subject to a legal sanction if the funds are not used as intended. This may include assistance payments from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

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Exclude any payments to farmers for a farm emergency caused by a natural disaster. The USDA determines if a farm emergency exists.

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Exclude funds in a qualified tuition program described in section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or in a Coverdell Education Savings Account under section 530 of the Internal Revenue Code. Examples are the Minnesota 529 College Savings Plan (MNSAVES), other states’ 529 plans, and Coverdell accounts. A regular account that does not receive tax-preferred treatment is not excluded even if the account will be used for education purposes.

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Exclude Energy Assistance Program payments

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Federal tax refunds including earned income tax credits are excluded for 12 months following the month the refund is received. NOTE: The exclusion ends if there is a break in participation of more than one month.

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Exclude the value of one funeral arrangement such as a burial trust, burial plot, or funeral contract per unit member.

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Exclude the value of store-specific gift cards.

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Exclude the value of household goods and personal items. This many include items such as but not limited to furniture, clothing, jewelry, electronics, etc.

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Do not count assets that are inaccessible to the unit. Examples of inaccessible assets include:

• Security deposits on rental property or utilities.
• Property in probate.
• Real property that the unit is trying to sell at a reasonable price but is still unsold.
• Assets of a person who lives in a shelter for battered women and children if access depends on the agreement of a joint owner who still lives in the abuser’s household.
• Exclude escrow accounts and the interest earned on an escrow account established by HUD Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program while the funds are not accessible to the unit.

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Exclude funds in an IDA account. This may include but is not limited to IDA accounts from the Statewide IDA Program, Family Assets for Independence in Minnesota (FAIM) or other IDA accounts from local community agencies

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Exclude Initial Refugee Resettlement Fund payments

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Exclude the value of installment contracts for property sold at a price consistent with its fair market value such as a contract for deed. For Fair market value definition see 0002.23 (Glossary: Fair Hearing…).

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Exclude the cash value of any life insurance policies.

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Exclude the value of nonliquid assets with liens, if the lien is a result of taking out a business loan and the security or lien agreement with the lender does not allow the unit to sell the asset until the loan is paid in full. 

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Exclude the following assets:

• Payments made to certain United States citizens of Japanese ancestry, resident Japanese aliens, and certain Aleuts under (Public Law 100-383).  
• Payments made for children who suffer from birth defects and whose mothers are Vietnam veterans (Public Law 106-419).
• Payments made to people because of their status as victims of Nazi persecution (Public Law 103-286).

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Exclude the money or payment, also known as “Gate Money”, received when released from a penal institution.

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Exclude all pension plans when the funds were contributed by the employer or the employee. Exclude the funds as long as they remain in a pension plan, even if accessible, regardless of whether the person is still employed. Also exclude retirement accounts.

• Excluded pension plans and retirement accounts may include (but not limited to):
• 401(k) plans
• 403(a) plans
• 403(b) plans
• Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), including Roth IRAs
• Keogh plans
• Deferred compensation plans

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Exclude property necessary for the employment or self-employment of a unit member including property for farming.

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Exclude payments made under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (Public Law 101-425).

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Exclude the home the unit lives in and the surrounding property. This exclusion also applies when the unit intends to return but is temporarily away from home because of:

• Employment.
• Training for future employment.
• Illness.
• Conditions that made the home and lot uninhabitable due to a casualty or natural disaster.

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For the purposes of this exclusion, “surrounding property” is property that the house is on and all other property that is not separated by property owned by someone else. If the unit’s property is separated by a public road or other right-of-way, exclude the unit’s property that lies on both sides of the public road or right-of-way.

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Exclude the value of a partially completed home, unless the unit owns or is buying a home elsewhere. Exclude only one home at a time, unless the additional home meets another exclusion.

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Exclude the value of a lot upon which the unit is planning to build, if the unit does not already own or is purchasing a home.

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A unit may own two houses that are located on contiguous property. Unless the second home is excluded under another policy in this chapter, exclude only the home the unit lives in and all surrounding property that is not separated from the home by property owned by others.

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Buildings, other than homes, on contiguous property are excluded even if they could be rented.

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Exclude as an asset any excluded tribal payments listed in 0017.15.09 (Income From Tribal Payments).

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Exclude trust funds and income from trust funds if they are not accessible to the unit.

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To be considered inaccessible the trust must meet one of the following:

• The trust arrangement is not likely to cease during the certification period, and no unit member has the power to revoke the trust arrangement or change the name of the beneficiary during the certification period.
• The trustee administering the funds is either:
• A court, institution, corporation, or organization under neither the direction nor ownership of any unit member
• Someone, not in the food unit, appointed by a court with court-imposed limits on their use of the trust's funds.
• Trust investments must not directly involve or help any business or corporation under the control, direction, or influence of a unit member.
• Be an Irrevocable trust when it is either:
• Established with funds from a non-SNAP unit member by a non-SNAP unit member

• OR

• Established from the SNAP unit’s own funds if the trustee uses the funds solely to:
• Make investments on behalf of the trust, or
• Pay educational or medical expenses for anyone named by the SNAP unit creating the trust

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Exclude reimbursements from the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policy Act of 1970.

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Exclude the value of US Savings Bonds that cannot be cashed in. For bonds that can be cashed, count as an asset the amount the bond is worth at the time assets are being determined, not the face value of the bond.

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Exclude benefits from the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) nutrition program.