South Carolina SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps, provides financial aid to low-income families so that they can meet their food requirements. The program assists eligible households so that they can buy nutrition food that will help in growth and healthy development of children.

The program gives an opportunity to kids to perform better at school. Adults will be more productive at work while improving their job skills and living a healthy life. Since most low-income households can't afford diet needed for healthy growth, SNAP comes in to help.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides Food Stamps to families as well individuals living in South Carolina. The program also offers these benefits to homeless people. SNAP benefits are also available to people receiving other social benefits or have regular income from other sources such as retirement pension. The benefits are available to people of all ages irrespective of color, race or other discriminating factor.

For the purpose of SNAP benefits, a household doesn't only mean that people living together have any blood relation. People buying and preparing meals together will count as one household. This is specifically important for calculating household income at the time of determining eligibility for Food Stamps in South Carolina.

South Carolina SNAP (Food Stamps) may not cover a household's entire food requirements but it does provide significant help. With higher purchasing power, households can buy nutrition food with SNAP benefits even if their household income doesn't permit that.

Families can buy almost anything that count as food. From bread to seeds, households can buy food items from permitted category. Hot foods, foods meant to be consumed in the store, prepared meals, and non-food items can't be bought with SNAP benefits. Similarly, liquor, beer, vine, and cigarettes are non-permitted items. Buying household items, medicines or vitamins is also not allowed with SNAP benefits.

All benefits for South Carolina Food Stamps (SNAP) are provided through an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card. The card is similar to a plastic debit card and works just like that. You can use your card to buy food from stores where SNAP EBT is accepted. The benefits are loaded into your SNAP EBT card every month at a specific date. The card is secured through a personal identification number (PIN).

Eligibility Requirements

South Carolina SNAP is for low-income families living in South Carolina. The program requires applicants to meet certain program requirements:

• Be a U.S citizen or a qualified alien
• Be a resident of South Carolina
• Household income must be below income limit
• Household resources must be within resource limit for the program

Resource Requirements

South Carolina SNAP (Food Stamps) requires households to have resources within certain limits to receive SNAP benefits.

• For households with a person over 60 years of age or a person with disability, the limit is set at $3,000.
• For regular households, the resources limit is set at $2,000.

Income Eligibility

Households in South Carolina looking to receive SNAP Food Stamps benefits will also have to qualify income eligibility. A household is allowed to have gross income under certain limits. The limit varies with number of people living in the household. Here is a chart to help you determine whether your household income meets the requirements or not.

In order to determine your eligibility for South Carolina SNAP (Food Benefits), you can use pre-screening tool by clicking here. You should be able to quickly find out whether you're eligible for the program or not.

Food Stamps Application Instructions

To apply for SNAP (Food Stamps) in South Carolina, you have the following options:

Apply Online

You can apply online for SNAP benefits in South Carolina. To apply online, click here.

Apply via Mail/Fax

You can apply for SNAP benefits through mail. You will first need to download application. You can download English version by clicking here, or the Spanish version by clicking here. Complete the application and mail it to your country DSS office. You can find mailing address, phone number, and driving instructions for your county DSS office by clicking here. You will also find fax address for the office so that you can send application through fax instead of mailing it to DSS office.

Apply in Person

You can also apply in person for South Carolina SNAP (Food Stamps) by printing SNAP application and taking to your local DSS office in person.

When your application is approved, you will be given an appointment for interview with HSS representative. To speed up processing, make sure that you take all the necessary paperwork with you. You can find a list of necessary papers to take by clicking here.