Information Collection: Federal Collection Methods for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Recipient Claims

Summary

This is a reinstatement of an expired information collection request. FNA is still legally required to collect this data and thereby continuing to collect it in violation of the Paperwork Reduction Act. Section 13(b) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (the Act), as amended (7 USC 2022(b)), and SNAP regulations at 7 CFR 273.18 require state agencies to refer all delinquent SNAP debts to another federal government entity as third-party disclosure reporting to U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) for collection. The Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (DCIA) (PL 104-134), as amended by the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (PL 113-101), requires that these debts be referred to Treasury for collection when they are 120 days or more delinquent. The Treasury Offset Program (TOP), 31 CFR part 285, intercepts and offsets payments such as federal income tax refunds and federal salaries and applies the offset to the delinquent debt. The amount or percentage that can be offset from any payment type is set by.

Request for Comments

Comments regarding this information collection received by Dec. 7, 2026 will be considered. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of this notice on reginfo.gov.

Find this particular information collection by selecting "Currently under 30-day Review-Open for Public Comments" or by using the search function. An agency may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless the collection of information displays a currently valid OMB control number and the agency informs potential persons who are to respond to the collection of information that such persons are not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

Need and Use of the Information

The information is used to satisfy the requirements at Section 13(b) of the Act, as amended (7 USC 2022(b)), and SNAP regulations at 7 CFR 273.18, which requires state agencies to refer delinquent SNAP debts to Treasury for collection and notify debtors.

SNAP regulations at 7 CFR 273.18 require that state agencies establish, collect, and efficiently manage SNAP recipient claims within 120 days. Text at 7 CFR 273.18(n)(1) states that state agencies must submit debts to TOP when they are 180 days delinquent or more. However, DCIA updated this timeframe to require that eligible delinquent debts be referred to TOP within 120 days. While SNAP regulations have not yet been updated to reflect this change, states must comply with the 120-day timeframe. State agencies must submit files containing these delinquent debts to FNA weekly, which FNA then consolidates into one file and sends to Treasury each week.

The information collected under this request is used to assist:

1. State agencies to identify eligible debts to send to TOP, request addresses for TOP notices, send TOP notices to debtors, and give due process,
2. FNA forward files to Treasury for action and to provide federal-level due process, and to ensure that collections are received and applied to the appropriate debt,
3. Treasury to intercept federal payments and offset debts, and
4. Debtors receive, read, and respond to TOP notices.