Didn't Report Your Husband's or Boyfriend's Income on SNAP or Medicaid? What HRA Counts as Your Household

You applied for SNAP (food stamps) or Medicaid in New York City as a mother with children. You did not list the man who lives with you, or you did not list his income. Now a letter has arrived from the Human Resources Administration's Bureau of Fraud Investigation (BFI) asking you to come in for an interview and bring documents. This page explains the one question that decides most of these cases: under federal and New York rules, does this man count as part of your household? The answer depends on whether he is your husband, the father of your children, or neither, and it is different for SNAP than it is for Medicaid.

Reviewed by Albert Goodwin, Esq., Law Offices of Albert Goodwin, New York, NY. The income figures on this page are the federal SNAP standards in effect from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025.

This page covers household composition only. For the penalty ladder and what happens at a first-offense case, see first-offense food stamp fraud in New York. For the hearing itself, see administrative disqualification hearings before HRA. If you told HRA you and your husband were separated when you were not, see claiming separation on a SNAP or Medicaid application.

The SNAP Household Rule: Who Must Be Counted

SNAP does not use a family-law definition of household. The federal rule is at 7 CFR 273.1, and New York adopts it in 18 NYCRR 387.1. There are two layers.

The general rule (7 CFR 273.1(a)) asks who lives together and customarily purchases food and prepares meals together. People who live under one roof but buy and cook their food separately can be separate SNAP households.

The mandatory rule (7 CFR 273.1(b)) overrides the general rule for certain relationships. These people must be in the same SNAP household even if they swear they buy and cook separately:

• Spouses who live together. A married couple under one roof is always one SNAP household. Separate shopping, separate shelves in the refrigerator, and separate floors of the house do not matter.
• A child under 22 living with a parent. A person under 22 who lives with a natural, adoptive, or step-parent must be in that parent's household. Because your children must be in your household, and must also be in their father's household if he lives there, you and the father end up in one household together.
• A child under 18 under the parental control of an adult in the household.

The word "spouse" is also broader than you may expect. Under 7 CFR 271.2, a spouse is either someone you are legally married to or someone you live with while holding yourselves out to the community as husband and wife. If your boyfriend is on the lease as your husband, is introduced to neighbors as your husband, or is listed that way on school forms, HRA will treat him as your spouse for SNAP.

SNAP Adds Up Everyone's Income

A common misunderstanding needs correcting. SNAP does not look at each person's income and expenses separately. Once a person is a household member, all of his countable income is added to the household total, the household size goes up by one, and the household is tested against the income limit for the larger size. The only question is whether the combined figure still falls under the limit. It often does, and that is the subject of the worked example below.

Medicaid Uses a Different Household Rule

For most parents and children, New York Medicaid eligibility is based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). The MAGI household rule is at 42 CFR 435.603(f) and follows federal tax filing, not who eats dinner together.

• If you file taxes: your Medicaid household is you, your spouse if you live together, and anyone you claim as a dependent.
• If you do not file: your household is you, your spouse if you live together, and your children under 19 who live with you.
• For a child: the child's household is the tax filer who claims the child, or, if no one claims the child, the child plus the parents and siblings living with the child.
• Spouses who live together are always in each other's Medicaid household regardless of how they file.

The practical result: a boyfriend who is not your husband, is not the children's father, and does not claim you or the children on his tax return is not in your Medicaid household and his income does not count toward your Medicaid eligibility. The same man may still be in your SNAP household if you buy and prepare food together. A letter that accuses you of hiding his income for both programs may be right about one and wrong about the other.

Three Fact Patterns, Three Different Answers

1. You are married and your husband lives in the home

SNAP: he is a mandatory household member under 7 CFR 273.1(b)(1)(i). His income counts in full. There is no defense based on separate meals or separate rooms.

Medicaid: he is in your MAGI household and in the children's household. His income counts.

HRA's position in these cases is strong on the household question. The case usually turns on two other issues: whether his income would have left the household eligible for a reduced benefit (which cuts the overpayment), and whether the omission was an inadvertent household error or an intentional program violation. Evidence that you filed a joint tax return at the same address, or that he listed the children as dependents at your address, is what HRA relies on most.

2. You are not married, but he is the father of your children

SNAP: your children must be in your household, and they must also be in his household because he is their parent and they are under 22 (7 CFR 273.1(b)(1)(ii)). The three cannot be split, so you and he are one SNAP household. His income counts.

Medicaid: his household depends on tax filing. If he claims the children, the children's Medicaid household is his tax household and his income counts toward their eligibility. If no one claims the children, the non-filer rule puts the children with both parents who live with them, and his income still counts for the children. For your own Medicaid, he is not in your household unless he is your spouse or claims you as a dependent.

The main factual defense is that he did not actually live in the home during the months at issue. HRA will test that against his driver's license address, DMV registration, employer records, bank statements, and any tax return listing your address. A genuine separate residence with his own lease and utility accounts in his name is the kind of evidence that can carry this defense.

3. You are not married and he is not the father of your children

SNAP: he is not a mandatory member. He is in your household only if you live together and customarily buy and prepare food together (7 CFR 273.1(a)), or if you hold yourselves out as married (7 CFR 271.2). A boyfriend who pays his own way, keeps his own groceries, and does not present himself as your husband can be a separate SNAP household in the same apartment.

Medicaid: he is not in your MAGI household and not in the children's household. His income does not count.

HRA often presumes shared meals from shared living. The defense is factual: separate grocery purchases on his own debit card, his own food in the home, and a consistent account from both of you. If he gave you cash toward the bills, that cash is countable unearned income to your household and should have been reported. If he paid the landlord or Con Edison directly in his own name, those are vendor payments excluded from your income under 7 CFR 273.9(c)(1). The difference between the two matters to the overpayment calculation.

Worked Example: Did His Income Actually End Your Eligibility?

This is the most useful defense in a household-composition case, because HRA's initial claim is often calculated as if the household received nothing it was entitled to. The correct method is to re-budget the household with the man and his income included and recover only the difference.

Federal SNAP income standards for October 2024 through September 2025 (48 states and D.C.):

• Household of 2: gross limit $2,215 (130% of poverty); net limit $1,704; maximum benefit $536.
• Household of 3: gross limit $2,798; net limit $2,152; maximum benefit $768.
• Household of 4: gross limit $3,380; net limit $2,600; maximum benefit $975.
• Household of 5: gross limit $3,963; net limit $3,049; maximum benefit $1,158.

New York uses broad-based categorical eligibility, so a household with earned income may qualify with gross income up to 200% of poverty (for a household of 4, about $5,200 a month) and the benefit is then computed from net income. HRA's budget worksheet may show slightly different figures from those below.

Assume a mother, two children, and a husband earning $3,000 gross per month. The application listed a household of 3 with no income, so the household received the maximum $768 each month.

• Correct household size: 4. Gross income $3,000, under the $3,380 limit, so the household was still eligible.
• Earned income deduction (20%): $3,000 − $600 = $2,400.
• Standard deduction for a household of 4: $2,400 − $217 = $2,183.
• Shelter costs of $2,500 (rent plus the standard utility allowance). Excess shelter is the amount above half of $2,183, which is more than the $712 cap, so the deduction is $712. Net income: $2,183 − $712 = $1,471.
• Benefit: $975 − (30% × $1,471 = $441) = about $533 per month.
• Monthly overpayment: $768 − $533 = $235, not $768.

Over a 24-month period that is roughly $5,640, rather than the $18,432 HRA might claim if it treated the household as wholly ineligible. The dollar figure also matters for the criminal exposure, since the degree of welfare fraud under Penal Law Article 158 is set by the amount wrongfully obtained.

Change the facts to a husband earning $5,500 gross and the household of 4 is above even the 200% gross standard. In that case the household was not eligible at all, and the defense shifts to intent and the length of the recovery period.

What You Were Required to Report, and When

At application and at every recertification, you must list every person who lives in the home and answer the questions about who buys and prepares food with you. Those answers are made under penalty of perjury. Most New York SNAP households are on simplified reporting, which means that between recertifications you must report within ten days after the end of any month in which gross household income rises above 130% of poverty for your household size (7 CFR 273.12(a)(5)). Households on change reporting must report a new member or new income within ten days of the change.

An omission can be classified two ways. An inadvertent household error (IHE) results in an overpayment claim but no disqualification. An intentional program violation (IPV) under 7 CFR 273.16(c) requires HRA to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that you intentionally made a false statement or concealed facts to obtain benefits. For an IPV, HRA can calculate the overpayment back to the month the violation began, up to six years before the agency discovered it (7 CFR 273.18(c)). For an IHE, the claim generally reaches back no more than twelve months before discovery.

The BFI Letter and Interview

The letter usually comes from HRA's Bureau of Fraud Investigation after a data match. The most frequent triggers in household-composition cases are a New York State tax return or federal return showing the man at your address with your children as dependents, Department of Labor wage records tied to your address, and DMV records. A complaint from a neighbor or former partner is another common source. Investigators may also visit the home.

The letter asks you to appear at an HRA office on a stated date and to bring documents, typically photo identification, the lease, utility bills, bank statements, pay stubs for everyone in the home, and school or daycare records for the children. The interview is voluntary. You are not required to attend, and the investigator is not a hearing officer. If you do not attend, HRA may close the file, refer the matter for an administrative disqualification hearing, or refer it to the District Attorney. If you do attend, anything you say and every document you hand over can be used against you in the hearing and in a criminal case.

Before the interview you should know the answer to the household question for your facts. A mother in fact pattern 3 who walks in and says "he lives with me and we eat together" has just supplied the element HRA needed. A mother in fact pattern 1 who denies that her husband lives there, against his tax return and license, has made an IHE into an IPV. We prepare clients for this interview, attend with them when attending makes sense, and decline the interview and respond in writing when it does not.

If HRA concludes there was an IPV, it will either offer a waiver of the hearing (a signed admission with a disqualification period) or send a notice of administrative disqualification hearing at least 30 days before the hearing date (7 CFR 273.16(e)(3); 18 NYCRR Part 359). The disqualification periods are 12 months for a first IPV, 24 months for a second, and permanent for a third (7 CFR 273.16(b)). Disqualification applies only to the person who committed the violation. Your children remain eligible, but your income and the disqualified member's income continue to count in their budget (7 CFR 273.11(c)). Do not sign a waiver until an attorney has reviewed the household analysis above against your facts; signing it concedes the IPV and starts the disqualification clock. Details on the hearing process are on our administrative disqualification hearing page, and the full consequences of a first finding are on our first-offense food stamp fraud page. Retailers and store owners facing USDA charges should see defense of USDA SNAP retailer violations, which is a separate process.

Documents That Help in a Household-Composition Case

• His lease, rent receipts, or mortgage statements for a separate address, with utility accounts in his name there.
• His tax returns for the years at issue, showing his filing status, address, and whether he claimed the children.
• Your tax returns, to establish your own MAGI household for the Medicaid side of the case.
• Bank and debit card statements showing who paid for groceries, and whether he paid you in cash or paid the landlord and utilities directly.
• Pay stubs and W-2s for every month at issue, so the overpayment can be re-budgeted month by month rather than estimated.
• The original application and recertification forms, to see exactly what was asked and exactly what you answered.

Frequently Asked Questions

My husband lives with us but we keep our food completely separate. Can he be excluded from SNAP?

No. Spouses who live together are one SNAP household under 7 CFR 273.1(b)(1)(i) no matter how food is bought or cooked. The separate-food rule applies only to people who are not spouses, not the parent of a child in the home, and not holding themselves out as married.

My boyfriend is not my children's father and we are not married. Was I required to report his income?

For Medicaid under MAGI, no, unless he claimed you or the children on his tax return. For SNAP, it depends on whether you customarily buy and prepare food together and whether you present yourselves as husband and wife. If you do either, he is a household member and his income counts. If he gave you cash toward expenses, that cash was reportable income even if he was not a member.

If his income is added, would we still have qualified?

Often yes, at a lower amount. A household of 4 with gross income under $3,380 a month (and in New York, with earned income, up to about $5,200) is still eligible, and the overpayment is only the difference between what you received and what the correct budget would have paid. See the worked example above.

Do I have to go to the HRA Bureau of Fraud Investigation interview?

No. It is voluntary. Not attending may lead HRA to proceed on the records it has. Attending without preparation can turn a defensible case into an admission. Speak with an attorney before the date on the letter.

Will my children lose their benefits if I am disqualified?

No. An IPV disqualification applies only to the person found to have committed it. The children remain eligible as a household, though the disqualified parent's income is still counted in their budget.

Can HRA go back more than a year?

For an inadvertent household error, the claim generally covers up to twelve months before HRA discovered the overpayment. For an intentional program violation, HRA may go back to when the violation began, up to six years.

Is Medicaid handled by the same investigators?

HRA's Bureau of Fraud Investigation investigates both programs, and the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General also reviews Medicaid recipient fraud. The letter may cite both programs even though the household rules differ. Each program has to be analyzed under its own rule.

Speak With an Attorney Before the Interview Date

The Law Offices of Albert Goodwin represents SNAP and Medicaid recipients in HRA fraud investigations, administrative disqualification hearings, and related criminal referrals in all five boroughs. We can review your application, your partner's records, and HRA's overpayment figures against the household rules on this page and advise you before you speak to the investigator. Our office is in Midtown Manhattan. Call 212-233-1233 or email email@nyestateslawyer.com.