The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, (P.L. 104-193) allows States to create a Simplified Food Stamp Program (SFSP) for households whose members are receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Two of the greatest challenges for implementing the simplified program option will be, first, for States to understand the consequences of their proposed design and, second, for the Food and Nutrition Service to make cost neutrality and benefit impact determinations of the simplified program plans submitted by States.

The purpose of this study is to obtain the technical and statistical services needed to assist the Food and Nutrition Service in the provision of technical assistance, mostly in the form of microsimulation analyses, to users including:

• States interested in developing a simplified program so that they can understand the probable effects of choices they are making before they submit a proposed SFSP plan to the Food and Nutrition Service; and
• the Food Stamp Program (FSP) in assessing cost neutrality and benefit impacts of the proposed SFSP plans (or proposed SFSP demonstrations, if legislation is not enacted) submitted by States for Food and Nutrition Service approval.

Models will be updated and modified, as needed, to simulate the effects on recipient's food stamp benefits and total FSP benefit costs of alternate State designs for a SFSP. The effects of up to 40 SFSP designs for 8 different States will be simulated. A design is the equivalent to a set of program reforms. This project funds microsimulations and related analysis of alternative State-level changes to program options in the Simplified Food Stamp Programs. The analyses will evaluate the potential effects of various program options on program eligibility, participation, benefit levels, and costs. The cost of the project, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., is $88,389 in fiscal 1998. The project was completed in August, 2000.