A one-person household on SNAP, the program still widely called food stamps, can receive up to $496 a month in Hawaii this fiscal year. In urban Alaska the same household tops out at $392, and in the 48 states and Washington, D.C., the ceiling is $306. The U.S. Department of Agriculture set the figures for October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.
Three tables, three different ceilings
The department’s Food and Nutrition Service publishes a separate maximum allotment table for Hawaii, for Alaska and for the 48 states and D.C. For a single person the gaps are large. Hawaii’s $496 sits $190 above the $306 mainland maximum, and urban Alaska’s $392 sits $86 above it.
Two-person households show the same order. The ceiling is $910 a month in Hawaii, $718 in urban Alaska and $562 in the 48 states and D.C. That puts Hawaii $192 above urban Alaska and $348 above the mainland figure for a couple or a parent with one child.
The spread keeps widening with household size. A three-person Hawaii household can receive up to $1,307, against $1,032 in urban Alaska and $808 on the mainland. At four people the figures are $1,655, $1,306 and $1,023, so the Hawaii ceiling is $632 higher than the mainland one.
Rural Alaska runs higher than Hawaii
“Urban Alaska” is the department’s own label, and it matters. Alaska has three tables, and the two rural ones sit above Hawaii. A single person can receive up to $499 in the first rural zone and $608 in the second, compared with $496 in Hawaii.
The gap holds at larger sizes. In the second rural zone a two-person household tops out at $1,115 and a four-person household at $2,027. Anyone reading the $392 figure as Alaska’s number is looking only at the urban table, and the right zone depends on where the household lives.
What changed this year: Social Security and Medicare change every year, and nobody sends you a memo. The Retirement Money Brief breaks down what changed and what to do. Bonus when you subscribe: our SNAP Recertification & EBT Checklist.
Get the Brief and the SNAP checklist →
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
A ceiling is not the check that arrives
These are maximums. According to the department’s eligibility rules, the benefit equals the maximum allotment minus 30 percent of the household’s net monthly income, rounded up. A household with no net income receives the full amount, and every dollar of net income cuts the benefit by about 30 cents.
Take a single person with $500 in net monthly income. Thirty percent is $150, which leaves $156 on the mainland table and $346 on the Hawaii table. The example is arithmetic from the department’s formula, not a quoted benefit, but it shows why the same income can produce very different amounts by state.
There is also a floor. The department lists a $25 minimum monthly allotment for one- and two-person households in the 48 states and D.C. The minimums are $40 in Hawaii and $31 in urban Alaska, and they climb to $40 and $49 in the two rural Alaska zones.
Net income is what remains after deductions. The department lists a 20 percent deduction on earned income, a $217 standard deduction for households of one to three, dependent care costs and, in some states, legally owed child support. Shelter costs above half of adjusted income also come off.
Income tests and the rules around them
Most households must pass both a gross and a net income test. For the 48 states and D.C., gross income cannot exceed 130 percent of the poverty line, which is $1,729 a month for one person and $2,345 for two. Net income cannot exceed 100 percent of poverty, or $1,330 for one person and $1,804 for two. The department says Alaska and Hawaii have higher limits.
Households with an elderly or disabled member need to meet only the net income test. They can also deduct medical costs above $35 a month that insurance does not pay, and all shelter costs above half of income. For everyone else the shelter deduction is capped at $769.
Savings count too. The general limit is $3,000 in countable resources, rising to $4,750 when a household member is 60 or older or disabled. The home and most retirement and pension plans are excluded, and many states use broader rules that allow higher limits.
Work rules can end a benefit at any maximum
Able-bodied adults without dependents must work or join a work program at least 20 hours a week to keep benefits beyond three months in a 36-month period. Exempt groups include children, seniors, veterans, people experiencing homelessness and pregnant women. A high maximum does nothing for a household that loses eligibility under that clock.
The department also says the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 changes some eligibility factors, including work requirements and noncitizen eligibility, and that its page is being updated to reflect them. The Food and Nutrition Service’s SNAP page links to each state agency, which sets the final answer on a household’s table, income and reporting dates.
For a household in Hawaii or Alaska, then, two questions sit behind the headline number. One is whether the table in use matches the address, since rural Alaska is not urban Alaska. The other is whether a work-rule clock or a reporting date is running that could close the case before the maximum matters.
Living in Hawaii or Alaska and planning around the table?
A household that budgets from the wrong table, or misses a renewal or reporting date, can see the benefit cut or closed whatever the maximum says. The table answers how much a household could get; keeping the benefit is a separate job of dates and paperwork.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer includes 51 state packs, a renewal document checklist and a renewal and reporting calendar. It also lays out the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt, so a household can see its own state’s dates in one place.
See the 51 state SNAP packs in the renewal organizer →
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 21 Ways Retirees Can Raise $1,000 Fast Without a Job
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
