Asset testing will begin May 1.
In December, the DPW sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the food-stamp program, asserting that it would institute an asset limit of $2,000 for people under 60 and $3,250 for those who are older.
After The Inquirer reported on the letter, newspapers, the Internet, and other media erupted with outrage. Mayor Nutter assailed asset testing as "asinine" and Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture, criticized the asset test as a costly policy that would not save the commonwealth any money.
DPW spokeswoman Anne Bale said Wednesday that the asset-limit increase had nothing to do with the storm of protest her agency and the governor encountered.
"We made the adjustment because of inflation and the cost of living," Bale said, adding that the administration consulted with the USDA before making the change in the food-stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Pennsylvania had an asset test as recently as 2008, then scrapped it. It was deemed unfair both to seniors who were saving for their burials, and to the newly unemployed who may have had modest bank accounts but were being ravaged by the recession.
Reinstating the asset test, DPW Secretary Gary Alexander said in a statement Wednesday, "is an important first step toward preserving limited taxpayer resources for the truly needy. The asset test ensures every public dollar we have goes directly to those who need it most."
The administration has said the test is vital to weeding out waste, fraud, and abuse, although it acknowledges that rates of fraud are low in the Pennsylvania SNAP program, which the USDA lauds as well-run.
Under federal law, the DPW has the right to administer an asset test.
Regardless of how high the asset level is, the test is unnecessary and harmful, critics of asset testing charge.
