A Texas food stamp household whose only utility cost is a phone bill gets a smaller allowance than one that pays for electricity or gas. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission lists that figure as $64, in a Texas Works Handbook revision effective October 1, 2026.
The handbook calls it a “telephone standard deduction of $64” in its SNAP deductions list. SNAP is the federal program many people still call food stamps, and Texas runs it through HHSC.
Who lands on the $64 telephone figure
Texas sorts households into three tiers for utilities. Under Texas Administrative Code section 372.410, HHSC deducts a telephone allowance for households that have a telephone expense but do not qualify for the standard utility allowance or the basic utility allowance.
In plain terms, that describes a household with a phone bill and no utility cost that earns either larger allowance. The $64 is the amount the handbook sets for that tier, and it is the smallest of the three.
Where $64 sits among the three allowances
The same handbook list shows the two larger tiers: a standard utility allowance of $464 and a basic utility allowance of $417. A Texan on SNAP asking which one applies has a question for the caseworker, and the answer shows up on the household’s budget worksheet.
The handbook leaves the test for who gets which tier to its separate section on deductions, so the caseworker is the person to ask. A household that pays only for a phone and finds $464 on its budget, or one that pays for electricity and finds only $64, has a mismatch worth raising.
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A deduction, not a deposit
The $64 does not land on an EBT card. It is a standard amount the state subtracts from what a household counts for housing and utility costs when it works out the benefit. Texas rules do not accept the household’s actual phone bill in its place: HHSC “does not allow a deduction for actual utility expenses.”
A phone plan that costs $30 and one that costs $110 are treated the same way under the tier. The $64 figure sits in the formula next to a maximum excess shelter deduction of $769 and a standard medical expense of $170, minus $35.
What the phone-only rule leaves open
The handbook does not say how a caseworker confirms that a phone is the household’s only qualifying utility cost, and it does not describe a form. It also does not list the previous year’s telephone figure, so it does not show whether $64 is a change.
What the published pages do establish is the amount and the date: $64, for budgets worked under the revision effective October 1, 2026. A household that gets a notice with a different telephone figure can ask HHSC to explain it against the handbook.
How the phone figure fits the rest of the SNAP budget
The utility tier is one line in a longer calculation. The same handbook revision sets SNAP income limits for the October 1 start: for a one-person household, $1,729 gross at 130 percent of poverty and $1,330 net, with $2,195 shown in the column the handbook says also applies to categorically eligible households.
It also lists a homeless shelter standard deduction of $205.66. Each of these numbers is applied by the caseworker, not chosen by the household, which is why a wrong tier can sit unnoticed in a case file. The caseworker can tell a household which utility tier was applied to its case, and HHSC’s handbook is the reference for the amounts.
Is your Texas SNAP allowance right?
A Texas household that pays only for a phone can end up on a $64 allowance when its real costs fit a larger tier, or the other way around. Without the right tier, the SNAP budget can recognize $400 less in utility cost than it should, since the standard allowance is $400 higher than the telephone figure.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer includes a pack for each of 51 states and a renewal and reporting calendar. A Texas household can use the pack to see the state’s SNAP rules and the calendar to keep reporting dates from slipping.
Get the pack that sorts out SNAP allowances for a Texas household with only a phone bill →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
