California has a different system for treating Supplementary Security Income/State Supplementary Payment recipients. In California, these recipients may not receive Food Stamp benefits since they receive a monetary allowance for food. The methodology we used in the NPP report Half of Low-Income People Not Receiving Food Stamps assumes that 80 percent of all SSI/SSP recipients would have applied for and received Food Stamps. However, if we remove these recipients from the denominator and numerator - in other words, not count them as low-income nor count any of them as Food Stamp recipients - the percentage of low-income people in California receiving Food Stamps changes considerably. California, while below the national average at 44.2 percent (rank 14) with our original methodology, becomes 36.5 percent, ranked number 4.

The table below presents an alternative ranking of states when changing the methodology for California.

Alternative to Appendix 4: Percentage of Low-Income People Receiving Food Stamp Benefits in 2004 by State. (Alternative methodology of not including any SSI/SSP recipients in California.)