SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is one of the nation’s most effective tools in the fight against hunger, supporting more than 40 million Americans, including 1 in 5 children, in affording nutritious food.
This is particularly vital as families face rising food prices and higher inflation-related costs in housing and transportation. However, recent proposals to impose new work requirements on SNAP participants threaten to make it even harder for families to access this crucial support. It’s essential that Congress reject these harmful changes and work to protect and strengthen SNAP.
The Truth About SNAP Work Requirements
Most individuals are already subject to two existing sets of work requirements in order to receive SNAP benefits.
SNAP participants aged 16 to 59 must work or participate in a training program, unless they qualify for limited exceptions. These General Work Requirements mandate that participants must register for work and engage in a SNAP Employment and Training program as available in their state. They’re also expected to accept any suitable job offers that come their way and cannot voluntarily quit their job or reduce their hours below 30 per week unless they have a valid reason, like a health issue.
Then, there’s an additional stricter set of work requirements and time limits for what are considered able-bodied adults without dependents, or ABAWDs, who are ages 18 to 54, able to work and have no kids. For these individuals to receive more than three months of benefits within a three-year period, they must stay active in the workforce by either working or participating in a work program (or some combination of the two) for at least 80 hours a month.
The consequences for noncompliance with the general work requirements begin with losing eligibility for the next month of SNAP benefits. Subsequent sanctions can include loss of eligibility for a year. Sanctions for ABAWDs include losing eligibility after three months for the next three years.
In reality, SNAP work requirements are intended to lower all SNAP participation by limiting the amount of time individuals can receive food assistance, adding burdensome reporting requirements, and imposing significant consequences for a simple lack of paperwork.
The push for even stricter work requirements is based on outdated understandings of disabilities and work patterns, and are rooted in racial stereotypes about work ethics, causing disproportionate harm to Black families.
The current structure treats people as either completely unable to work or “able-bodied” with no work limitations. However, many of the so-called able-bodied adults without dependents are not actually able to work due to lack of housing and the existence of mental and physical limitations that aren’t formally documented.
Many individuals subjected to these burdensome requirements also have variable work hours and seasonal job changes that may cause them to fall under the required number of hours needed to document in order to receive SNAP benefits, even though they would like to work more.
The truth is there are already many obstacles for SNAP recipients to work, like a lack of stable housing, affordable childcare, adequate paid sick and family leave and access to transportation. This is especially true in rural areas where these challenges are particularly acute.
The Reality of Work in SNAP Households
The justification for work requirements rests on the assumption that people who receive SNAP benefits don’t work and must be forced to do so. This just isn’t true.
In reality, the majority of people on SNAP who can work are working. 85% of families receiving SNAP benefits had at least one person working in the past 12 months. For many of these families, however, wages are often low, and SNAP helps bridge the gap between their income and the rising costs of food and other basic necessities.
The issue isn’t that people aren’t working—it’s that the documentation requirements add more red tape and make it harder for families to get the help they need.
A good job is one of the best pathways out of poverty. Unfortunately, work restriction policies do nothing to make it easier for people to secure employment. Instead, they serve to limit access to SNAP and increase hunger. In fact, research shows that work requirements do little to help people get jobs and don’t increase the number of people working.
The myth that SNAP created dependency and disincentivized people from working also ignores factors beyond employment that drive economic mobility—income and wages, education, workforce development, among others.
Stricter work requirements that impose heavier reporting burdens and extend harsher time limits on more participants are not the solution. Families who benefit from SNAP need support and resources, not more red tape from Washington.
