New Work Requirements for SNAP Benefits Could Hurt Families

Sweeping changes are coming to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which could affect tens of millions of people in the United States. The SNAP program helps needy families, older adults, and people with disabilities afford nutritious food essential to health and well-being. In an average month in 2024, SNAP assisted more than 41 million people.

More of those people will be required to work to be eligible for SNAP, according to provisions in the federal budget reconciliation bill signed into law by President Donald J. Trump on the 4^th of July. Right now, SNAP recipients between the ages of 18 and 54 must meet certain monthly work requirements, and the new bill expands this group to people up to age 64.

Meanwhile, states with high rates of erroneous SNAP payments would, for the first time, be responsible for some of the benefit’s costs. Proponents say the change will compel states to reduce fraud and program abuse. Opponents say the change increases the chances that states will further restrict SNAP eligibility or withdraw from the program entirely, putting individuals and families at risk.

Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) Professor Dr. Chima D. Ndumele, PhD, MPH, chair of the YSPH Department of Health Policy and Management, is an expert on federal and state assistance programs such as SNAP and Medicaid. He spoke with Colin Poitras.

Dr. Chima Ndumele: Work requirements are a controversial feature of assistance programs like SNAP that require beneficiaries to engage in gainful employment or job training in order to maintain benefits. In theory, they are designed to combat any disincentives to work among able-bodied individuals who “choose” not to work. In practice, research shows that older and sicker populations are significantly more likely to lose coverage due to work requirements than younger, healthier counterparts. For example, we have found that a beneficiary aged 40-49 with multiple chronic conditions is more than five times more likely to lose SNAP coverage due to work requirements than a beneficiary aged 20-29 with no chronic conditions. This is consistent with a growing body of work demonstrating that poor health is often an impediment to obtaining and sustaining work. And our research has found that work requirements often result in the neediest individuals being denied benefits.

The second challenge with work requirements is the reporting itself. Previous estimates indicate that more than half of SNAP and Medicaid beneficiaries are working. We have found that a substantial number of beneficiaries who are working and otherwise in compliance with the intended spirit of work requirement statutes still lose coverage due to difficulty complying with the new reporting systems. This includes individuals who are not aware of the policy and those who have difficulty navigating systems to accurately report their incomes. The reporting requirements are as much of a hurdle as finding work for many populations.

This is all very troubling in light of the new work requirements in the approved budget bill. The budget calls for an expansion of SNAP work requirements for older populations and the mandatory use of work requirements in the Medicaid program. Our studies have found that about 25 percent of beneficiaries targeted by work requirements lose coverage, with estimates increasing as beneficiaries get older. This accounts for a significant portion of the 12 million individuals who are expected to lose health insurance coverage as a result of the budget bill.

CN: Evidence suggests that most individuals who lose coverage due to work requirements will not return to the program in the short or intermediate term even if they meet all of the requirements. For example, we have foundthat when SNAP work requirements were reimplemented in Connecticut following the Great Recession, only 23% of people who lost SNAP benefits regained those benefits in the subsequent two years. Some individuals may not know why they have lost their benefits, others may not know if they are eligible to regain benefits or how to reapply.

In that same study, we also found that a fraction of the towns that initially re-introduced work requirements were exempted from enforcing them one year later. We found no substantial difference in enrollment patterns between the towns that were exempted from work requirements and the ones that kept them in place, suggesting that individuals who lost benefits due to work requirements were no more likely to reenroll even when they were no longer subject to them. This demonstrates that the effects of work requirements are lasting and difficult to reverse.

CN: States have a number of tools available to them that can help mitigate the negative effects of new work requirement policies. First, states typically have some fraction of individuals they can exempt from work requirements. They should use these exemptions aggressively and for the neediest populations. Second, they can substantially reduce the administrative burden on beneficiaries to verify and recertify their employment status. Data linkages between SNAP, Medicaid, tax, and employment records — all information readily available to states — can lessen the burden on beneficiaries to provide records that the state already has access to. These “passive” renewals can reduce the number of individuals at risk of losing coverage. Third, states should engage in robust outreach campaigns to ensure that beneficiaries understand the implications of any new policies, know exactly what is required of them, and know where to reach out for help or assistance should they have any questions. Finally, for individuals who need to go through the recertification process, states should work to make that process as easy as possible. This means streamlined applications, in multiple languages, that are accessible for people with all levels of familiarity and competency with modern technology such as computer software and mobile phones. States need to mobilize quickly to shield their populations from the most deleterious effects of work requirements.