HOUSE SNAP BILL WOULD MAKE GETTING AHEAD HARDER

Americans overwhelmingly agree that our safety net programs should support low-income workers in their efforts to become self-sufficient, not leave workers worse off when they get a raise or increase their hours.  But changes to SNAP proposed in the failed House version of the Farm Bill would have done just that by forcing all states to enforce “gross income limits” that cut SNAP recipients off if they earn just a dollar more than the threshold. Such policies create a “poverty trap” or “cliff effect” that make it harder for workers to get ahead. More than half of the states recognize this cliff effect is contrary to the goal of promoting self-sufficiency and use an option known as broad-based categorical eligibility to effectively raise SNAP’s gross income limit, which allows for a more gradual reduction of benefits as income increases.

Source: Center for Law and Social Policy, 7/10/13, SNAP Incomes