SNAP “WORK REQUIREMENTS”

Proponents characterize some provisions of the Republican proposal as “work requirements.” In fact, these would end assistance to people who would take any job or job training opportunity offered but cannot find one; the proposal does not require states to provide jobs or job training, and it adds no funds for these activities.  And, while proponents stress the need to promote work, the proposal would eliminate or reduce assistance to substantial numbers of working families who are paid very low wages and often incur significant work-related expenses, such as for childcare, that complicates their struggle to afford sufficient food. Proponents’ rhetoric about the importance of work also overlooks the fact that most SNAP recipients who can work do so.  More than 80% of SNAP households with at least one working-age, non-disabled adult worked in the year before or after receiving SNAP.

 

The unemployed childless adults who receive SNAP—the group targeted by the emerging House Republican plan— are extremely poor, and many are destitute.  While on SNAP, their monthly gross incomes average only 22% of the poverty line, or $2,500.  Their SNAP benefits will average just $160 per person per month in 2014.

 

Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 9/6/13, Work ; 9/9/13, Work II