MORE STATES IMPOSE SNAP WORK REQUIREMENTS

In the coming months, SNAP work requirements for able-bodied adults who are 18 to 50 years old and have no children, which were suspended during the Great Recession, will be reinstated in at least 17 states, jeopardizing benefits for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Typically, low-income, able-bodied adults without children can receive food stamps for only three months in a three-year period, unless they are working or participating in a training or “workfare” program for at least 20 hours a week.  But as part of the 2009 economic stimulus law, the federal government allowed states to suspend the normal work requirements. Nearly every state chose to do so. The childless adults affected by the requirements comprise 10% percent of the 46.5 million people who benefited from SNAP in June 2014.

Source: Stateline, 9/15/14, SNAP Work Requirements