Most SNAP recipients who can work, do work. SNAP rules both encourage and reward work. About 2/3 of SNAP recipients aren’t expected to work, mostly because they are children, elderly, or disabled. But, among SNAP households with at least one working-age, non-disabled adult, 58% work while receiving SNAP — and 82% work in the year before or after receiving SNAP. The rates are even higher for families with children: 62% work while receiving SNAP and 87% work in the prior or subsequent year.
The number of SNAP households with earnings has been rising for more than a decade, reaching 6.4 million in 2011. The increase was especially pronounced during the recent deep recession, suggesting that many people turned to SNAP because of under-employment — for example, when one wage earner in a two-parent family lost a job, when a worker’s hours were cut, or when a laid-off worker took a lower-paying job.
Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 5/9/13, SNAP Works
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