Food stamp work rules don't increase employment, researchers say [View all]
Source: CBS News
April 20, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT
DELBARTON, W.Va. — A half-dozen cars had been in the queue for nearly four hours by the time the House of Hope mobile food pantry line began to move. Seventy or so more idled behind them by 11:30 a.m., when the food distribution began. The plan was to begin handing out boxes of groceries at 11, but the Facing Hunger Foodbank truck delivering the food blew a tire en route. No one complained.
Perry Hall was among those waiting. His wife, Lilly Hall, volunteers with the distribution team. Perry has been dealing with a form of cancer called multiple myeloma. The Halls get by on around $1,500 a month from his Social Security benefits, plus assistance from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. But because of her age, Lilly, 59, recently became subject to new SNAP work requirements and at risk of losing her benefits.
As part of the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act, all "able-bodied adults" 64 or younger who don't have dependents and don't work, volunteer, or participate in job training at least 80 hours a month are now restricted to three months of benefits every three years from SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. Previously, the federal requirement applied to those 54 or younger. The new rule, which went into effect in November, also applies to parents of children 14 or older. And it removed exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young adults who've aged out of foster care.
Proponents of work requirements argue that they incentivize people who are "work-ready" to seek and keep jobs, reducing dependence on government assistance and upholding the "dignity of work." Rhonda Rogombé serves as health and safety net policy analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. She and her colleagues have studied the effects of SNAP work rules and found that requiring recipients to work does not lower an area's unemployment rate.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/snap-food-stamp-work-rules-employment/
Link to referenced USDA 2018 REPORT site - The Food Assistance Landscape: FY 2018 Annual Report
Link to referenced USDA 2018 REPORT (PDF) - https://ers.usda.gov/sites/default/files/_laserfiche/publications/92896/EIB-207.pdf?v=98980
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