"It is not going to make up for the entire cliff, but it can make a difference in the size of the cut that households are experiencing," Vollinger said.īesides SNAP, the U.S. Some states allow recipients to deduct the costs related to living in a homeless shelter.Įven if you took all this into account when originally applying for SNAP, now could be a good time to reevaluate those costs as inflation has driven up the prices of many services over the past two years. Many people can also deduct some housing costs - SNAP allows for a shelter deduction of rent, mortgage payments or other housing costs that exceed half your net income after other deductions. You may also deduct legally owed child support payments. SNAP eligibility is like federal income tax in that applicants can deduct eligible expenses from their total income in order to figure out how much in SNAP benefits they're eligible for.Īmong the deductible expenses are certain medical costs, or the costs of child care or disabled adult care if you are working, looking for work or in school or training. The end of the extra benefits could be a good time to double-check your eligibility level, Vollinger suggested. Lawmakers in 27 other states have introduced legislation to strengthen SNAP so far this year, according to an analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Last month, as the end of the federal pandemic-era boost in benefits approached, New Jersey became the first state to pass SNAP legislation in 2023: All beneficiaries in that state will now receive at least $95 in benefits each month, and if the federal government determines you qualify for a lower amount, a state-funded supplement will make up the difference. Virgin Islands.Īll other states had already ended the extra benefits. The extra benefits ended this month in 32 states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.Īlso affected are the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. "Do they buy fewer items of less variety? Do they serve smaller amounts at meals? Who in the family is going to go hungry?" she said. Instead, the costs are shifted, she explained - to states, to local governments, to charities, and within the households themselves, as recipients work to recalculate how to spend their limited income. "One thing we know about hunger is that if people are hungry, the fact that the federal government is going to do less about it does not end their hunger," Vollinger said. On average, those who qualify for SNAP will now receive about $6 per person per day. Older adults who qualify for the minimum SNAP benefit will see their amount fall from $281 per month to just $23 in March. The steepest drops will disproportionately hit elderly people, she said. "People will have, on average, $82 less in their SNAP electronic benefit transfer card to spend at the grocery store than they had in March," said Ellen Vollinger, the SNAP director for FRAC. The emergency allotments allowed all SNAP-qualifying households to receive an extra $95 per month or an amount that brought their total benefit up to the maximum level for their household size, whichever was greater.Īs of this month, that extra amount is gone. The amount of benefits you receive is going back to its pre-pandemic level "And then when you take something else from them and then with the prices going up, it's just extra hard on them." They don't have very much to begin with," she said in an interview with NPR. The end to the extra benefits - coupled with the rising costs of food - will be a hardship for many, said Linda Jones, the co-founder of a food distribution nonprofit based in Alabama, one of the states affected by the change this month. About two-thirds of SNAP households include children. Department of Agriculture, which operates the program. More than 80% of SNAP beneficiaries are working families, people with disabilities or elderly people, according to the U.S. Some groups, including FRAC, are calling the marked decrease in benefits a "hunger cliff." Recipients in 32 states and the District of Columbia are affected this month. Some households will see reductions of $250 or more. On average, participants will receive about $82 less this month in SNAP benefits, according to the Food Research & Action Center, an advocacy group that works to end hunger. This month, as many as 16 million American households have received a sharp reduction in the size of their benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, as part of a federal unwinding of pandemic-era assistance.
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