The U.S. Department of Agriculture Dec. 4 announced new restrictions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, that analysts say could cost hundreds of thousands of Americans their food benefits during an average month.
The new rule announced today sets new requirements for states seeking waivers to a rule that limits able-bodied adults between 18 and 49 to three months of SNAP benefits in a three-year period unless they work at least 20 hours a week or are enrolled in a vocational program or volunteering. In the past, states could apply for those waivers in areas experiencing some economic hardship. Now, the criteria for requesting those time waivers will become much tougher.
According to a study by the Urban Institute, roughly 716,000 Americans would have lost eligibility during an average month had the rule been instituted last year.
Almost 10,000 recipients in Ohio would have lost their SNAP benefits under the rule change, the Urban Institute report says. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, meanwhile, says 45,000 people in Ohio benefit from the waivers and could be impacted by the tighter rules. Hamilton and surrounding counties are not on waivers currently.
The Trump administration has floated two other rule changes — one that would rescind blanket eligibility for SNAP for families receiving other kinds of government aid and another changing the way the federal government considers utility costs state-to-state — that could cause even more people to lose benefits.
But U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue says the new rules will encourage able-bodied recipients to find work, vocational training or volunteer opportunities.
“Americans are generous people who believe it is their responsibility to help their fellow citizens when they encounter a difficult stretch,” Perdue said in a statement announcing the rule change. “Government can be a powerful force for good, but government dependency has never been the American dream. We need to encourage people by giving them a helping hand but not allowing it to become an indefinitely giving hand. Now, in the midst of the strongest economy in a generation, we need everyone who can work, to work.”
Purdue says that SNAP use has ballooned since 2000, when roughly 16 million Americans used the program. Now, SNAP feeds 36 million Americans, despite the fact the nation’s unemployment rate is at a near-historic low of 3.6 percent.
But the expansion of the program hasn’t happened in a vacuum: wages have stagnated since the turn of the Millennium. Average hourly wages for those with less than a high school education or a high school diploma increased by less than a dollar during that time, according to federal data. Wages for those groups have actually fallen by more than $2.50-$3 since 1979 when adjusted for inflation, the data shows.
At the same time, Ohioans and others across the country are increasingly relying on low-wage jobs. A recent report by the Brookings Institution found that 44 percent of working Americans work low-wage jobs that pay a median of $18,000 a year. And six of the 10 most common jobs in the Cincinnati Greater Metropolitan Area don’t pay enough to support a family without government assistance, a study by liberal-leaning think tank Policy Matters Ohio found last year.
“In 2000, five of the 10 most common occupations paid so little that a family of three was left dependent on food assistance to get by — now it’s six,” the study reads. “Some occupations paid less as a share of poverty in 2017 than they did a decade and a half ago.”
The Ohio Association of Foodbanks and other nonprofits focused on food security have decried the rule change.
“We can’t meet the demand for emergency food assistance now and approval of these rule changes will be further detrimental to thousands of Ohioans,” Ohio Association of Foodbanks Executive Director Lisa Hamler-Fugitt said in a statement Dec. 4. “This is a heartless approach that will only increase the food insecurity among populations that are suffering from a lack of services, opportunities and access to basic human needs.”
Perdue, however, says the new rule is about incentivizing work at a time when the Trump administration says there are roughly 7 million job openings nationwide.
“This rule lays the groundwork for the expectation that able-bodied Americans re-enter the workforce where there are currently more job openings than people to fill them,” he said as he announced the change Dec. 4.
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 10, 2019.