SNAP food aid needs reforms; work mandate isn't one
By Claudia Sahm / Bloomberg Opinion
This year Congress needs to reauthorize the Farm Bill, of which the largest portion is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or better known as food stamps. It’s the primary program to reduce hunger among low-income individuals and families. Before the covid-19 pandemic, about 11 percent of Americans received some benefits, close to its average participation rate since the 1990s. However, participation moves substantially with macroeconomic conditions and overall family incomes.
In addition to being a crucial safety net, SNAP is also contentious. A long-standing concern is that the program discourages people from working. To address that, the benefits for adults age 18 to 49 who are not disabled and live in childless households expire after three months unless they are working or in an educational or training program. Even so, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, less than 30 percent of adults in this group had earned income in 2019. This partly reflects other discretionary exclusions from the work requirement, like being physically or mentally unfit to work.
Two proposals from Republican lawmakers would tighten the rules. Rep. Dustin Johnson of South Dakota wants to expand the work requirement through age 65, while Rep. Rick Scott of Florida favors raising it through age 59. Scott’s proposal would add only 1 million households to the work requirement out of the almost 19 million households receiving SNAP. Those affected currently receive $2 billion in benefits, or less than 4 percent of the $52.8 billion total for the program.
Moreover, the existing work requirements in SNAP have done little to encourage work and, instead, increase food insecurity due to lost benefits. University of Maryland Professor Mary Zaki and her co-authors estimate, based on Virginia data, that the work requirement halved the participation rate for adults subject to it. The homeless and those without income before receiving SNAP accounted for much of that reduction. They also found that the work requirement did not increase the likelihood of working. Other studies that have found an increase in employment generally estimate it to be small. Plus, collecting information on work status for more individuals would add to the administrative program costs.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-snap-food-aid-needs-reforms-work-mandate-isnt-one/
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