Healthy single adults between the ages of 18 and 50 in Arkansas with no dependents who’ve relied on USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will no longer receive food assistance if they are not working or in a job training program at least half time, or 80 hours per month.
That’s about 14,000 individuals who have been affected, according to Amy Web, Communications Director for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
ADH began notifying SNAP beneficiaries about the rule change last fall.
SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps, is a 100% federally funded program which provides food assistance to eligible households. SNAP food purchases are transacted using Electronic Benefits Transfer debit cards. Beneficiaries can also purchase seeds to grow food, and patronize farmers markets.
Webb said the re-imposed work requirement was adjusted based on economic factors.
“The work requirement was passed by Congress in 1996,” said Webb. “So, once the economy started to improve and unemployment rates went down, the federal government said we’re no longer going to allow states to have a statewide waiver of the work requirement rule.”
States have the option to maintain waivers to individual counties that are economically distressed, but Webb said Arkansas chose not to participate—seeing the change as an incentive to get people to work.
Plus, by law, beneficiaries cannot be choosy. They must accept any reasonable job offer.
“When they apply we check their wage data,” said Webb. “We’ve got databases that we can check to verify their income.”
Webb said overall, the number of beneficiaries affected by the change is relatively small.
“My latest numbers--which are March of 2016--there were about 434,000 people receiving SNAP assistance in about 200,000 households,” Webb explained. “What we know about that population is probably ¾ of them are children, or people who are disabled or elderly.”
Starting last month, single adults who are not exempt and have not found work will only receive three months of SNAP support every three years. However, Webb said training programs are in place available to help.
“There’s some informal programs all across the state, and then we have a formal program—the ‘SNAP employment and training assistance program’—in 13 counties across the state,” said Webb. “We are working with USDA to expand that employment and training SNAP program statewide.”
Arkansas is among 22 states implementing the new rule, nine of them in the Southeastern U.S.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive research institute which supports federal and state policies to reduce poverty and inequality, said as many as a million impoverished people will lose food assistance.
The group points to USDA data showing a majority have gross incomes of 17 percent of poverty level—or $2,000 per year. Half are white, a third African American, and a tenth Hispanic. Forty percent are women.
However, Webb said the rule change will spur healthy, single individuals to seek gainful employment.
On average SNAP food assistance costs taxpayers $150 to $170 per beneficiaries per month, but regional food banks say SNAP cuts will cost them.
Food banks distribute food to pantries and missions which feed the poor. Ken Kupchick is Director of Marketing and Development for the River Valley Regional Food Bank, headquartered in Fort Smith.
“We have about 10,000 people in this area going to a food pantry or a place to get a meal every week,” Kupchik said. “That adds up to over 840,000 visits in a year’s time.”
The River Valley Regional Food Bank distributed 7 million pounds of surplus food last year. Kupchick said the new SNAP policy places an unintended burden on food assistance areas.
To accommodate need, the River Valley Regional Food Bank must also purchase food to supplement donations, at slightly less than wholesale value.
Kupchick said he’s also spoken with local grocers who have lost SNAP revenue—and have seen a spike in in-store food theft.
“Some grocers are having to spend more time having to watch their TV monitors for Shoplifters,” Kupchick said.
Of the unemployed, non-disabled, childless adults losing SNAP benefits, only half have a high school diploma or GED.
But supporters of the re-instated rule project--given this incentive to seek employment or secure job training--more Americans will get off the dole, saving working taxpayers money.
