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What Are SNAP Work Requirements?
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps, was tied to work requirements for many adults who were deemed not to have a disability, who were not in school, or who were not taking care of small children or other dependents. For now, SNAP work requirements have been suspended under a provision in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act that remains in effect as long as there is a public health emergency. A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson recently tweeted that the agency intends to extend the public health emergency beyond July 25, 2020. RELATED: What We Know About the Coronavirus So Far and How We Got Here The impact on adults ages 18 to 49 was a 21 percent drop in participation in the SNAP program overall. Furthermore, “We found that work requirements have larger impacts on Black adults than on white adults,” says the lead study author, Erin Brantley, PhD, a researcher at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health in Washington, DC. Black adults experienced a 23 percent loss in food assistance over the study period, compared with a 16 percent decline for white adults. And although people with disabilities are officially exempt from SNAP work requirements, their participation in the program nevertheless dropped by 7.8 percent. Dr. Brantley says more research must be done to get to the bottom of why Black Americans are so hard-hit by this policy, but notes that Black people face higher unemployment than white people under any circumstances and points to a meta-analysis published in October 2017 in PNAS suggesting that hiring discrimination against Black Americans has remained largely unchanged over the past three decades. The disparity in unemployment has held true through the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that overall unemployment more than tripled between March 2020 and April 2020, to 14.7 percent; but Black unemployment is at 16.7 percent, which is nearly 18 percent higher than white unemployment. Meanwhile, nearly three times as many Black adults (17.9 percent) as white adults (6.7 percent) reported sometimes or often not having enough food to eat during the period of June 4–9, 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The condition of not having enough to eat or having eating patterns disrupted because of money or resource problems is known as food insecurity, according to HHS. RELATED: Facing Common Health Threats Among African Americans
What Can Result From Losing SNAP Benefits?
Not surprisingly, hunger and poor nutrition have a negative effect on a person’s health. “Being food insecure is associated with a lot of diet-related conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease,” says Sara Bleich, PhD, a professor of public health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. A study published in June 2018 in Health Services Research suggests that more money is spent on healthcare for people who are food insecure than on those who are not, including for the aforementioned chronic diseases, adds Dr. Bleich. Obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are more prevalent among Black Americans than among white Americans, and are conditions that put Black people at greater risk for serious illness and death from COVID-19, according to a May 2017 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Bleich says there isn’t enough research yet to understand how food insecurity may directly affect COVID-19, if at all, but she notes that greater risk of both conditions overlaps in communities of Black people and people of color. The impacts could be long-lasting, she adds. “As we think of this constellation of factors, of COVID-19 and food insecurity, all of these things are hitting Black and brown populations more. If the work requirement goes into effect, it’s just going to exacerbate these already widening disparities, which are becoming so massive at this point that we’re going to have huge long-term effects on well-being and, potentially, longevity.” RELATED: Black Americans Have Been Hardest Hit by COVID-19 — Here’s Why
Why Would People With Disabilities Lose Benefits?
As for the negative impact of SNAP work requirements on people with disabilities, Brantley says that may come down to whether they are counted as disabled in the first place. “If you are not on an official disability program then you might have to go through a complex process. You might have to get a doctor to fill out a form, [meaning] you might have to pay a doctor to fill out a form in order to certify that you were not able to work. We know that putting up paperwork barriers causes people to not access benefits that they are eligible for,” she explains. People who receive federal or state disability benefits or are disabled veterans are among those who are considered disabled, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). RELATED: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Affecting Everyday Life
What Will Happen to SNAP Work Requirements Amid COVID-19?
Brantley voices concern over the risk that people could lose SNAP benefits amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many people are unemployed and therefore at risk for becoming food insecure. She refers to study from February 2015 in the Journal of Nutrition showing that SNAP reduces food insecurity by up to 17 percent in participating households. Meanwhile, nationwide spending on SNAP increased by nearly 15 percent in March 2020 to $5.1 billion, according to the USDA. A federal policy change expanding the number of people nationwide who are subject to work requirements may be on the horizon. Many states and counties have waivers for SNAP work requirements based on local economic conditions, so their residents weren’t subject to them even before the pandemic. But in December 2019 the USDA issued a rule to limit the ability of localities to obtain waivers. Up to 1.3 million people could be at risk of losing their SNAP benefits if it goes into effect, according to the Brookings Institution. For now, that rule is under a federal court preliminary injunction, and the federal public health emergency prevents work requirements under most circumstances. Still, it’s clear some states are eager to resume SNAP work requirements for their residents. On June 25, Missouri announced that it will resume this requirement in August as a part of the state’s economic reopening plan. Rebecca L. Woelfel, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Public Services, says that its interpretation of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act gives the state the option to enforce the work requirements if the state’s employment and training programs are open. Brantley says that if SNAP work requirements restart during the COVID-19 pandemic, the results would be “devastating.” “We are still in an economic and health crisis,” Brantley says. “Work requirements would take away food assistance from people who are unable to find jobs and from people who are not working because they are afraid of putting themselves or their families at risk due to COVID-19.” Bleich says she is keeping her eye on a provision in the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, which would increase the maximum amount of SNAP benefits for recipients by 15 percent. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representative on May 15 but hasn’t gained much traction in the Senate thus far. RELATED: Black Health Facts Matter Statistics
What Should I Do if I Need Help With Buying Food?
Those who face food insecurity because they or their families have lost income and who wish to apply for SNAP benefits should do so through their own state program, which can be located using a map provided by the USDA. Feeding America has a directory to local food banks that can also help with navigating the SNAP application process.
