CW: Food Insecurity & Poverty
Prominent Republican politicians and conservative think tanks have called for cuts and other damaging policy changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which may gain traction in Congress this year. These changes would reduce food assistance across the United States, making it more difficult for millions of people to purchase the foods they require to maintain a balanced diet.
SNAP is our country’s most effective and crucial hunger-relief program, reaching over 40 million children, parents, seniors, disabled people, and other low-income people each month, or approximately one in every eight people in the United States, including one in every five children.
According to The United States Department of Agriculture, ten percent of the program’s non-elderly users identify as disabled. Additionally, disabled people faced food insecurity at a rate that was more than double that of nondisabled people in 2020.
According to research, SNAP lowers food insecurity while also improving users’ health, education, and economic results, as well as lowering medical costs. It also benefits people in low-wage jobs and has repercussions in the economy as a whole and in individual communities when SNAP benefits are used in stores across the United States.
However, SNAP benefits can be difficult to obtain for disabled people. Furthermore, a time limit further restricts access for beneficiaries known as “able-bodied adults without dependents” (ABAWDs).
Under current law, ABAWDs can only receive SNAP for three months in a three-year period unless they work at least 80 hours per month. Lawmakers have made exceptions in places with high unemployment rates and time limit waivers in place. SNAP benefits are discontinued after three months, even if participants continue to confront food poverty and impediments to employment. Lawmakers have proposed expanding the population that falls under the ABAWD category and hence must meet this employment requirement.
The term ABAWD indicates that only able-bodied adults must meet the work requirement or face a time limit. However, this policy may have a detrimental impact on disabled people because it can be difficult for them to demonstrate that they have a qualifying disabilities that prohibits them from working and completing the SNAP work requirements.
SNAP regulations state that beneficiaries must be “physically or mentally unfit for employment” to be excused from the time limit. The federal regulatory language for being “unfit” requires states to exempt people who receive public or private disability benefits, are perceived as “unfit” for employment by the program caseworker at the state agency, or have documentation from a qualifying medical professional stating they are “unfit” to work.
Nobody should have to go hungry. Disabled people should have access to nutritious food. Cutting SNAP benefits will only make food insecurity worse.
Sources:
Bergh, Katie, et al. “Republican SNAP Proposals Could Take Food Away From Millions of Low-Income Individuals and Families.” The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities , The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 13 Jan. 2025, http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/republican-snap-proposals-could-take-food-away-from-millions-of-low-income.
Burnside, Ashley. “Snap Time Limits Can Reduce Access for Disabled People.” The Center for Law and Social Policy, The Center for Law and Social Policy, 25 Apr. 2023, http://www.clasp.org/blog/snap-time-limits-can-reduce-access-for-disabled-people/.
Ives-Rublee, Mia, and Christine Sloane. “Alleviating Food Insecurity in the Disabled Community.” Center for American Progress, Center for American Progress, 22 Nov. 2021, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/alleviating-food-insecurity-in-the-disabled-community/.
Jones-Cox, Ty. “Snap Is and Remains Our Most Effective Tool to Combat …” The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 14 Feb. 2023, http://www.cbpp.org/blog/snap-is-and-remains-our-most-effective-tool-to-combat-hunger.