More than 500,000 Americans receiving food stamp benefits will no longer qualify for them beginning on April 1 so they will surely lose their benefits this month.
This is a direct result of government requirements linking the assistance to an individual’s ability to find a job and work.
In order to keep their access to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) for more than three months, for single people, hey have to find part time job or go on job training programs for 20 hours a week or more.
In 2008 financial crisis, the work requirements for SNAP were waived due to cratering job prospects and an unstable global economy.
The requirements were in 40 states at the start of 2016, according to The Atlantic.
In Missouri, some 30,000 people could be kicked off the program on Friday, WDAF News reported. State lawmakers passed a bill removing the work requirement waiver last year.
In Tennessee, roughly 150,000 people could lose their food stamps this year as a result of the work requirement, according to WJHL.
By the end of 2016, up to a million people around the nation could lose their benefits.
After Kansas brought back work requirements in 2013, the number of people receiving assistance dropped by 20,000, but their incomes rose 127 percent, Fox News reported.
"I believe most Americans and most Kansans think it's common sense," said Andrew Wiens of the Kansas Department for Children & Families to the news outlet. "These are able-bodied adults without dependents. They don't have children in the home. They're not elderly, they're not disabled. These folks should be working."
The job market in the US has improved over the years, wage growth has been much slower.
The wages are mostly minimum wage on the open new jobs.
"SNAP cuts of the magnitude that the House Budget Committee proposes would almost certainly lead to increases in hunger and poverty," the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities said in a recent report. "Under the plan's steep funding cuts, a typical household's SNAP benefits would run out many days earlier (than usual), placing greater strain on household finances (and on emergency food providers) and significantly increasing the risk of hunger."
“We don’t have the resources to take on the continued erosion of our safety net,” Triada Stampas of the Food Bank for New York City told CityLabs.
"SNAP cuts of the magnitude that the House Budget Committee proposes would almost certainly lead to increases in hunger and poverty," the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities said in a recent report. "Under the plan's steep funding cuts, a typical household's SNAP benefits would run out many days earlier (than usual), placing greater strain on household finances (and on emergency food providers) and significantly increasing the risk of hunger."
“We don’t have the resources to take on the continued erosion of our safety net,” Triada Stampas of the Food Bank for New York City told CityLabs.
Source:
https://www.rt.com/usa/337926-americans-food-stamps-benefits/
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