Most people on SNAP who get Social Security benefits will see their SNAP benefits fall.
But some SNAP participants, such as many elderly and disabled people who live alone and on fixed incomes and who only qualify for the minimum amount of help, will see their benefits plummet from $281 to $23 a month. They are warning of a looming hunger cliff – meaning a sharp increase in the number of people who don’t get enough nutritious food to eat – in March 2023, when the extra help ends.Īt that point, the lowest-income families will lose $95 in benefits a month.
Many advocates for a stronger safety net say that SNAP benefits are too low to meet the needs of low-income people. But when prices are rising quickly, as is currently the case, SNAP benefits can lose a lot of ground in the months before the next adjustment. SNAP benefits automatically adjust every October based on the increase in food prices in July as compared with the previous year. That increase more than offset the expiration of a temporary seven-month boost in benefits that Congress had approved earlier that year. Department of Agriculture uses to set SNAP benefits based on the cost of a budget-conscious and nutritionally adequate diet.Īs a result, benefits rose an average of $36 a month, a 21% increase, in October 2021. The Biden administration has already tried to boost them by adjusting the “ Thrifty Food Plan” – the standard the U.S. Many experts on food insecurity have long argued that SNAP benefits have historically been too low. With more people enrolled in the program today than before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the distribution of extra benefits, SNAP spending reached a record $114 billion in the 12 months that ended in September 2022. The extra benefits, which Americans can use to purchase food at the roughly 250,000 stores that accept them, have helped millions of people weather the pandemic’s economic fallout and high inflation rates.Ī study from the Urban Institute, a think tank, estimated that the extra benefits kept 4.2 million people out of poverty at the end of 2021 and had reduced overall poverty in states still offering the benefits by 9.6% and child poverty by 14%.Īlthough the unemployment rate has recently fallen to the lowest level since 1969, the extra SNAP benefits have continued to help low-income families deal with soaring prices that increased the cost of food consumed at home by 11.3% in the 12 months ending in January 2023. While researching SNAP for an upcoming book, I’ve observed that this program has provided critical assistance to struggling families over the last three years. Many families enrolled in the program, commonly known as SNAP but sometimes called food stamps, stand to lose an average of roughly US$90 per person a month. Roughly 41 million Americans are currently enrolled in this program, which the government has long used to ease hunger while boosting the economy during downturns. Congress mandated this change in budget legislation it passed in late December 2022. Millions of Americans will find it harder to put enough food on the table starting in March 2023, after a COVID-19 pandemic-era boost to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits comes to an end. Some elderly and disabled people who live alone and on fixed incomes will see their benefits plummet from $281 to $23 a month.
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