November SNAP benefits, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once known as food stamps, will be reduced for the month of November due to the ongoing government shutdown, and the Trump administration’s controversial interpretation of the intended use of a contingency fund that could prop up the program in the meantime.
The average SNAP benefit is $177 per month—less than 6 dollars a day for food. SNAP is only 1.5 percent of our national budget, but it provides a crucial safety net for over 42 million people who might otherwise experience food insecurity.
Who uses SNAP?
Most people on SNAP either work, are children or caregivers to a young child, are elderly, or have a disability that prevents them from working. Here’s how the demographics of SNAP recipients breaks down—
- 16 million children
- 1.2 million veterans
- 22,000 active duty military families
- 14 million people with disabilities
- 1.5 million college students
- 8 million senior citizens
- 1.5 million documented immigrants (long-term green card holders, etc.)
- (Zero asylum seekers, refugees, or undocumented people)
86 percent of all SNAP benefits go to households that include a minor child, an older adult, or someone with a disability. Despite lots of misinformation and misconceptions circulating about who uses SNAP and why, the fact is, most SNAP recipients have income. 85 percent of families receiving SNAP benefits had at least one person working in the past 12 months, but aren’t paid enough to make ends meet. 33 percent of SNAP recipients have Social Security income and 23 percent of SNAP recipients receive SSI (Supplemental Security Income).
Why is SNAP at risk?
Due to the ongoing government shutdown, SNAP funding is at risk, and recipients are already starting to see missed payments for their benefits. The shutdown originated from an impasse in Congress around how to fund vital government services and subsidies in the wake of the Trump administration’s spending bill, which put Medicaid and ACA (Affordable Care Act) healthcare benefits at risk for millions of families. Those relying on ACA subsidies to afford healthcare will see their premiums soar an average of 136 percent if the tax subsidies are allowed to expire.
Because lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on whether to fund these healthcare programs, the federal government went into a shutdown on October 1. As the shutdown has dragged on, more and more government services are being cancelled or significantly reduced, including SNAP.
