The Trump administration is about to impose new regulations that would tighten eligibility rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, in a way state officials say could cut off benefits for an estimated 140,000 Illinoisans.
The new rules apply to a category of SNAP recipients ages 18 to 59 known as “able-bodied adults without dependents,” or ABAWDs. Currently, who meet the program’s income eligibility limits are limited to three months of benefits during any 36-month period unless they work at least 20 hours a week or are enrolled in a job training program.
Those conditions were part of a 1996 welfare reform law passed during the Clinton administration. But the law also allows states to waive the work requirements if the applicant lives in an area marked by high unemployment or where there is a lack of sufficient jobs.
The new rules, which will take effect in April, will tighten the regulations governing those waivers by limiting them to counties with unemployment rates above 6 percent. It is one of several changes to SNAP eligibility being implemented or considered by the Trump administration.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, said in a document on Dec. 4 that about half of all able-bodied adults receiving SNAP live in areas that have received waivers “despite low unemployment levels across the majority of the country.”
“The strong economy is creating opportunities for all,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said during a telephone news conference on Dec. 4. “Now is the time for us to engage with this subset of SNAP participants so that they can know the dignity of work and the lasting transformation that it provides.”
But Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker blasted the new rules, calling them “cruel” and suggesting they are being enacted for other political purposes.
