Employment training costs designed to reduce SNAP participation are vastly underestimated

While it is clear that the Senate will not include large cuts to SNAP in its version of the farm bill, we do think it is important to take a closer look at the language that fractured the bipartisanship that usually accompanies the farm bill. The changes to SNAP proposed by the legislation before the House would affect all able-bodied adults 18-59 years old who are not caring for a pre-school child. It has been estimated that this could affect as many as 2 million persons in 1 million households.The rationale for these cuts was made clear by Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue when he told reporters that SNAP was “supposed to be a hand-up, not a continual dependency.” That statement assumesthat taking away a person’s meager $126 monthly SNAP benefits would be sufficient to motivate them to seek work.To continue to receive SNAP benefits those affected by this legislation would have to engage in a combination of work and job training totaling 20 hours per week beginning with fiscal year 2021. The number of hours per week increases to 25 beginning in fiscal year 2026. In addition, they would have to report their hours on a weekly basis. Those who violate these requirements would lose their SNAP benefits for a year and further violations would result in a 3-year loss in benefits.What all of this ignores is the current employment situation in this country. Unemployment is low and all of the easy-to-employ people in all of the locations with sufficient jobs are already employed. The people remaining are faced with multiple challenges from shifting schedules, seasonal work, jobs with no sick leave or bereavement benefits to problems with transportation. Job turnover is also high among this population. Some have disabilities that are not significant enough to qualify them for disability benefits but nonetheless make stable work difficult.