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What Triggers A SNAP Application…

(Chart below from the October 2025 report prepared by The Hamilton Project)

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I’ve recently written two posts about the federal government’s cruel and short-sighted handling of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) formerly known as Food Stamps:

* The first post centered on the government shutdown, the court orders to fund the SNAP program immediately, the refusal of the administration to comply with the court orders and some of the most persistent myths about SNAP recipients. You can read that post here.

* The second post discussed the delayed, post-shutdown distribution of November’s SNAP benefits, the administration’s “manufactured chaos” surrounding the benefits distribution, and the onerous new requirements to receive SNAP benefits in the near future required by the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). These new mandates include details of the expanded recipient work requirements and the increased cost sharing burden on the states. You can read that post here.

Meanwhile, a recent report from The Hamilton Project discussing the likely impact of the OBBBA’s cuts to SNAP benefits on current and future recipients, states, and the general economy concluded that SNAP benefits as structured before the OBBBA act as an automatic economic stabilizer, but will not under the new law.:

As economic conditions deteriorate, some policies—often referred to as automatic stabilizers—do not require any policymaker action at all to kick in. Historically, SNAP has been a key automatic stabilizer because when people lose their jobs or experience a decline in income and become newly eligible for SNAP, they can enroll in the program and quickly receive and spend benefits at grocery stores…An unprecedented mandate for states to pay for a portion of SNAP benefits will end SNAP in some states and inhibit SNAP’s ability to respond to recessions…

In somewhat good news, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) survived the first round of initial proposed cuts to pass intact in the final budget bill —it is fully funded for FY 2026. WIC has been helping pregnant women and women with young children meet their demanding nutritional needs for over 50 years. Inexplicably, the House Republican majority, led by the Trump Administration, had proposed in earlier drafts of the bill to slash WIC’s supplemental payments earmarked specifically for fruits and vegetable in an attempt to cut the overall WIC budget.

Another nonsensical change made in the OBBBA that directly impacts lower income families is the restructuring of the Child Tax Credit. It now gives more money for each child to middle and higher income earners than to the lowest tier of earners. Why? Because the lowest income parents don’t earn enough to take the full deduction allowed per child ($2,200). According to a 2025 report from the Urban Institute, the changes mean:

…the CTC increased average benefits for families with middle- and high-incomes by about $200 and decreased average benefits for families in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution by about $100. An estimated 19 million eligible children (30 percent of all eligible children) live in families that will continue to receive less than the maximum CTC because their parents do not earn enough.

Note: Although the lowest income earners can receive a refund per child when they don’t earn enough money to deduct the full credit from their taxes…there is a cap on the refund.

Read more about each of the federal programs to help the poor and when each was enacted here.

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I’d love to hear your thoughts on the changes the new budget will bring to federal poverty programs.

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