Close to 50,000 Louisianans could be affected by new SNAP rules
16th March 2020 · 0 Comments
By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer
Feds say Coronavirus pandemic will not affect rule implementation
A new federal rule will take effect in Louisiana on April 1 requiring some Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to meet work requirements to continue receiving federal food assistance. 2019 estimates from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) stated that these requirements could affect approximately 49,000 Louisianans.
“The rule is going to do a lot of harm in Louisiana,” said Danny Mintz, an anti-hunger policy advocate at the Louisiana Budget Project. “Taking food away from someone is not going to help them find a job…It’s not a job training program.”
Under the new regulations, SNAP recipients classified as an Able-Bodied Adult Without Dependents (ABAWD) can receive benefits for only three months in a 36-month period unless they meet the ABAWD work requirement or qualify for an exemption. Recipients ages 18 to 49 who do not have a child living with them and are considered able to work fall under the ABAWD category.
SNAP recipients who meet the definition of an ABAWD and fail to qualify for an exemption must meet specific requirements to continue receiving assistance. They must work in a job (for pay, goods and services, or as a volunteer) for at least 80 hours per month or participate in an employment and training program for at least 80 hours a month or work/participate in a combination of the previous two requirements for at least 80 hours a month.
SNAP recipients in 14 parishes will be exempt from the new rule due to high unemployment rates. These parishes are Assumption, Catahoula, Concordia, East Carroll, Franklin, Madison, Morehouse, Richland, St. Landry, St. Mary, Tensas, Vernon, West Carroll and Winn.
In a December 4 opinion column in the Arizona Daily Star, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue defended the cuts by saying SNAP “was never intended to be a way of life” and said the Trump administration’s actions are a continuation of 1996 welfare reforms that occurred during the Bill Clinton presidency.
Danielle Nierenberg, the president of Food Tank, a food and agriculture think tank, said the amount of money spent on SNAP benefits is a drop in the bucket for the federal government and cutting these benefits is not worth the toll it will take on thousands of people.
“This is not the way to save money,” Nierenberg said.
Nierenberg also pointed out that many people on SNAP are not unemployed or lazy, but are simply underemployed.
“It’s kicking someone when they’re down,” Nierenberg said. “They (SNAP recipients) are trying to get jobs, they’re trying to stay afloat.”
Mintz said the rule is unfair because many shift workers have no control over how many hours they work in a month. If a waiter’s manager drops one shift in the last week of the month, it might make it impossible for that waiter to clear the necessary 80 hours. And while exemptions can be granted if a person becomes ill or is advised to not go to work because of the coronavirus, these workers would not get an exemption if a restaurant reduces shifts for its employees because less people are eating out due to coronavirus fears.
Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization, said the coronavirus concern will be a real problem for people needing SNAP benefits across the country. It will especially be an issue for economies like New Orleans that depend heavily on restaurant and tourism dollars. Many employees in those industries often work low-wage jobs to begin with, and if their hours are drastically reduced or eliminated entirely, it can create a crisis situation.
The rule that will take affect April 1 said states can apply for waivers if they have sustained unemployment of over six percent for a 24-month period. This exception will not help people suffering from a sudden drop in employment or hours like what could happen across the country with the coronavirus. There was no threat of a pandemic when the rule was created, but Waxman argued rules like these should always have contingency plans in place.
“You can never make policy just for the circumstances of the moment,” Waxman said. “You need to be able to quickly respond to change.”
In a Tuesday, March 10 hearing, Secretary Perdue said states have the discretion to determine good cause in response to the coronavirus outbreak, which would eliminate need-to-work requirements.
“We will continue to consider any exemptions or demonstration of good cause on a case-by-case basis,” said Heidi Rogers Kinchen, public information officer for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, which administers SNAP requirements on the federal government’s behalf.
Waxman added that employment and training programs should have been in place before the implementation of the rule to help insure that more ABAWD people could meet the necessary requirements by the time the rule went into effect.
Mintz said that many state case workers may not be aware of what situations could give a recipient an exemption from the new rule. So, anyone with any physical or mental health issue should inform their case worker immediately and ask if it can qualify them for an exemption.
This article originally published in the March 16, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
