Nearly 700,000 will lose food stamps with USDA work requirement change
The Trump administration Wednesday formalized work requirements for recipients of food stamps, a move that will cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.
Approximately 84,000 New York residents who rely on SNAP could lose their benefits.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Brandon Lipps, the deputy undersecretary for the USDA’s Food Nutrition and Consumer Services, spent about 18 minutes on a call with reporters outlining the changes to the rule that will take effect April 1.
“We’re taking action to reform our SNAP program in order to restore the dignity of work to a sizable segment of our population and be respectful of the taxpayers who fund the program,” Perdue said. “Americans are generous people who believe it is their responsibility to help their fellow citizens when they encounter a difficult stretch. That’s the commitment behind SNAP, but, like other welfare programs, it was never intended to be a way of life.”
Cuomo calls those changes ‘cruel’
New work requirements for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program by President Donald Trump’s administration were blasted on Wednesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as “cold” and “heartless.”
The rule change for food stamp recipients could lead to as many as 688,000 people losing the benefit.
About three-quarters of the four million people receiving food stamps under the SNAP program did not work in 2016.
“Americans are generous people who believe it is their responsibility to help their fellow citizens when they encounter a difficult stretch,” said U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. “Government can be a powerful force for good, but government dependency has never been the American dream.”
The rule is aimed at making it more difficult for states to waive the requirement that childless adults who are able to work must work 20 hours a week to qualify for SNAP benefits.
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