GOP Food Stamp Work Requirements Hit just as Jobs Dry Up: Millions of People Will Lose Food Stamps, per early estimates

https://prospect.org/2026/04/16/trump-gop-republican-food-stamp-work-requirements/


A store displays a sign accepting Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards for SNAP purchases for groceries, January 2, 2026, in Brooklyn, New York. Credit: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via AP Images

President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, trade wars, and actual wars are coming together to maximize hunger in America. The GOP’s new work requirements for food stamps began in February, forcing more people to work at least 80 hours a month to get the benefit. At the same time, jobs are harder to find, economists and researchers said, especially the low-wage jobs that food stamp beneficiaries should be able to turn to for the new requirement. The end result is easy to anticipate, said Ismael Cid-Martinez, economist with the Economic Policy Institute. More people will lose their food stamps because they can’t find work. They’ll go without and suffer all the attendant problems that come with chronic hunger. That condition causes people to fall sick more frequently and puts them at greater risk of chronic disease, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

For adults, that means even more difficulty finding a job. For kids, it also means delayed physical development and the inability to concentrate at school. Martinez and others also warned that losing food stamps will also mean that more people will struggle to pay all their bills, putting them at greater risk of crushing debt, eviction, and homelessness. The consequences extend beyond an individual’s personal hardship. A study from Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy found that every $1 cut from SNAP costs society between $14 and $20. “Not to be overly pessimistic about this, but I think that one of the important things to keep in mind is, these are all policy choices,” Cid-Martinez said. “We’re not in this position because of forces beyond our control.”

Trump’s mega-spending bill last year cut $186 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to fund trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest people and corporations, plus a huge increase in funding for ethnic cleansing and imperialism. The cuts to the program were the deepest in history and included a provision that took effect February 1 requiring so-called “able-bodied adults” between ages 18 and 64 to work for at least 80 hours a month or meet other demands. The requirement applied to the age group as long as they had no dependents younger than 14 years old. Before the spending bill, work requirements applied to adults ages 18 to 54 and exempted those with dependents up to the age of 18.



The additional decade of required work is now hitting people who have already left the workforce, said Rita Vega, citywide deputy director of the housing benefits initiative at Legal Services NYC. “We have a lot of clients who are older, and their question is, ‘I’m already retired, do I have to work?’ The answer is yes, unless you have some exemption,” she said in an interview. She’s especially worried about people who need food stamps, who have a physical or mental disability, and cannot understand the new work requirements or how to get an exemption. Many who actually have jobs will still lose their benefits because they failed to fill out the new forms properly, or, advocates said, because officials have failed to file them. The punishment for failing to meet the requirements is steep; those who are required to work and can’t find a job lose their food stamps after three months. To get them back again, a beneficiary must meet the work requirement for 30 days or wait three years to reapply.

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