GREENFIELD — The MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center and a social services agency are working with clients to make sure no one loses their SNAP food assistance benefits when new rules issued by the Trump administration take effect April 1.
“We’re reaching out to those who are at risk of losing their benefits,” said Teri Anderson, executive director of the career center. “We’ve been working with the state Department of Transitional Assistance on this for a while, so we’ve already implemented the program.”
The White House announced in December that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will further restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility for “able-bodied adults without dependents” beginning April 1, making it more difficult for states to exempt those 18-to-59-year-old adults from the program’s work requirements. Children, the disabled and the elderly will not be affected.
The stricter rules would cut off about 700,000 people nationwide and possibly a few hundred locally from food assistance provided under SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. It would do so by making it more difficult for states to waive the federal program’s work requirements, especially in areas of high unemployment.
Under current rules, able-bodied adults without dependents can receive SNAP benefits for a maximum of three months during a three-year period unless they are working, volunteering, or enrolled in an education or training program for 20 or more hours a week. Some benefit recipients, including able-bodied adults without dependents, are exempt from SNAP work rules if they reside in a geographically exempt area where there is a lack of sufficient jobs or they are a student, in drug or alcohol treatment, already employed or homeless.
Under the administration’s new rule, “lack of sufficient jobs” will be redefined — a county would have to have an unemployment rate of 6 to 10 percent to be eligible for waivers. States will have to use Department of Labor or Bureau of Labor Statistics data, when available, to justify a geographical exemption.
Under the changes to the work waiver requirements, said Chris Powers, director of external affairs for the Department of Transitional Assistance, the state estimates that the majority of able-bodied adult clients without dependents will be considered non-exempt. The state also anticipates that very few towns will qualify for the geographic exemption, though further analysis is required.
According to the Trump administration, able-bodied adults without dependents are the targets, because they are people who should be working.
“We need everyone who can work to work,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a recent statement.
Anderson said SNAP recipients who fall into the category of able-bodied adults without dependents will have the opportunity to either receive job training or find jobs for at least 20 hours a week through the career center.
“People will also potentially have the opportunity for occupational training as well,” Anderson said. “We’re trying to reach out to everyone now, before the new rules go into effect, so that no one loses their benefits.”
She said it’s estimated that about 300 people in Franklin and Hampshire counties are at risk of losing food assistance under the new rules.
Powers said Department of Transitional Assistance provides meaningful employment opportunities for all SNAP recipients, including able-bodied adults without dependents. He said that recently, in collaboration with the state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, a new initiative was launched to provide targeted employment services to SNAP recipients at every MassHire Career Center across the state.
U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, chairman of the House Rules Committee and a leading voice for ending hunger in the United States, said as Americans gathered for holiday meals this year, the Trump administration was “hard at work on a rule that will literally take food off the tables of vulnerable Americans who are already struggling to get by.” McGovern said Trump and those who wrote the rule “ought to be ashamed of themselves.”
McGovern, a Democrat who represents the 2nd Congressional District, said the move has nothing to do with moving Americans toward self-sufficiency, as the administration touts. He said he’s been to many hearings on the matter and never heard anyone tell him that being hungry made it easier for them to find a job.
“The fact is, able-bodied adults without dependents are a complicated group of people on which we have little data,” McGovern said. “What we do know is that many in this group are veterans who are returning from service, while many others are workers who aren’t given 20 hours of work per week, yet USDA has done no research on how this new rule will impact these vulnerable Americans.”
What’s worse, he said, is that Democrats and Republicans came together in 2018 to reject the cuts the administration is proposing, but the administration’s new rules will still go into effect April 1.
Danna Boughton, coordinator of community resources and advocacy at Community Action Pioneer Valley, said the agency is informing people of the changes, but doesn’t want anyone to panic.
“It just isn’t the way to go,” she said. “If someone is hungry, they aren’t thinking about finding a job. People need stable housing and food, basic needs.”
According to state statistics, 753,000 people in 446,000 households in Massachusetts are currently receiving SNAP benefits.
Anita Fritz can be reached at 413-772-0261, ext. 269, or afritz@gmail.com.