Even if their SNAP cards don’t work at the grocery store because of a political stalemate in Washington D.C., most Kentuckians receiving federal food benefits will have to start submitting proof of work this month, even as the federal government stays shut down.
Effective Nov. 1, veterans, the homeless, recent foster care youth and adults ages 54-64 are no longer exempt from work requirements to receive food benefits for themselves and their families through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The expanded work requirements, mandated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are expected to cost 114,000 Kentuckians their food assistance, policy experts say.
Work reporting requirements are not new, but the sweeping budget bill passed by Congress this summer expanded who has to abide by them.
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In Kentucky, the impact will be “substantial,” says Cabinet for Health and Family Services spokeswoman Kendra Steele.
Under previous rules, SNAP recipients in 117 of Kentucky’s counties — most of the state — were exempt from work reporting requirements due to the local unemployment rates, Steele said.
Now, people who get SNAP benefits in all 120 counties will have to comply with the new work and reporting requirements.
They and new applicants who meet the following criteria will be required to work or participate in Kentucky’s Employment and Training program for at least 80 hours a month:
- The recipient is age 18 through 64 years and 11 months, an expansion from the previous age range of 18–54.
- The recipient is not living with a dependent child under the age of 14, down from the previous standards of under 18.
- The recipient is not working at least 80 hours per month.
- The recipient is not meeting another exemption (like disability, being unfit for work and exempt from work registration).
“Previously exempted categories, such as veterans, the homeless, and former foster youth, no longer meet exemption requirements,” Steele said.
Jessica Klein, a policy associate with the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, said the “red tape” could result in 114,000 losing their benefits based on analyses from 2018, when work reporting requirements led to 30,000 people losing benefits.
“The 25 years that work reporting requirements have been included in SNAP policy, have pointed to the evidence that it doesn’t improve work outcomes, it doesn’t create new or meaningful employment, and what it does do is create that additional paperwork that people have to fill out on a monthly basis,” Klein said. “This is in addition to all of the other documentation and paperwork that people in this population have to submit for SNAP and for other programs that they participate in.”
Work reporting requirements “are not effective at improving work outcomes,” Klein said, “but they’re very effective at creating red tape for participants.”
People who don’t meet the requirements will “only be eligible to receive SNAP for 3 months during a 36-month period unless they become exempt,” according to the cabinet.
Shannon Moody, chief officer of strategic initiatives with Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the expansion rules will put a “squeeze” on elderly Kentuckians who are raising minor relatives — a population already seeing other assistance cut.
The increased work requirements will put an additional strain on grandparents who aren’t working or have left the workforce “in order to care for their relative kids in some kinship situations,” Moody said.
Former foster youth, who until now were exempt from work reporting, already have lower educational attainment than their non-foster peers, Moody said.
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She worries they will have to choose between school and eating: “it’s pretty tough to juggle both” work and school, she said.
“We definitely have some concerns when it comes to our former foster youth. They are not typically working in the highest paid jobs, they are not typically accessing a lot of other supports,” she said. “We know that they’re often coping with the traumas that they’ve dealt with as children that are affecting their ability to care for themselves.”
These new rules are taking effect even during a government shutdown that threatens to cut off SNAP benefits altogether in November, Klein said.
“I think that might be getting lost in the stress that is coming to families when having to manage not having the benefits that they need,” she said.
The Trump administration said funding for SNAP ran out on Nov. 1, leaving around 563,080 Kentuckians to face even worse food insecurity. Gov. Andy Beshear and other Democrats sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the decision to halt funding for the program and two judges ruled Friday it was illegal to withhold money in a SNAP contingency fund. President Donald Trump said his administration was awaiting further guidance from the courts and that in any event SNAP benefits, which are loaded onto electronic benefit transfer cards, would be delayed in November because of the government shutdown.
Regardless of the shutdown’s effect on SNAP, people who cannot meet work reporting requirements and lose SNAP benefits will likely lean more heavily on food pantries, which are already struggling to keep up with the demands of a state with high rates of food insecurity, experts said.
“I think we are going to see families turn to food banks, families turning to other assistance within communities that doesn’t rely on federal or state funding,” Moody said. “And then, unfortunately, we may be seeing people just going hungry; kids being sent to school having not eaten at all since their previous school meal or breakfast.”
This article is republished under a Creative Commons license from Kentucky Lantern, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter.
Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist and Kentuckian. She has covered everything from crime to higher education. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since.
