Will SNAP Recipients Receive Extra Benefits in 2023? The government Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, assists those with low incomes in purchasing food. The federal government gave SNAP recipients extra payments during the COVID-19 outbreak.
A debit card is provided to low-income families through the government Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) so they can shop for specific foods in retailers. SNAP is a federal program, but the states manage it.
SNAP recipients nationwide will stop getting pandemic-era boosts after this month’s payments, the Food and Nutrition Service announced. The emergency allotments provided an additional $95 or the maximum amount for their household size — whichever was greater. (Photo via Getty Image)
By increasing SNAP funding under the 2020 Families First Coronavirus Response Act, states were able to give “additional allotments” to SNAP-eligible families. This raised the amount that households could spend each month with their SNAP cards.
17 states voluntarily decided to stop providing SNAP members with additional benefits before the start of 2023, despite the federal government continuing to make extra allotments accessible through this year. During February and March, SNAP beneficiaries in those 17 states won’t experience any adjustments to their monthly benefits.
The increased allocations for all states will stop in February 2023, according to a clause inserted in the budget plan that Congress produced for 2023.
Hence, consumers will have less SNAP money available to spend in March than they did in February in places where SNAP beneficiaries had previously continued to receive this enhanced allotment. That includes 32 states in total, along with Guam, Washington, D.C., and the United States. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) claims Virgin Islands. The state’s emergency allotments in South Carolina came to an end one month earlier than planned, therefore the last time its SNAP beneficiaries received an extra allocation was in January.
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SNAP Update: 31 States Will No Longer Extend Additional Food Assistance In February.
A list of the states whose emergency allotments will cease at the end of February is available from the USDA. The list is available here, just below the heading “Acknowledged Extensions (through February 2023).”
Will SNAP Recipients Receive Extra Benefits? SNAP recipients to no longer get extra pandemic-related benefits starting March (Photo via https://wgno.com/)
Every household in those 32 states will receive at least $95 less each month less, and some households could face losses of hundreds of dollars per month, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the amount of SNAP benefits that a household loses each month depends on the size of the home, whether there are children, disabled persons, or those over 60, as well as the household income of the residents.
Nevertheless, SNAP beneficiaries won’t receive their pre-pandemic level of benefits again. Pre-pandemic SNAP payments per person were on average $121 per month, according to a USDA blog post from January 27, 2023; following the conclusion of emergency allotments, that number is expected to rise to $169 per person in March.
Tens of millions of low-income families are set to lose additional food stamp benefits on Wednesday after the expiration of a pandemic-era policy that had increased the amount they received, leaving food banks bracing for a surge in demand and some advocates predicting a rise in hunger nationwide. (Photo via https://www.nytimes.com/)
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities claims that there are two causes for the increase in benefits from pre-pandemic levels. The first is due to yearly cost-of-living adjustments, which automatically modify the amount of benefits SNAP members receive depending on inflation. The USDA’s modification to SNAP benefits in October 2021 to more accurately represent the expense of a nutritious diet is the other justification.
Read More: Food Stamps: More SNAP Benefits To End Nationwide By March
