The megabill signed into law by President Donald Trump last month eliminates an exemption that required veterans to work if they wanted to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a.k.a. food stamps.
Starting next year, veterans must prove they are working, volunteering, participating in job training, or looking for work for at least 80 hours a month to keep their food stamps beyond three months, unless they qualify for another exemption, such as having certain disabilities, Military.com said.
About 1.2 million veterans rely on food stamps, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Robert Rector, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Military.com able bodied veterans who don’t work create an unnecessary burden on the system.
“Most of the people that are in this category live in households with other people that have incomes, and so there really isn’t a chronic food shortage here,” Rector said. “We have tens of thousands of free food banks that people can go to. So it’s just a requirement to nudge these people in the proper direction, and it should no longer go unenforced.”
New York estimates about 300,000 New Yorkers will lose SNAP benefits due to work requirements, including 22,000 veterans, homeless, or people aging out of foster care, while California estimates 115,000 veterans receive SNAP benefits, Military.com reported. About 100,000 veterans receive SNAP benefits in Florida and Texas, along with 49,000 in Georgia, Military.com said.
Between 2015 and 2019 about 11% of veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 lived in a home with limited or uncertain access to food, according to data from thee U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Veterans fear they will lose SNAP benefits if their disabilities make it difficult for them to fulfill the work requirements.
“It is a frustrating thing to see, especially for those that have been willing to put everything on the line and sacrifice everything for this country if their country called them to do so,” Kaitlynne Yancy, director of membership programs at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who served four years in the Navy, said to Military.com.
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