Food Stamp Enrollment Dropped In States That Brought Back Work Requirements

Food stamp enrollment grew exponentially under the Obama administration. As of April 2016, over 43 million people were on the program, but the number crept near 48 million (47.8 million in December 2012) throughout the Obama years.

Keep in mind, around 32 million were receiving SNAP benefits when Obama first took office in 2009.

So why did the number continue to grow under Obama? Sure, the economy sucked, but that wasn’t the only explanation. The Obama administration had a distorted approach to dealing with poverty. Instead of treating the program as temporary assistance for those who truly need it, the Obama administration made it cozy. As a conservative, I’m all about hand ups, not hand outs. Get on the program, but don’t make it a lifestyle. Move forward. View it as temporary.

Liberals, however, accuse conservatives of being heartless meanies, even though our suggestions are completely reasonable. For instance, what’s wrong with establishing work requirements?  Why can’t we require able-bodied adults to work and show that they’re actually trying?

I’ll tell you why. It pushes people off the government dole, and Democrats can’t have that. The left depends on dependency. Liberals are in the business of exchanging hand outs for votes. Look what happens when people are encouraged to help themselves. It’s the left’s worst nightmare.

According to this, 13 counties in Alabama decided to reestablish work requirements. Since Jan. 1, those counties have experienced a– wait for it–  “85 percent drop in food stamp participation.”

The counties – Greene, Hale, Perry, Dallas, Lowndes, Wilcox, Monroe, Conecuh, Clarke, Washington, Choctaw, Sumter and Barbour – had been exempt from a change that limited able-bodied adults without dependents to three months of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits within a three-year time frame unless they were working or participating in an approved training program.

 

During the economic downturn of 2011-2013, several states – including Alabama – waived the SNAP work requirements in response to high unemployment. It was reinstituted for 54 counties on Jan. 1, 2016 and for the remaining 13 on Jan. 1, 2017. As of April 2017, the highest jobless rate among the 13 previously excluded counties was in Wilcox County, which reported a state-high unemployment rate of 11.7 percent, down more than 11 percentage points from the county’s jobless rate for the same month of 2011.

In other words, work requirements work.

As of Jan. 1, 2017, there were 13,663 able-bodied adults without dependents receiving food stamps statewide. That number dropped to 7,483 by May 1, 2017. Among the 13 counties, there were 5,538 adults ages 18-50 without dependents receiving food stamps as of Jan. 1, 2017. That number dropped to 831 – a decline of about 85 percent – by May 1, 2017.

This isn’t a freak thing, either. Some counties in Georgia established work requirements, and within three months, those counties saw a 58 percent drop in able-bodied food stamp recipients.

More states need to embrace this. SNAP is costing us $71 billion a year. We need to weed out the abusers and encourage people to help themselves.