The local career center and a social services agency are working with clients to make sure no one loses their SNAP benefits when new rules by the Trump Administration are implemented April 1.
“We’re reaching out to those who are at risk of losing their benefits,” MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center Executive Director Teri Anderson said. “We’ve been working with the state Department of Transitional Assistance on this for a while, so we’ve already implemented the program.”
The Trump Administration announced earlier this year the U.S. Department of Agriculture will further restrict the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility for “able-bodied adults without dependents” beginning April 1, 2020.
The administration’s new rule would affect about 700,000 nationwide, including an estimated 300 people in Franklin and Hampshire counties combined. It would cut food assistance provided by SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, and make it more difficult for states to waive the federal program’s work requirements, especially in areas of high unemployment. It was announced that children, the disabled and the elderly will not be affected.
According to the Trump Administration, able-bodied adults without dependents are the targets, because they should be working.
“We need everyone who can work to work,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a recent press release.
Anderson said SNAP recipients who fall into the able-bodied adults without dependents category will have the opportunity to either receive job training or find jobs for at least 20 hours a week — the new requirement — through the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center.
“People will also potentially have the opportunity for occupational training,” she said. “We’re trying to reach out to everyone now, before the new rules go into effect, so that no one loses their benefits.”
Democratic Congressman James P. McGovern, chair 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, who represents the Second Congressional District, which includes the North Quabbin region, said the move has nothing to do with moving Americans toward self-sufficiency, like 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. The Trump Administration ought to know more about this population before they literally take food off their tables.”
What’s worse, he said, is that Democrats and Republicans came together in 2018 to reject the cuts the administration is proposing, but the new rules will still go into effect on April 1.
McGovern has introduced a rules package directing the House Office of General Counsel to explore all possible legal options for responding to the “reckless new rule.”
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. She said it’s possible some or all of the changes won’t come to pass.
“This is going against Congress,” she said. “We don’t have any specific programs, but we’ll continue to work with people.”
If the rules are implemented, Boughton said they wouldn’t affect a lot of people in Franklin County.
“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.”
She said it is not like people get a lot of money for food when they are on the SNAP program — they receive $1.38 per meal.
According to state statistics, 753,000 individuals, 446,000 households in Massachusetts are currently receiving SNAP benefits. Of those, about 240,000 are between the ages of 18 and 49.
The Department of Transitional Assistance does not track caseload data by county, but by ZIP code. In Franklin County, though the numbers are not broken down into categories like able-bodied adults without dependents, Greenfield has the highest number of SNAP recipients at 2,215. Athol has 1,407. Orange follows with 904 and then Turners Falls with 626. Shelburne Falls has 206 recipients, and other towns like Northfield, South Deerfield Sunderland and Bernardston have more than 100 recipients each. The rest of the towns’ numbers are under 100.
Federal and state regulations make work rules a condition of eligibility of SNAP benefits, according to Department of Transitional Assistance Director of External Affairs Chris Power. A person between the ages of 16 and 59 receiving SNAP benefits must meet work rules.
Under current rules, able-bodied adults without benefits can only 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 80 or more hours per month.
Some are exempt from general SNAP work rules if they are disabled, living with a minor, residing in a geographically exempt area where there is a lack of sufficient jobs, a student, in drug or alcohol treatment, already employed, homeless or for other reasons.
Powers said the Department of Transitional Assistance provides meaningful employment opportunities for all SNAP recipients, including able-bodied adults without dependents. He said 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.
Under the Trump Administration’s new rule, “lack of sufficient jobs” will be redefined — an area will have to have an unemployment rate of 20 percent above the national average. States will have to use the Department of Labor or Bureau of Labor Statistics data, when available, to justify a geographical exemption.
Due to the changes in parameters, Powers aid the state estimates the majority of clients that are currently subject to the able-bodied adult without dependents rules will be considered non-exempt and subject to the new rules. The state also anticipates that very few towns will qualify for the geographic exemption, though further analysis is required.
He said the Department of Transitional Assistance is currently analyzing the impact the new SNAP rules will have across Massachusetts.
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-0261, ext. 269 or afritz@recorder.com.