A package of SNAP work and documentation requirements signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025 is already shrinking benefit rolls. In communities across the U.S., advocates and affected families say the changes are forcing people back into work they ca
On a quiet day in Ogden, Kansas, Angelina Guatemala used to count on federal food stamps to hold her steady after retirement. Now, she says she’s being pushed back toward work—despite painful dermatitis that makes it hard to hold things in her hands or stand for long.
Guatemala. 64. told this newsroom that after retiring a couple of years ago from assorted jobs that included arranging flowers. decorating cakes in shops. and preparing meals. she relied on SNAP to buy food. Under a rules change Congress adopted last year for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. she says she needs to return to work 20 hours per week to qualify.
In her small community, she said finding that kind of work is tough. Without SNAP, she described stretching meals, trying to make what she has last. “I’m the type of person who has rice and beans, and I’m OK for today. I’m not picky,” Guatemala said. “If I can get a piece of chicken, I can stretch it out for two or three days. But for now, nothing.”.
For families like Guatemala’s, the debate over the law is no longer abstract. SNAP benefit rolls have dropped 10% since President Donald Trump signed the legislation on July 4. 2025. when Republicans expanded work and documentation requirements. The White House promoted the changes alongside a reduction in immigrant participants. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who oversees SNAP, called the changes “a celebration of work.”.
Democratic lawmakers and food security advocates call the same shift a blow to people who were already trying to get by. “It’s unconscionable, really,” Krista Hesdorfer, spokesperson for the advocacy group Hunger Solutions New York, said about the legislation. “When a family loses food assistance, now they need to make impossible choices with how to use their limited resources. Can I buy groceries this week or should I pay the rent?. Can I pay my utility bill?. Should I pick up my prescription?”.
That pressure is arriving at a moment when advocates say low-income household budgets have been stretched by rising costs of groceries. housing. and utilities since the pandemic. The New York Federal Reserve Bank recently reported “a remarkable increase in food insecurity. particularly among lower- and middle-income households and households with young children.”.
More than 42 million Americans previously relied on SNAP when Congress tightened the work rules last year. With the legislative changes, leaders now argue over whether fewer recipients is evidence of progress—or a sign people are being cut off too quickly.
The numbers being cited are stark. Before the work changes. about one in eight Americans participated in SNAP. and the Agriculture Department reported that more than 42 million people received an average of $188 per month to buy food. The legislation cut federal spending by a projected $187 billion over 10 years, citing expanded work requirements and increased state contributions.
The program’s history also matters in the debate. SNAP had ballooned during the Great Recession, growing from 28 million participants in 2008 to a peak of 47 million in 2014. Participation later ebbed and flowed with the economy, dropping to 35 million in 2019.
Because millions depended on the benefit, SNAP became a focal point of the 43-day government shutdown last year. Congress eventually approved funding for SNAP and other agencies on Nov. 12.
But advocates say the new rules didn’t land on stable ground. They say tighter eligibility rules had already begun in many states, creating confusion about what the new requirements meant and what was covered.
Haley Kottler, who works on hunger issues at the advocacy group Appleseed Center for Law and Justice in Kansas, said she found the early drop particularly troubling. “I think it’s incredibly alarming that we’re seeing so many people come off the program,” Kottler said. “We’ve never seen this.”
To qualify for SNAP under the law, participants are generally required to work 20 hours per week in a paid or unpaid job, in training, or in volunteer service. The legislation expanded who is required to work and what documentation must be provided.
The work requirement previously stopped at age 55, but it was extended to age 64. Participants caring for children up to 18 years old had been exempted, but the policy changed so that exemptions apply for children 14 and younger.
States, advocates say, can no longer waive the work rules for the homeless or for recipients living in areas with high unemployment.
The legislation also required more documentation of work and income to participate, even as advocates argue states were already collecting extensive paperwork.
In Kansas, recipients must fill out a 30-page application with 200 questions to get benefits of about $150 per month, according to Appleseed Center’s Kottler.
Kottler said people are already struggling just to complete the process. “People are already jumping through hoops to get the food that they need,” she said. “Any more restrictions or requirements on the program really do create hardships.”
Advocates also say the paperwork burdens hit certain situations harder, including when participants try to document unpaid work or rent paid to relatives. They say state workers processing forms were stretched thin before the stricter rules and now deal with more paperwork.
Gina Plata-Nino. SNAP director at the advocacy group Food Research and Action Center. described the timing of the changes as a damaging mismatch. “The legislation ‘came in at a point where it just crippled what was already a bad system,’” she said. “It just clogged the system, for lack of a better word.”.
Marcus Moore, an advocate in New York with Safety Net Activists, said he avoided losing SNAP benefits after demanding a hearing when he was threatened with losing about $90 a month worth of help over additional documentation required for his volunteer work.
Moore, 54, said, “It’s turning out to be a big mess.” He added that without his intervention, he believes he “would have definitely fallen through the cracks.”
Moore said his past experiences make the risk feel immediate. He was homeless during the pandemic, and he described how losing SNAP could mean slipping into crisis again. “It would be harrowing to lose assistance with food,” he said. “It would really put me in a survival mode like back when I was in the pandemic. There weren’t enough soup kitchens open around town.”.
The legislation’s reach is not limited to today’s benefit checks. Starting Oct. 1, states must cover 75% of the program’s administrative costs, up from 50%. Democrats and food advocates worry states will reduce benefits to pay those higher administrative expenses.
Another change is scheduled to take effect by Oct. 1, 2027. It would require most states to pay up to 15% of the food benefits that the federal government currently covers, based on errors for overpayment or underpayment. For New York, that could mean $1.2 billion.
States began adopting the new rules on Oct. 1, 2025, with some receiving waivers that delayed the start for their citizens for months.
As the effects spread, the sharpest drops reported by the Agriculture Department were already visible by early 2025 data. As of February—the most recent month for which data is available—Arizona had the steepest fall. The number of participants fell from 892,565 in July to 448,976 in February.
North Carolina saw the second-biggest drop at 18.6%. Florida, Georgia, and Nevada each saw declines of about 15%, according to the department.
In Kansas, Kottler said more than 23,000 people—more than 12%—have left the rolls, and she described struggling to sleep over the magnitude.
At the same time. Republicans argue the changes are needed to address fraud. while Democrats argue hunger is the real consequence. At a House Agriculture Committee hearing on June 4, Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee pointed to cases of false Social Security numbers. noting that authorities found 450. 000 cases of false Social Security numbers and nearly 200. 000 cases of benefits paid in the name of dead recipients. Rep. Trent Kelly of Mississippi said “fraud and abuse was rampant in some areas” and “took away from the well-deserving.”.
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts pushed back, saying “hunger is getting worse” and that the average $2-per-meal benefit from SNAP isn’t even enough to buy coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts.
“Their haven’t been moved off of SNAP. They’ve been kicked off of SNAP,” McGovern said. “We all should be ashamed of that.”
The White House announced June 10 that food-stamp dependency was “plummeting” by 4.3 million participants since Trump signed the bill.
Rollins credited the administration’s crackdown on fraud and recipients who are not legally authorized to be in the country, along with the new rules. She said the law ended eligibility for legal refugees and asylum seekers.
Rollins said federal authorities have made 900 arrests for SNAP fraud during the last year and recovered $132 million in restitution. She said. “Restoring the integrity of these programs. including in SNAP. is very. very important to this administration and to our USDA. ” and called it “just the tip of the iceberg.”.
Rollins told senators no one has been kicked off SNAP. but she said adults without young children must work or volunteer. “No one in Washington or in America wants to see a family go hungry,” Rollins said. “We have more people working today than ever before. This is a celebration of work and the dignity of work, and wages are higher than they’ve ever been before.”.
Behind the competing language—“celebration of work” and “incredibly alarming”—lies a shared reality that program administrators and families have to confront: new SNAP requirements are reshaping who can keep benefits. and the consequences show up in paperwork. in lost eligibility. and in meals stretched thin.
SNAP food stamps work requirements documentation requirements hunger poverty Agriculture Department Brooke Rollins Hunger Solutions New York Appleseed Center for Law and Justice Food Research and Action Center Safety Net Activists government benefits fraud crackdown state administrative costs