As part of the 1996 welfare reform law, unemployed adults without children are limited to three months of food stamp benefits in a three-year period, unless they live in an area with high unemployment. Those areas can be given a waiver, and large swaths of the nation were covered during the slow recovery from the 2008-09 recession. The picture is changing dramatically, says the New York Times. “The time limits will be in effect this year in more than 40 states. In 22 states, the limits are coming back for the first time since the recession.”
According to liberal groups, many unemployed childless adults with low incomes, known as ABAWDs, for able-bodied adults without dependents, “could be cut off, starting this month,” said the Times.
The think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that 500,000 to 1 million people will be affected, or up to 2 percent of food stamp recipients. An analyst at CBPP told the Times that in many states the time limits took effect in January, with benefits set to expire in April. The limit does not apply to people who work at least 20 hours a week or are part of a job-training program.
More than a million food stamp recipients took part in education and training programs funded by USDA through the food stamp program. But 21 states did not use any of the federal money available to them, federal officials told the Times.
“The revival of the mandate, which was hotly debated when adopted in the 1990s, is reigniting a discussion among policymakers and advocates for the poor about the fairness and wisdom of the social safety net in the new U.S. economy,” says The Washington Post. “Even where unemployment remains relatively high, some governors have brought back the requirement, saying it encourages people to rejoin the workforce … Critics say the 20-year-old mandate is outdated in the new economy, in which steady manufacturing jobs are harder to come by and employers are imposing erratic schedules on low-wage workers.”