households lack consistent access to nutritious food because of limited resources. One study found that participating in SNAP reduced households’ food insecurity by as much as 10 percentage points and reduced “very low food security,” which occurs when one or more household members have to skip meals or otherwise eat less because they lack money, by about 6 percentage points.^[10] Because SNAP enables low-income households to spend more on food than their limited budgets would otherwise allow, it helps ensure that they have enough to eat. SNAP may also reduce racial and ethnic disparities in food insecurity.

Although SNAP has been proven effective in reducing food insecurity, nearly half of the households who received SNAP benefits in 2022 still experienced food insecurity.^[11] Also, there is growing evidence that the recent cut in benefits when the pandemic Emergency Allotments ended resulted in greater food insecurity.^[12] These facts highlight the importance of protecting and improving SNAP benefits.

  

SNAP lifts millions of households out of poverty. By providing benefits that can only be used to purchase food, SNAP forms an important part of a low-income household’s budget. A CBPP analysis using the government’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (which counts SNAP as income) and correcting for underreporting in government surveys found that SNAP kept 6.6 million people above the poverty line before the COVID-19 pandemic, including 3 million children.^[13] A related CBPP analysis found that SNAP has one of the strongest anti-poverty effects of any program.^[14]

  

Increasing SNAP benefits has helped families afford adequate food. Previous increases have been effective at reducing poverty and food insecurity, evidence suggests. Research on the food security of SNAP recipients during the Great Recession found that very low food security fell in 2009 — the same year the SNAP benefit increase from the 2009 Recovery Act took effect — among SNAP-eligible households with low incomes.^[15] More recently, a study of the effect of temporary pandemic benefits on SNAP households found that the Emergency Allotments and Thrifty Food Plan revision kept some 6.5 million people out of poverty in the fourth quarter of 2021. The poverty reductions were especially large for Black and Latino people.^[16]

Part IV: SNAP May Mitigate Persistent Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Food Insecurity

  

Racial and ethnic disparities in food insecurity rates are wide and persistent. Long-standing racial disparities, deeply rooted in racism and discrimination, have created starkly unequal opportunities and outcomes in education, employment, health, and housing, leading to substantial racial gaps in both income and wealth.^[17] Partly for this reason, food insecurity — which is far more common among individuals and families with lower incomes — is far more common among people of color as well.

For decades, the food insecurity rates for households that are American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic, or multiracial have been at least twice the white rate. Research suggests that the causes of the inequities in food insecurity between Black and white households, for instance, are systemic and lie outside the control of individuals.^[18] Past and present racism and systemic bias create economic barriers that can affect a person’s income. Lack of income and other resources, in turn, increases the risk of food insecurity.^[19]

  

Certain communities of color are disproportionately likely to participate in SNAP to help meet their food needs. Black, Hispanic, and multiracial households have higher poverty rates than white households. They also have higher rates of food insecurity than white households.^[20] These communities of color are therefore more likely to be eligible for, and participate in, SNAP.

Twenty-six percent of SNAP households are headed by a Black, non-Hispanic person and 22 percent are headed by a Hispanic person. These figures exceed their shares of the general U.S. population (12 percent and 20 percent, respectively).^[21]

Studies suggest SNAP mitigates racial disparities in food insecurity and poverty. While Black households are more likely to be food insecure than white households overall, one study found that, among households participating in SNAP, this pattern was reversed: Black households were less likely than white households to be food insecure.^[22]

Another study found that, among individuals who experienced poverty in childhood, those who had access to food stamps (now SNAP) in childhood were less likely to experience poverty as young adults than those who didn’t have access to food stamps, and the effect was stronger for Black than for white individuals.^[23]

Still another study found that SNAP benefits, by increasing food expenditures, reduce the gap between what households spend on food and the estimated level of food spending that households need to be food secure. It also found that the reduction is greater for Black and Hispanic households than for white households.^[24]

Part V: SNAP Is Linked With Improved Health Outcomes

  

SNAP is associated with improved health. The stress that food-insecure families face because they can’t consistently put healthy food on the table, along with the health effects of unpredictable or intermittent meals, may contribute to a higher risk of chronic conditions and other adverse health outcomes. Because SNAP reduces food insecurity and associated stress and frees up income for households to buy healthier food, SNAP may be a path toward better health.

Research links SNAP with several improved health outcomes. After adjusting for differences in demographic, socioeconomic, and other characteristics, adults who participate in SNAP are more likely to assess their own health as excellent or very good, as are parents when assessing their child’s health. Adults who receive SNAP have fewer sick days, make fewer visits to a doctor, are less likely to forgo needed care because they cannot afford it, and are less likely to exhibit psychological distress.

Other researchers have shown that children receiving SNAP are less likely than low-income non-participants to be in fair or poor health or underweight, and their families are less likely to make trade-offs between paying for health care and paying for other basic needs, like food, housing, heating, and electricity. Research has also shown that elderly SNAP participants are less likely than similar non-participants to cut back on prescribed medications due to cost.

  

Access to SNAP can improve health and educational outcomes. When researchers compared the long-term outcomes of individuals in different areas of the country as SNAP gradually expanded nationwide in the 1960s and early 1970s, they found that disadvantaged children in counties that provided access to food stamps in early childhood and whose mothers had access during their pregnancy had better health and educational outcomes as adults than children in counties that did not provide access to food stamps. Among other things, children in counties with access to food stamps were less likely in adulthood to have stunted growth, be diagnosed with heart disease, or be obese. They also were more likely to graduate from high school. ^[25]

  

SNAP participation is also linked with lower overall health care expenditures. An analysis of national data on overall health care expenditures links SNAP participation to lower health care costs. On average, after controlling for factors expected to affect spending on medical care, low-income adults participating in SNAP incur about $1,400, or nearly 25 percent, less than non-participants in medical care costs in a year, including those paid by private or public insurance.^[26]

Part VI: SNAP Serves People in Particular Need of Assistance

  

A large majority of SNAP participants are children, older adults, or people with disabilities. Roughly 2 in 5 participants are children, and most non-elderly adult participants without disabilities live with children.

  

SNAP serves families in particular need of assistance. Fully 90 percent of participants are in households that contain a child under age 18, an elderly person 60 years or older, or an individual with disabilities.

  

SNAP households have very low incomes. Over 80 percent of SNAP households have gross incomes at or below the poverty line ($24,864 for a family of three in fiscal year 2024, and $14,580 for a person living alone, such as an elderly widow). Most of the rest have incomes between 101 and 130 percent of poverty. Thirty-six percent of SNAP households have incomes at or below half of the poverty line.

Some 92 percent of SNAP benefits go to households below the poverty line; about 54 percent go to households at or below half of the poverty line.

Part VII: SNAP Supports Working Families and Those Unable to Work

  

Most SNAP participants are not expected to work. In a typical month during the pre-pandemic months of 2020, 71 percent of SNAP recipients weren’t expected to work because they were children, elderly, individuals with disabilities, or caring for a family member with a disability in their home or for a child under age 6 where another household member was working.

  

SNAP supports workers in low-paying jobs. Close to two-thirds of workers who receive SNAP benefits work in major occupation groups such as service, professional, transportation and material moving, and office and administrative support. Common occupations of SNAP participants include cooks, cashiers, telemarketers, nursing assistants, housekeepers, and dishwashers.

In many of these jobs, workers earn low wages and have irregular work schedules, with fewer or less consistent hours than they would like. As a result, they may use SNAP benefits to supplement their low incomes. In addition, workers often cycle in and out of these jobs and participate in SNAP during periods of unemployment or underemployment.^[27]

  

Most SNAP participants work, and many turn to SNAP when they are between jobs. The low pay and instability in many low-paying jobs can contribute to income volatility and job turnover. Low-paid workers, including many who participate in SNAP, are more likely than other workers to experience periods when they are out of work or when their monthly earnings drop, at least temporarily. These dynamics lead many adults to participate in SNAP temporarily, often while between jobs or when their work hours are cut. Others, such as workers with steady but low-paying jobs or those unable to work, participate over the longer term.

A CBPP analysis found that 55 percent of non-elderly adults without a disability who participated in SNAP in a typical month in 2015 worked in that month, while 74 percent worked in the 12 months before or after that month. Work rates were even higher for two other groups: households with a non-disabled, non-elderly adult and households with children and a non-disabled, non-elderly adult. All three groups showed a higher work rate when measured over the longer time period (25 months versus one month) — evidence that SNAP recipients’ joblessness is often just temporary.

Another CBPP analysis found that 86 percent of SNAP households with working-age adults who had no minor children and did not receive disability benefits had earned income in 2021.^[28]

  

Many non-elderly, non-disabled SNAP participants who are not working in a typical month while they are participating in SNAP have recently worked or will soon work, or have caregiving responsibilities, or face barriers to work. The CBPP analysis also found that of those adults who were not working in the month studied, close to half worked in either the year before or the year after that month. Many people participate in SNAP while between jobs and continue to work in most months when receiving SNAP. Those who did not work over the 25-month period studied most frequently reported they had health issues that affected their ability to work, had caregiving responsibilities, couldn’t find work, or were attending school.^[29]

  

The share of SNAP households that work in an average month while receiving SNAP has grown over the past three decades. Work rates have risen among all SNAP households over time, but especially among households with children. This overall trend continued despite the large job losses during economic downturns such as the Great Recession. In more recent years, the share of households with earnings has declined, partly due to the increase in older adults’ share of the SNAP caseload as the overall U.S. population ages.^[30] Older adults are more likely to rely on fixed incomes and less likely to have earnings.

  

More older adults are participating in SNAP. The number of older adults receiving SNAP benefits has doubled since 2009, outpacing population growth for older adults in the general population.^[31] Participation rates for older adults have increased but are still lower than for other age groups.

  

SNAP helps working families make ends meet. SNAP benefits have increased in recent years as a result of the 2021 Thrifty Food Plan revision and cost-of-living adjustments reflecting food inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic. For a family of three with one full-time worker who earns $12.40 an hour (the hourly wage for a household of three with an annual income at the federal poverty level in 2024), SNAP boosts the family’s take-home income by roughly 21 to 29 percent, depending on the number of hours worked. For a mother with two children who works 35 hours a week, for example, adding her SNAP benefits increases her monthly income by 29 percent.

  

SNAP’s benefit structure supports workers. The SNAP benefit formula is designed to support workers, phasing out benefits slowly as earnings rise. The benefit formula favors earned income over unearned income by enabling participants to take an earnings deduction equal to 20 percent of their earned income, which enables them to qualify for a larger SNAP benefit.

SNAP also provides crucial support for workers if they become unemployed: they can receive benefits quickly and on a monthly basis, unlike some other programs that have waiting lists or provide benefits annually.

Part VIII: SNAP Reaches Most Eligible People, With Some Important Exceptions

  

SNAP participation rates have declined somewhat after generally rising over time. SNAP reached 82 percent of eligible individuals in a typical month in 2019, the most recent full year of data. That represents a significant improvement from 2001, when participation bottomed out at 54 percent. Among eligible individuals in working families, participation rose from 43 percent to 71 percent between 2002 and 2019. Participation rates among older adults are much lower but have risen over time as well, from 26 percent in 2002 to 48 percent in 2019.

  

The general trend of participation increasing over time holds true for eligible non-citizens and children who are citizens who live with non-citizens, but declines have been steeper in recent years. People without a documented immigration status are ineligible for SNAP, but those with lawful immigration statuses, such as immigrant children, refugees, asylees, and qualified immigrant adults who have been in the U.S. for at least five years, are eligible. (Citizen children living with non-citizen adults are eligible on the same basis as other children.) Among eligible non-citizens, participation rates rose from 28 percent in 2002 to a peak of 66 percent in 2016, then declined to 55 percent in 2019.

  

Participation rates vary widely by state. Some states serve a high percentage of eligible households, such as Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Rhode Island. Others serve a relatively low percentage, such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Wyoming. In every state except Wyoming, however, more than 50 percent of eligible individuals participate.^[32]

  

Working families with low incomes are underserved in many states. SNAP provides an important support for working low-income individuals, but this population is often hard to reach. In 2019 (the most recent year of data available), 72 percent of eligible working low-income individuals participated. In all states except Indiana, working low-income individuals participated at a lower rate than all eligible individuals in the state.

  

Older adults are underserved. Many low-income older adults who struggle to get by on low, fixed incomes and have critical unmet dietary needs don’t participate in SNAP. Only 48 percent of eligible individuals over age 60 participated in 2019 nationwide, though participation rates had risen modestly in the 2000s and 2010s.^[33]

Participation among eligible older adults varies widely across states. In 2018, the most recent year for which state-level estimates are available, state-level participation rates ranged from 22 percent to 78 percent.^[34]

Part IX: SNAP Is Efficient

  

Nearly 94 percent of federal SNAP spending goes for benefits to purchase food. The rest goes toward administrative costs, including reviews to determine that applicants are eligible, monitoring of retailers that accept SNAP, and program integrity and anti-fraud activities.

The federal government spent about $115 billion on SNAP in fiscal year 2023, including pandemic-related SNAP benefits (but excluding pandemic-related school meal benefits known as Pandemic EBT). The SNAP budget also funds other food assistance programs, including the block grant for food assistance in Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, commodity purchases for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (which helps fund food pantries and soup kitchens), and commodities for the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations.

  

SNAP has an extensive quality control system. SNAP has one of the most rigorous payment error measurement systems of any public benefit program. Each year states pull a representative sample (totaling some 50,000 cases nationally) and thoroughly review the accuracy of their eligibility and benefit decisions. Federal officials re-review a subsample of the cases to ensure accuracy in the error rate they assign each state. States face financial penalties if their error rates are persistently above the national average.

A USDA Office of Inspector General report in 2015 drew attention to concerns about data quality issues with SNAP error rates in many states. As a result, USDA did not report national or state-level error rates for all states for 2015 or 2016; during this time USDA conducted detailed reviews in all states and took action to address the quality and consistency of the measure. The corrected SNAP error rates for 2017 and 2018 were higher, an increase USDA attributed to the improved measurement process.

Quality control requirements were suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, so error rates were not established for those years. Error rates in 2022 were well above earlier levels, reflecting the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. The national SNAP overpayment rate in 2023, the most recent year available, was 10.03 percent. The underpayment rate was 1.64 percent, though this does not include underpayments for households who were improperly denied benefits.

SNAP’s pandemic-related administrative flexibilities were intended to help states process new applications and keep people connected to SNAP during a temporary time of severe economic challenges. They were successful at meeting that goal: SNAP participation rates rose, and food insecurity held steady in 2020 and 2021 despite the increase in need. However, these flexibilities, which were largely still in effect in 2022 and 2023, may also have contributed to higher error rates in some states.

Part X:SNAP Is an Important Public-Private Partnership

  

SNAP boosts local economies. Because most households redeem their monthly SNAP benefits quickly, SNAP is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus during a downturn. A USDA study estimated that every dollar in new SNAP benefits spent during a slowing economy would increase the gross domestic product by $1.54; earlier studies estimated this effect to be as high as $1.80 during a recession. According to the USDA study, the increase in SNAP benefits during a slowing economy has the largest effects on spending for food and durable goods, and on income and jobs in industries such as manufacturing, trade, and transportation.^[35]

Further evidence that SNAP provides important stimulus to local economies comes from a study indicating that SNAP benefit redemptions give a greater boost to employment during recessionary periods than during economic expansions. The impact on rural employment is especially strong: during the Great Recession, SNAP benefits boosted employment in non-metropolitan (rural) counties by one job per $10,000 in benefits redeemed, compared to 0.4 jobs in metropolitan (urban) counties. Furthermore, SNAP benefits did more to boost employment during the Great Recession than all other federal and state government transfer programs combined.^[36]

Food stores can participate in SNAP if they stock a prescribed variety of foods and provide adequate information on the nature and scope of their business. This ensures that SNAP participants can redeem benefits in many of the stores and settings available to other consumers, though some geographic areas have few or no authorized retailers. Participating retailers include superstores (such as warehouse clubs and big-box retailers), supermarkets, grocery stores, corner stores, and farmers markets. Convenience stores were the largest single category in fiscal year 2022, representing 44 percent of all SNAP retailers. Stores that combine grocery and other retail store formats represented a quarter of all SNAP retailers. Farmers markets, commissaries, wholesalers, food co-operatives, and meal service facilities represented 5 percent.

  

The number of SNAP retailers has risen considerably. In 2022 some 258,000 retailers were authorized to accept SNAP benefits — 78 percent more than in 2003.

  

SNAP households spend most of their benefits at supermarkets and superstores. Participants redeemed 78 percent of their benefits at superstores and supermarkets in fiscal year 2022, even though these stores make up only 15 percent of all available retailers. Superstores alone redeemed 52 percent of all benefits.

While nearly half of SNAP retailers are convenience stores, they are a minor source of food for participants, redeeming only 5 percent of SNAP benefits.

Part XI: Food Assistance in Puerto Rico

  

Puerto Rico’s food assistance program has fixed funding, lower benefits. Puerto Rico faces chronically high poverty and low labor force participation, due in part to significant lingering effects from a number of crises over the past decades, including devastating hurricanes in 2017, bankruptcy, and the COVID-19 pandemic.^[37] Nearly 42 percent of Puerto Rico’s population lived in poverty in 2022, and its annual unemployment rate stood at 6 percent in 2023.^[38]

Puerto Rico participated in SNAP’s predecessor, the Food Stamp Program, until 1982, when Congress converted the territory’s program into a capped block grant program.^[39] As with SNAP, participants in Puerto Rico’s program — called the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) — receive monthly benefits they can redeem using electronic debit cards at grocery stores. Eligibility for NAP is based on a household’s size, income, and resources. Unlike SNAP, NAP is not an entitlement program; its annual funding is fixed regardless of changes in need, so NAP cannot respond easily to significant economic shifts or the aftermath of extreme weather.^[40]

Base funding for NAP remained flat, after adjusting for food inflation, from the mid-1990s through 2021, although Congress authorized temporary funding increases in response to the Great Recession, destructive hurricanes in 2017, and the COVID-19 pandemic.^[41] The 2021 Thrifty Food Plan revision resulted in a permanent 23 percent increase in NAP funding beginning in fiscal year 2022.^[42] But even with the increase, NAP benefits are far less generous than they would have been if Puerto Rico participated in SNAP.^[43] For the nearly 1.4 million individuals who received NAP benefits in an average month in fiscal year 2023, benefits averaged about $175 per person per month, or about $1.90 per person per meal. The average household received roughly $307 per month.^[44]

The U.S. Territories of American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) also receive capped block grants for nutrition assistance in lieu of participating in SNAP, despite having among the highest poverty rates in the country and being increasingly prone to devastating storms. Similar to Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the CNMI must constrain benefit levels and eligibility for their food assistance programs to stay within their block grant funding, rather than base them on need or the price of food.