Work requirements are kicking in for more older adults and parents of teenagers across the U.S. who get help with groceries through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The implementation dates vary by state. In some, people could lose benefits as soon as today if they can’t show they’re working but many people have a month or more before their benefits are at risk.
For Alabama lawmakers, the issue may be more of a political one. The new federal requirements say the states will have to cover three quarters of the administrative costs. Governor Kay Ivey released $2 million dollars in state emergency funds to shore up towards eight food banks last year following the federal cut off of funding for the SNAP food assistance program on November 1, 2025. The Trump White House followed up by pledging to use USDA contingency dollars to provide partial funding for the program also known as Food Stamps. The website USA Facts says over 700,000 Alabamians use SNAP benefits to afford groceries.
A long term solution may be trickier. Republican leaning counties in Alabama like Barbour, Houston, and Fayette counties reportedly have close to twenty percent of its residents using SNAP. Poverty ridden counties like Democratic leaning communities like Dallas and Wilcox appear at higher SNAP rates, closer to thirty percent.
A massive tax and spending bill signed into law in July by President Donald Trump expanded requirements for many adult SNAP recipients to work, volunteer or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month. Those who don’t are limited to three months of benefits in a three-year period.
The work requirements previously applied to adults ages 18 through 54 who are physically and mentally able to work and don’t have dependents under age 18. The new law applies those requirements to those ages 55 through 64 and to parents without children younger than 14. It repeals work exemptions for homeless individuals, veterans and young adults aging out of foster care. And it limits the ability of states to waive work requirements in areas lacking jobs.
The new requirements are expected to reduce the average monthly number of SNAP recipients by about 2.4 million people over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
When the requirements kick in depends on the state. Texas started its requirement in October, so people there could have exhausted their three months of benefits by Jan. 1 and already been removed from the rolls. Several states started the three-month clock in November, opening the possibility of people losing benefits in coming days. Among them are Alaska, Colorado, Georgia and Hawaii.
The requirements take effect Sunday in other states, including Illinois and Ohio. In those places, people could lose benefits in May. Ohio says people will have to show documentation of work starting in March. Some states have exemptions because of relatively high unemployment rates, either statewide or in certain regions, that let them delay implementation. California’s waiver is scheduled to be in place until January 2027.
But most of those have ended or will soon. For most of New York, the work requirement is to start in March. But it began in October in Saratoga County.
