Why More States Are Requiring
Work Requirements for Food Stamps
Elisabeth Zenger / Rachel Sheffield / April 08, 2016
Newspaper headlines have been bemoaning that more states will
now have to require adults on food stamps—who are able-bodied and
without dependents—to work.
Since 2009, nearly all states have been able to waive the modest
food stamp work requirement. But these waivers have gradually been
expiring, and as of April 1, more states are once again required to
enforce the modest food stamp work requirement.
The food stamps program is one of the largest government
means-tested welfare programs. Participation grew rapidly,
increasing from 28.2 million in the 2008 fiscal year to 45.8
million in the 2015 fiscal year (participation peaked in 2013 with
47.6 million participants). The
most rapid growth was among able-bodied adults without
dependents, which jumped from just under 2 million in 2008 to
4.7 million in 2014.
Part of the reason for the increase was that Obama’s stimulus
package waived food stamps’ work requirement. This required those
who are adults and able to work and who don’t have children to
work part-time (or do some type of work activity) in order to get
food stamps. If not, their benefits would be limited to three
months.
After 2009,
most states continued to receive waivers until this year. Even
now, however, the majority of states still receive a partial
waiver, meaning that parts of states are exempt from the work
requirement.
Some states decided to end their waivers early, and evidence
shows that the work requirement in these states has been
beneficial.
After
Kansas ended its work requirement waiver in 2013, it saw a
75-percent decline in its caseload of able-bodied adults with
dependents. For those who left the program, average income
increased within a year, from $2,453 annually to $5,562 annually:
an amount greater than their previous income and food stamp
benefits combined. For those still on food stamps, the work
requirement led to more employment and higher incomes.
Maine is another example. The state reinstated work
requirements in December 2014, and within three months, its
caseload of adults without dependents
dropped by 80 percent, from 13,332 to 2,678. Nine months later,
it had dropped to 1,886. Most chose to forgo benefits rather than
meet the work requirements.
VIDEO
A common concern is that those people choosing not to fulfill
the work requirement lack adequate assistance to meet the
requirements, but the numerous options for work, training, and
community service provided by the state of Maine were met with
very little response .
As reported in a
previous Heritage Foundation article, “when the Maine
Department of Health and Human Services conducted outreach to about
700 able bodied adults without dependents in Portland to inform
them about a volunteer program that could fulfill the community
service work requirement, only about 15 of the 700 contacted
responded.”
Welfare assistance should be available to those in need, but
policy should encourage self-sufficiency for able-bodied adults
rather than simply provide a one-way government handout. The
examples of Kansas and Maine show that work requirements
accomplished what they are intended to do: Encourage
self-sufficiency. Work requirements promote greater self-reliance
and establish reciprocal obligation between the beneficiary and the
taxpayers who provide the benefits.
However, the vast majority of the federal government’s 80
means-tested welfare programs do not include a work requirement.
Good welfare policy should promote productive participation in
society through work to improve the well-being of recipients.
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the number of food stamp recipients
the United States has risen dramatically
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from 17.2 million in 2002 45 point
eight million in 2015 costs have soared as
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well from 20.7 billion dollars in
2008 e 3.1 billion dollars in 2014
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the most rapid growth in recipient
able-bodied capable adults between the
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ages of 18 and 49 who do not have
children or other dependents to support
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the number of recipients has more
than doubled nationally swelling from nearly
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two million 2008 around five million
today in response to this rapid growth
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main to Governor Paul LePage
recently established work requirement on
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recipients were without dependents
enable body in Maine all able-bodied
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adult dependents in the food stamp
program are now required to take a job
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participate in training or perform
community service in the first three
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months after may not work policy
went into effect its caseload able-bodied
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adults without dependent plummeted
by 80% falling from 13330 to reset the
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incident number of 2014 to 2678 in
March 2015 government should aid those in need
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the welfare should not be a one-way
handouts
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Maine’s Successful Welfare
Reform and Why It Worked
Genevieve Wood / April 12,
2016
States are often the best laboratories for testing out what
public policies will make life better for their citizens.
Maine’s experiment with welfare reform is a great example. When
Gov. Paul LePage, only the second Republican governor of Maine in
the past 50 years, came into office, one in three people living in
the state was on some form of welfare. LePage talked with me about
how they turned the system on its head and how those reforms have
made the American dream a reality for more of Maine’s citizens.
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page thank you for talking with us
it's a pleasure
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you're doing some amazing things in
Maine and so we can get
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to let let's talk about what you've
done on welfare reform when you came to
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one-in-three citizens in Maine were
on some form of welfare one-in-three
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one-in-three a third of our
population was in some form of welfare what are you
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yes enormous price III I realized
that MaineCare which was medicaid was was
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heavy we had a lot of dual eligibles
because we have a very old state where
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the oldest state in America but it
was shocking to see the youth was on it and
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so that's we went to work on getting
them to work yet so you you'd start some
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called welfare-to-work among other
reforms tell us about what you think
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it's been most successful in
changing the dynamics are and where you are today
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I think that the thing that worked
best in the way that the system sort of be
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bored was by combining the
department health and human services education
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labor and now we're putting in the
veterans administration in the same
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building so that when people come
and we assess them if we do an assessment we
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send them for educational assessment
skills assessment and if they're better
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because many people particularly in
recent last decade most of the soldiers
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National Guard so what we do now is
we say sir we do an intake we assess their
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need their educational skills and
whether or not what do they need so they
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can hold down a job and so if you're
an able-bodied person between the ages of
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1950 you are asked to look for
work
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volunteer or go to school and what's
been the result of that the one-third
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decided they didn't want to do any
of the above so they left to happen happen
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within a couple of months one third
of the people that were on welfare some
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form of brown because we all know
and they weren't for me that's the thing
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they just came to me because we're
so generous
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and they just went back home that's
really what happened when they're not on
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the streets they just returned home
but the bank people we really are
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concentrating on work with me people
and so what's happening now with young women
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particularly the young women who
have children
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single moms they are really the
heroes in a state I am so proud of the results
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are some of these young ladies who
have gone back to school yet CNAs I ran some
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of becoming teachers it's just
exciting to see what's happening with the younger
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and the difference being that you've
asked people to try to help people get
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skills as opposed to just give them
a check right keep the main issue is we
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take an interest in the people we
take an interest from the standpoint of daily
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intake understand what their needs
are understand where they are and we work
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with them rather than just say thank
you will send you a check we roll up our
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sleeves and we go to work with them
and that's that's the key
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having someone to talk to someone to
help you understand what an interview
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does what he doing an interview with
you what you do you know just encouraging
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people you can do it I am i believe
the american dream so it's easy for me to
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say if I can do it you can do it and
I can prove that I i've done it so it's
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it's exciting to see people moving
up and when you get those letters of
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thinking governor I used to hate you
know I love it feels good it feels good
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so there's some gratification
government page thank you very much it's been a