The Trump administration has proposed legislation that will require younger, “able-bodied” individuals to work or receive job training of up to 80 hours per month for the food stamp benefits they receive from the state.
Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) reports the legislation is aimed at younger recipients who have no dependent children to support.
In Illinois as many as 140,000 of the state’s nearly 2 million Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients could be affected by the changes, which are slated to take effect April 1. Across the country as many as 686,000 of the 36 million individuals now receiving SNAP could be impacted at a savings of at least $5.5 billion over a 60-month period.
The changes in Illinois come when the state economy is thriving. The unemployment rate below 4 percent for the first time in decades. Despite the encouraging employment numbers, IPI reports 14 percent of residents depending on food stamps, more than any neighboring state.
Illinois has typically requested a waiver from the federal government’s work requirements for the state as a whole. The government currently disqualifies an area from those waivers when its unemployment numbers fall within 20 percent of the national average over a 24-month period. The new rules lower that threshold to the point of only upholding work requirement waivers for areas that have sustained an average unemployment rate 6 percent above the national average over a two-year period.
Currently, the Illinois unemployment rate stands at 3.9 percent over the last two years, a shade below the national average of 4 percent.
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