{"id":233190,"date":"2025-10-30T02:27:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T02:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/233190\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T02:27:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T02:27:16","slug":"why-42-million-americans-are-about-to-lose-their-snap-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/233190\/","title":{"rendered":"Why 42 million Americans are about to lose their Snap benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 42 million Americans will lose their food benefits from November 1 because of the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (Snap) helps low-income families buy groceries. It is relied upon by one in eight Americans.<\/p>\n

Eligible families use an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card much like an ordinary debit card to purchase food. They are usually reloaded by the federal government at the beginning of every month. But on Saturday, this might not happen.<\/p>\n

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The Department of Agriculture, which runs Snap, says it does not have $9 billion to cover the cost of benefits in November.<\/p>\n

Democrats argue the government should use a $6 billion contingency fund to cover the payments \u2014 and 25 states have filed lawsuits against the federal government to make that happen.<\/p>\n

What are Snap benefits and who qualifies for them?\"Bilingual<\/p>\n

The Snap programme is run by the Department of Agriculture<\/p>\n

LINDSEY NICHOLSON\/UCG\/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Households with monthly incomes of 130 per cent below the poverty line are eligible for Snap. For a family of three, that equates to an income of less than $2,221 a month.<\/p>\n

To be eligible, you must have savings of less than $2,750. If you are over 60 years old or disabled, you must have savings of less than $4,250.<\/p>\n

The cards used by recipients of Snap may not be topped up from November 1. <\/p>\n

Which states are suing over Snap benefits?<\/p>\n

There are 25 Democrat-led states suing the Trump administration in an effort to keep the benefits flowing.<\/p>\n

They want the Department of Agriculture to use its contingency fund to help low-income families during the government shutdown. The contingency fund is meant for emergencies such as hurricanes<\/a> or tornadoes.<\/p>\n

California, New York and Texas have the highest number of people on Snap, but the programme disproportionately benefits Republican states. In Louisiana, 18 per cent of the population receives food benefits, 17 per cent in Oklahoma and 16 per cent in West Virginia.<\/p>\n

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How long could the payment delay last?<\/p>\n

It depends on how long the government shutdown lasts and whether Democrats are successful in their efforts to force the Department of Agriculture to use contingency funding.<\/p>\n

The longest shutdown in history was 34 days during President Trump<\/a>\u2019s first administration. The present shutdown will surpass that record on November 4.<\/p>\n

Even if the shutdown ends before November 1, low-income families will still be able to use Snap benefits left over from previous months. Once the shutdown ends, benefits will be topped up to compensate for the payments missed.<\/p>\n

But if the shutdown continues beyond November 1, it could be several weeks before the payments resume.<\/p>\n

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What has Trump said?\"Donald<\/p>\n

President Trump has given no specifics on how his administration will make up the cost<\/p>\n

FRANCIS CHUNG\/POOL VIA CNP\/ADMEDIA\/NEWSCOM\/ALAMY<\/p>\n

Trump has said \u201cwe\u2019re going to get it done\u201d \u2014 but not specified how he intends to resolve the problem.<\/p>\n

The administration has said it will not use contingency funding to pay for Snap in November. The Department of Agriculture has confirmed that payments will cease on November 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cBottom line, the well has run dry,\u201d a notice from the Department of Agriculture reads. \u201cAt this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 42 million Americans will lose their food benefits from November 1 because of the government shutdown. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-233190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}