Nearly 2 million New York City residents who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits could be impacted by new work requirements that took effect Sunday, which potential puts their benefits at risk.<\/p>\n
The updated rules change who qualifies SNAP. Able-bodied adults ages 18 to 64 who do not have a disability and do not live with children under 14 must now work at least 20 hours a week, or 80 hours a month, to continue to receive benefits.<\/p>\n
The requirement can also be met by participating in approved job training programs or volunteering for the same number of hours, according to local social services agencies.<\/p>\n
The changes also affect groups that were previously exempt from work requirements. These include veterans and people who are experiencing homelessness. Recipients who fail to meet the requirement for three consecutive months will lose their SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n
The updated rules stem from legislation signed into law last year.<\/p>\n
Some residents expressed concern about the impact on low-income New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople should work, but the benefits that they have shouldn\u2019t just be taken away,\u201d one resident said. \u201cIt\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another said the changes would worsen existing financial pressures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve already been hurting poor people. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to change,\u201d the resident said. \u201cPrices have already gone up.\u201d<\/p>\n
SNAP recipients began receiving notices about the new requirements late last year. Those who believe they may qualify for an exemption are encouraged to contact their caseworker for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 2 million New York City residents who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits could be impacted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63,10604,12825],"class_list":["post-149249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-snap","tag-snap-benefits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}